Last Summer, Now From Criterion

It's here!  Catherine Breillat's first film in over a decade arrives today, Feb 18th, on DVD and blu, as part of their new Janus Contemporaries line.  We've known about Last Summer (then known as Inavouable, which translates to "Unspeakable") since early 2021, and have just been waiting patiently to get our hands on an English-friendly version of it.  The BD is a dual-layer 1080p disc matting the film to 1.85:1, screenshotted above.  The original French 5.1 audio is presented in DTS-HD with optional English subtitles.

There aren't a whole ton of extras, but critically, we do get an all new, 18+ minute interview with Breillat.  They also include the original theatrical trailer and an insert with notes by Michael Joshua Rowin, a film theorist who teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York.  So it may not be the full-fledged special edition we were hoping for, but it's a satisfying package.  And most important, of course, we can just finally see this film.

And by the way, for those keen to check out the original 2019 Dronningen, a.k.a. Queen Of Hearts, the Danish film Last Summer is a remake of, there are a couple of foreign blu-rays, but they don't include English language options.  Our best bet is unfortunately standard definition-only: an American DVD from Breaking Glass.  It's a DVD-9 in anamorphic 2.39:1 in its original Danish/ Swedish (both stereo and 5.1 mixes) with optional English subtitles with no special features.