Catherine Breillat’s L’Été dernier (Last Summer) – 2023 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 9

Almost a full decade away from the camera since, Catherine Breillat returns to the competition with L’Été dernier (Last Summer). This is her second time here after 2007’s Une vieille maîtresse. Best known for Romance (1999), Fat Girl (2001), and Anatomy of Hell (2004), her 2013 Abuse of Weakness was a TIFF premiere.

A remake of May el-Toukhy’s Queen of Hearts – this sees Anne (Léa Drucker) a respected lawyer who lives in Paris with her husband Pierre and their two young daughters. Théo, Pierre’s 17-year-old son (Samuel Kircher) from a previous marriage, moves in, and Anne eventually begins an affair with him. In doing so, she risks jeopardizing her career and losing her family. Théo is a fragile figure and, as time goes on, the relationship turns destructive.

Current temp: Currently half of our twenty person jury have sent their grades in but so far so good with Last Summer receiving an average grade of 3.2 and might be contending for the fourth place position. We see this moving up a couple of percentage points.

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