Movies Like Last Summer

Frequently asked about Last Summer

Common questions people search for, with answers written by us at MoviesPack.

• What happens in The Last Summer movie?▾

  In Catherine Breillat's Last Summer (2023), Anne, a successful lawyer married to Pierre, begins a secret affair with her troubled teenage stepson Théo after he moves in with the family. When Théo threatens to reveal the relationship, Anne denies it to protect her marriage, leading to a tense moral fallout.

• Is The Last Summer worth watching?▾

  Catherine Breillat's Last Summer is a provocative, well-acted drama anchored by a fearless performance from Léa Drucker, and it earned strong reviews on the festival circuit. Viewers comfortable with explicit, morally uncomfortable subject matter will likely find it rewarding, while others may find its themes too disturbing.

• Why does Anne begin an affair with her teenage stepson Théo?▾

  The film presents the affair as a gradual erosion of boundaries rather than a premeditated choice. Théo is provocative and persistent, and Anne—navigating a complex household while managing a demanding career—finds herself drawn into an intimacy she neither fully resists nor openly pursues. Breillat frames it as a study in self-deception: Anne convinces herself each step is a minor exception until the relationship is already fully established.

• Does Anne ever take real responsibility for the affair?▾

  No, and that refusal is central to the film's moral architecture. When the affair threatens to surface, Anne reframes events to cast herself as the victim of a manipulative teenager rather than the adult who initiated and sustained the relationship. Her skills as a lawyer allow her to construct a plausible counter-narrative, and the film deliberately withholds a definitive verdict on how much of her self-justification is genuine delusion versus calculated self-preservation.

• What happens when Théo tells his father Pierre about the affair?▾

  Feeling discarded and humiliated after Anne ends things, Théo tells Pierre what happened between them. Anne responds not by confessing but by denying everything and reinterpreting the relationship entirely, using her legal instincts to paint Théo as a troubled, resentful teenager who fabricated the story. Pierre, forced to choose between his wife and his son, ultimately sides with Anne, and Théo is sent away from the household.

• Does Pierre genuinely believe Anne's version of events at the end?▾

  The film leaves this deliberately ambiguous. Pierre's choice to accept Anne's account could reflect true belief, willful blindness, or a pragmatic decision to preserve the stability of his marriage and family. Breillat does not confirm which reading is correct. The final scenes show Anne slipping back into her comfortable domestic life, suggesting the social order has been restored — entirely at Théo's expense and without consequence for Anne.

• Is Last Summer (2023) a remake, and how closely does it follow the original film?▾

  Yes — it is a French-language remake of the 2019 Danish film Queen of Hearts (Dronningen), directed by May el-Toukhy from a screenplay by Maren Louise Käehne. Breillat's version preserves the same core plot: a professionally successful woman in a stable marriage has a sexual affair with her teenage stepson and then dismantles his credibility to escape accountability. The adaptation shifts cultural setting and stylistic register but retains the story's fundamental arc and its refusal to offer moral resolution.