“A priori, she is not an actress for me”: how Catherine Breillat changed the casting last summer

What is it about? Anna, a well-known lawyer, lives in harmony with her husband Pierre and their 6- and 7-year-old daughters. One day, Theo, 17 years old, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, moves in with them. After a while, he reveals to his father that he is having an affair with Anna. He denies it.

Why Leah Drucker?

It was the producer Said Ben Said who suggested Catherine Breillat choose Lea Drucker for the role of Anna. The director entrusts: “A priori, he’s not an actor for me… But when I met him, I found him beautiful. First of all, I saw him as he saw me, I would film him, not as he’s already been filmed.”

Suddenly, he became my actor, at home, just looking me in the eyes, talking to me about the script, wanting to make a film, trusting me, and I have a terrible reputation, which is not me, but I have it. Leah has a side that is both Bergmanian and Hitchcockian.”

Note that when the project was in its early stages, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi was mentioned for the role of Anna.

The birth of the project

Last Summer is a remake of the Danish movie “Queen of Hearts”. The project was initiated by Said Ben Said, who sent a note to Catherine Breillat reminding her that they had met at the Belfort festival, that he had just bought the rights to remake the Danish film, and that he thought the director would do better. The original! The latter recalls: “At that time I was at rock bottom. I didn’t want to make movies anymore.”

“I think I was in latent depression as well, I’m still in a very bad physical condition. Hemiplegia is not easy. I watched the movie and I was shocked by the lie in it. He told me. To tell and manage such a big lie for others to believe, you still have to be in the shape of the truth to achieve Him! I thought it was an absolutely brilliant story, worthy of Shakespeare.”

Young talent will follow

Initially, Catherine Breillat offered the character of Theo to Paul Kircher (The High School Student Revelation directed by Christophe Honoré). But the shooting of the film, which was supposed to take place in 2021, was postponed until next year due to financing reasons. Paul was no longer available, so it was he who suggested to director and producer Said Ben Said that his brother, Samuel Kircher, be cast.

Then Catherine Breillat fell under his spell: “Absolute grace. Samuel is an absolutely graceful, luminous being and at the same time completely mysterious, opaque. He is abandoned in front of the camera, he is not afraid, he allows himself to be swallowed up by him without twitching a muscle. Samuel has an incredible way of smiling. There are not many men who smiling at the screen.”

“I did something wrong to myself to go to this woman”: I will tell you all about the incestuous and scandalous romance of Cannes 2023 last summer.

No sulfur film!

If, on paper, it was initially a story of adultery with a cousin who was too young, this is not really what Kathryn Breila wanted to say: “I don’t like realistic cinema when it limits itself to saying ordinary, narrow, moralistic things. Moralistic art demeans and degrades people.”

“But art is moral because it beautifies them, looks at them, makes them bloom, transforms them. Contrary to popular belief, I am hyper-romantic! I am obsessed with purity, so I can’t bear the adjective “sulfurous”. About me. Nor can people say that erotic cinema I create. I hate erotica!”

Last Summer by Catherine Breillat: This novel will haunt you, but you shouldn’t miss it at the cinema!

in a bubble

Kathryn Breila chose to photograph Anna and Theo very closely, as if in a bubble from which the social environment was banished. It justifies this choice: “When two people look into each other’s eyes and drink each other’s words, they are alone in the world. A deafening uproar may erupt, they no longer hear anything. I showed Samuel Ivan the Terrible with this. “Sliding” appearance.”

“In the film, I almost reveal Samuel when he looks at Leah out of the corner of his eye. I finally realized that I was a director of emotions. And emotions are naked faces whose slightest glances I observe. Which slide, shine… I am a voyeur and a clairvoyant, I like to see the human soul in its smallest excitement , I find its ambiguity absolutely beautiful.”