‘Homecoming’ Review: Catherine Corsini’s Engrossing Study of a Family Evading a Past That Eventually Divides Them

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all North American rights for “Last Summer,” directed by Catherine Breillat, her first film in a decade, the companies announced on Friday.The film, which just screened In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews, tells the story of Anne, a brilliant lawyer who lives in perfect harmony with her husband Pierre and their six and eight‐year‐old daughters in the suburbs of Paris. One day, Theo, 17, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, moves in with them.

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all North American rights for Catherine Breillat’s drama Last Summer (L’été dernier) following its well-received premiere in competition in the final days of the Cannes Film Festival (May 16-27).

Mark Wright loved filming an epic road trip with his dad Big Mark and his footballer brother Josh Wright, but behind the show’s laugh-out-loud moments, lies secret heartache. “We’ve all been through a lot,” explains Mark. “My dad lost his brother [Eddie] in lockdown, and was seriously ill himself with Covid.

Jessica Kiang With conflict currently erupting in Sudan, one could be forgiven for approaching Mohamed Kordofani’s “Goodbye Julia,” which takes place in Khartoum during the six years prior to the 2011 secession of South Sudan, as a worthy, topical history lesson. And it certainly does have merit as a primer for the class, ethnic and religious unrest that besets the troubled state. But what actually transpires is far more engaging, in the vein of Asghar Farhadi, wherein a tight, high-concept moral core unravels into strands of widening, deepening social consequence. Telling the story of a fraught friendship between two very different women, Kordofani’s intelligent, compassionate scripting ensures that the political never overwhelms the personal. Yet it also illuminates just how well the fault lines that divide a nation can map onto the rifts within a human heart divided against itself. 

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas took in the lovely weather and thrilling action at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix over the weekend.The cute couple — who have been married for over 22 years — looked as happy as newlyweds as they strolled around Monaco, which has been transformed to accommodate the high-profile formula one race, as it is yearly.Douglas, 78, kept his face shaded from the sun in a dark green ballcap, and rocked a black polo shirt with white pants.Meanwhile, Zeta-Jones, 53, looked chic and stylish in an appropriately French black-and-white stiped long-sleeved top, white pants and a wide-brimmed tan sunhat.The pair were in France already, having previously attended the launch party for the new Aston Martin DB12 luxury sportscar, held during the Cannes Film Festival, at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc.Back in 2021, Zeta-Jones opened up about the secret behind their decades-long marriage, telling that they have «never, ever lost our sense of humor.»«First of all, we have a lot of fun together. My husband is 25 years older than me; that’s not a secret.

It would be nice to think that desires are nothing more than preferences, springing organically from a fixed identity and unaffected by outside circumstances such as personal history and societal norms. The reality is, of course, much thornier, and trying to disentangle the many different factors influencing our tastes and longings can quickly cause a lot of suffering.

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas are enjoying a day out at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix!

Still breaking boundaries at the age of 74, French filmmaker Catherine Breillat returns to the Cannes competition with a film that squarely confronts the one taboo that is still ring-fenced from liberal tolerance: sex between adults and children. In the past, she has worked with porn stars, was one of the first to show an erection in an arthouse film and earned herself the moniker “porno auteuriste.” 

Cannes Film Festival, where Catherine Breillat’s scandal-courting transgression drama mostly inspired yawns.More inert than inept, “Last Summer” arrived in Cannes with fraught expectations: This is Breillat’s first film in a decade and a faithful remake of May el-Toukhy’s acclaimed “Queen of Hearts” — and within the Venn diagram of cinephiles who impatiently awaited Breillat’s follow-up to 2013’s “Abuse of Weakness,” and journalists who reviewed and celebrated that 2019 Danish drama you could probably fit the entire Palais.Like a cover song that follows the same notes but changes the emphasis, “Last Summer” tracks a high-powered juvenile rights attorney who begins a taboo fling with her underage stepson. The lawyer here is Anne (Léa Drucker, from “Custody”), a content and aloof mother of two who dulls her mid-life boredoms with wine.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic It began in the son’s room, when father was away on business. L’enfant thought it was l’amour, but for her, 30-odd years his senior, the sex, lies and audiotape were a mistake. Wild at heart, she’d yielded to the taste of … oh, never mind. Competing for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Catherine Breillat’s “Last Summer” echoes films that have come before — most notably, 2019 Danish drama “Queen of Hearts,” on which it’s based — but it proves most daring in the ways the film departs for its more conventionally moralistic source, and especially in Breillat’s refusal to call either party a parasite. Yes, the affair between a lawyer and her 17-year-old stepson is a betrayal — of her marriage, of her parental responsibilities, of everything she stands for as an attorney — but that’s nothing compared to how the 50-ish woman deals with it when word gets out in this thought-provoking domestic drama. In reviewing the original, Variety’s Guy Lodge wrote, “you can practically envisage a Robin Wright-starring U.S. remake” — which isn’t far from the truth. Backed by fearless producer Saïd Ben Saïd (“Elle”), Breillat gives us the great Léa Drucker (who played far more responsible moms in “Close” and “Custody”) in the role of Anne, who’s introduced representing an underage girl in a sex-crimes case.

