Facts: Catherine Breillat.
Name: Age: 74.
Lives: France.
Occupation: Director.
Previous films: “Oskuld”, “Romance”, “To my sister”, “Sex is comedy”.
Current: “L’Été dernier”.
“I had already done all that, so I didn’t want to do it again,” Breillat tells TT about his film “L’Été dernier”, which is competing for the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
The Danish film “Hjärter dam” came out in 2019 and was praised by the critics. Trine Dyrholm and Magnus Krepper played the married and successful couple with twin daughters. When the husband’s teenage son from a previous relationship, played by Gustav Lindh, comes to live with them, feelings soon arise between him and his stepmother. This leads to them starting a sexual relationship, which is depicted, among other things, through recent sex scenes.
Changed a lot
Breillat was offered to do a remake, and it was not least the play between the main characters that interested her, not this time portraying sex in pictures. But she also changed a lot of other things compared to the original.
— I made the boy younger, no more than 17. And I thought the boy in the Danish film resembled a football hooligan. And I distance myself from the idea of the female predator. Sure, there are, but I’m not interested in talking about them, says Breillat.
Breillat also did not want the married couple’s adopted children to be twins.
— I changed that, because twins are often like a single individual. I made the girls older. And the ending is different.
The ability to lie
Decisive for Breillat was also the protagonists’ ability to lie both to themselves and to others to excuse “the terrible things they do”.
— It’s a strong story, something I felt I would enjoy exploring. And maybe it was the young boy who went in to seduce his stepmother.
In “Hjärter dam” the mother appears as a cold and calculating manipulator. Lea Drucker, who plays the main role in Breillat’s film, makes a much warmer female portrait.
— It was our excellent screenwriter who wrote about it, and Lea played the part so well.