Janus Contemporaries: Last Summer

[swo17]

Feb 18

[Matt]

I really liked this. Unmistakably a Breillat film, but with a pleasant splash of Rohmer in the idyllic setting, small cast, and nuanced sexual dynamics. I watched the live Criterion Channel stream last week.

If anybody else has seen it and wants to spoiler tag the last couple of minutes below, I'd appreciate it. I happened to look down at a message I got and missed them.

[Aunt Peg]

Such a shame that the far superior original film that Last Summer is based on Queen of Hearts (2019) remains missing in action in an English friendly Blu Ray edition.

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

Excellent. My favorite Breillat.

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

[/spoiler]

I really liked this. Unmistakably a Breillat film, but with a pleasant splash of Rohmer in the idyllic setting, small cast, and nuanced sexual dynamics. I watched the live Criterion Channel stream last week.

If anybody else has seen it and wants to spoiler tag the last couple of minutes below, I'd appreciate it. I happened to look down at a message I got and missed them.

Spoiler

Théo shows up at their door, reveals the agreement was fake, she has sex with him again, she’s goes back in, her husband realizes Théo was telling the truth roll credits

[Red Screamer]

There's so much more to the ending, at least on an emotional level, that I hardly recognized the events as described in the spoiler box -- the magic of cinema.

Spoiler

For example, we see how her husband is on the verge of realizing that she was lying to him and the depths she sank to in doing so (though seemingly not what just happened in their backyard), but then he backs away and basically agrees to carry on as if he doesn't know. The film ends on an atypical fade-out with the wedding ring that binds this rotten marriage together shining faintly in the dark.