Guy Lodge Film Critic In the rose-gray light of dawn, Juliette Binoche strides through a verdant kitchen garden, wearing a straw hat as wide and undulating as an ocean wave. She plucks a majestically large, gnarled celeriac from the earth and sniffs it deeply and fondly, as if inhaling mythical ambrosia, and takes it back to the house. This is how Tràn Anh Hùng’s “The Pot au Feu” opens, which is to say on a note of sensory reverence and a hint of kitsch, in knowing thrall to one of the less pretty vegetables in nature’s cornucopia. There are people — this critic included — who will watch this scene and immediately sense with a hungry tingle that the film to come has been made expressly for their palate, and there is everyone else. “The Pot au Feu” is not for everyone else, and that’s just fine.

The Cannes Film Festival red carpet is usually accustomed to protests and demonstrations. Last year there were multiple.

Leading French producer Marc Missonnier, who had his Cannes Film Festival accreditation revoked after he publicly criticized its selection of Catherine Corsini’s Homecoming, has finally received a badge.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Leading French producer Michael Gentile’s Paris-based outfit The Film is about to start shooting Julie Delpy’s next directorial outing, “The Barbarians,” and Laurence Arné’s “Les Hennedricks” starring Dany Boon. Delpy’s comeback to French filmmaking since “Lolo,” “The Barbarians” is a satirical comedy unfolding in a small town in Brittany which is preparing to welcome Ukrainian refugees after voting unanimously to greet them in exchange for subsidies from the government. But instead of seeing Ukrainians come into town, they see Syrian refugees, causing some tensions among locals and testing their liberal beliefs. Delpy will star in the film opposite Sandrine Kiberlain (“Mademoiselle Chambon”), Laurent Lafitte (“Elle”) and Ziad Bakri (“The Weekend Away”), India Hair (“Angry Annie”), Mathieu Demy (“The Bureau”) and Delpy’s father Albert Delpy.

Welcome, Insiders. Cannes is now well under way while the picket lines remain busy in LA. Jesse Whittock here in London. I’ve rounded up all the big and important news from film and TV, so sit back and enjoy the read. Subscribe here.

The European Producers Club (EPC) has issued a statement expressing solidarity for French producer Marc Missonnier who has had his Cannes accreditation revoked for criticizing the festival on social media.

If you thought Maïwenn’s Johnny Depp movie Jeanne du Barry arrived at Cannes with a lot of baggage, Catherine Corsini’s Homecoming didn’t spare in its ruffling of French media feathers with stories about harassment of workers on the pic’s set and a masturbation scene involving minors.

Cannes Film Festival in as many days, Catherine Corsini’s “Homecoming” is vastly more interesting than that other film maudit, “Jeanne du Barry,” though the pair make for worthy foils.While Maïwenn’s stuffy historical epic drew protests on the Croisette due to the extracurricular activities of its stars, Corsini’s windswept jaunt very nearly didn’t make the trip – the title was omitted from the competition when news of irresponsible on-set practices broke just before the selection was announced. That the lack of oversight involved a minor seemed to seal the project’s fate before a subsequent investigation and the absence of any formal complaints put the title back on track.

There is the good sister, with A grades, university prospects and a sense of decorum in company. And then there is the younger sister who can’t see a volume button without turning up the music, who is quick to complain or pick an argument, who spots someone else’s drug stash and thinks she could steal it and maybe make some pocket money selling deals on the beach, because what – what – could possibly go wrong with that plan?

A French producer who called for a boycott of the Cannes Film Festival over its selection of Catherine Corsini’s Competition film Homecoming, claims his accreditation has been cancelled in retaliation.