L'été dernier

I like movies that get remade in a different country/language from the original. There is a different touch to it, and I like that change of freshness in addition to the film itself.

I was looking forward for this movie recently after I heard it is a remake of 2019 Danish film "Queen of Hearts". I love the original movie, it was beautiful, Intense, the characters were great and so were the actors portraying them. I watched it long time back and was curious how much of it I would remember while I watch this French remake. Surprisingly it was a lot since scenes from this movie just kept on poking me, they just felt incomplete.

The movie starts with a bad side actress, personally that stung me. I did not get involved with any characters, I didn't feel the motivation or any doings the characters do. The film just moves a pace than it should have. Things just happen and keep on happening, it just feels dead, I feel the audience doesn't get any chance understanding of how the characters are feeling or what they want next. It just felt like the film wants to move on to the next stage of story in each new scene, and that makes it dull, so eventually it gets unexciting minute by minute feeling tedious. And then a time comes you are just watching just to complete this movie till the end.

I feel like Léa Drucker did good, She did her part nicely all through her scenes but the way this movie is done, she can't do anything and I don't blame her. Others were ok. I know this movie is shorter than the original and I realize it is because this they trimmed down on simple scenes that they felt is not important. But those scenes do justice, A simple scene from the original where Trine Dyrholm checks out herself in the mirror in a follow up scene gives out so much to the audience about what she is feeling. Léa Drucker doesn't have any scenes like these, so the connection between the audience and the characters die slowly. The sex scene in the original was intense and showed purpose, this film butchers that as well, there is no real narrative to that scene. It just doesn't go well,.

I did a lot of comparison with the original but I would say none the less, the movie is a disappointment without the comparison. The screenplay, the pacing just doesn't feel organic. Will definitely recommend the original, Queen of Hearts(Dronningen) {2019}.

I believe the initial intention of "Last Summer" was to make the audience a bit uncomfortable and challenge their view on a controversial topic. However it is the lack of dynamics and tension that makes this film plain and dull. Eventhough the story itself is outrageous and shocking, that sadly doesn't translate to the narrative. The scenes that should have been the most intense just pass by and the tale goes on. Personally I think what could have helped to build some gradation was to add some background music (there is no film score at all), that would have helped to depict the atmosphere of the scene more accurately. Something positive that I can say about "Last Summer" is the focus on the portrayal of female gaze and female pleasure, that is still missing in some productions today. But unfortunately overall it felt monotonous and I would also say incomplete...

It's so sad that western propaganda is so uniform. I understand that colonialism is what it is...winners and losers, but the very suble and manipulative way these stories weave themselves into the psyche is so deserate and sad. Simply look at the description... "Follows Anne, a brilliant lawyer who lives with her husband Pierre and their daughters. Anne gradually engages in a passionate relationship with Theo, Pierre's son from a previous marriage, putting her career and family life in danger.". Where in this movie is Anne...a brilliant attorney? The Q/a session establishes she's an attorney, but the rest of the movie is about establishing she's a housewife seeking a little change of pace. Where is it written that in these productions that every family has to be the 'exception'...successful? The thing that brings these perfect families down is some strange act like this. It's goofy.

Catherine Breillat has created a powerful film, in terms of both form and subject. Her mise-en-scene tells the story with very little dialogue. The director gets a lot across and tells the story without resorting to explicit dialogue, using only the mise-en-scène, which is, of course, what cinema is all about: telling the story through the mise-en-scène.

The other strength of the film is its theme and subject matter: a family in which father, mother and children are mutually involved in drama. Note that this is a remake of a 2019 Danish film (Dronningen, by May El-Toukhy).

Léa Drucker carries the film, as it is the story of her character, who evolves, or not, over the course of the story, who is the most exciting, central therefore and is the one in every scene. She appears cold in her professional setting, and evolves throughout the film, as she interacts with her son-in-law, the source of the film's main dramatic arc. She's in control, whoever she's talking to: her husband, her daughters, her sister, her son-in-law. Even if he's going to put her in danger.

The advantage of the film is that, as viewers, we may imagine the story's possible evolution, as well as its possible endings, but the script and Catherine Breillat are capable of making the story evolve or conclude in a way we hadn't imagined.

Of course this scheme is inspired by Robert Mulligan's SUMMER OF 42, which also inspired LA PASSAGERE, starring Cecile De France. Or if it was not inspired, it is a coincidence: a mature woman relationship between she and a teenage boy. Good, solid film, helped by a convincing Lea Drucker and her co stars too. Not only her. It is a sweet drama though, not a depressing or gloomy story. It seems very realistic and close to actual situations. It is riveting, tense. Catherine Breillat is not a beginner, and for such stories; she has always done and I suppose she will continue. I prefer this to silly, lame, cheesy comedies.