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Gianluca Matarrese’s The Last Chapter (La Dernière Séance) is an intimate portrait of the filmmaker’s older French lover, Bernard, as he reflects on life, love and loss.
The film’s opening minutes launch us right into the filmmaker’s sex life, capturing BDSM play between Gianluca and Bernard featuring close-ups of whips, chains, ropes, and masks. In contrast to the nature of BDSM, it’s presented in an almost delicate and modest manner that serves to highlight the intimacy of their encounters. This sets the tone of the film, dismantling barriers and allowing the filmmaker, his subject and viewers to be vulnerable and honest throughout.
We learn early on that Bernard is preparing to move to another town in France, to an apartment he hopes might be his last. In his sixties, he describes to Gianluca (and the camera) his recent transition to retirement, and the two men remark that he’s entering the last chapter of his life. Throughout the film, we glean more about Bernard as he packs up his house and rediscovers old boxes holding memories of his past. Photo albums and slides prompt Bernard to reflect on his life, including his experiences of love and heartbreak. He invites Gianluca and the viewer into his very personal and sometimes difficult memories, from childhood anecdotes to romantic encounters and painful losses.
Gianluca mostly uses extreme close-ups, particularly of Bernard’s face. At times uncomfortably close, for the most part it heightens the level of intimacy and adds a layer of vulnerability as we watch Bernard’s expressions subtly shift while he lets us into the recesses of his mind.
Bernard offers poignant and sobering reflections on losing two romantic partners to AIDS, both his first love, Ider, and his great love, Christian. He offers photos of Ider and Christian, and shares happy memories of his time in both relationships. Bernard and Ider lived together for ten years before Ider tragically died from AIDS. Shortly thereafter, Bernard met and fell in love with Christian, who was already HIV-positive when they met. After just a few years together, Christian, too, died from AIDS. The pain that Bernard still carries from losing both partners is evident onscreen.
The impact of his loss expresses itself in Bernard’s present day. Despite opening up onscreen and the way he embraces a deeper connection with Gianluca, Bernard nevertheless insists he’s done with monogamy; he comments that couples don’t last because “there is always one that goes before the other.” He focuses on the pleasure, freedom and intimacy with different partners in BDSM, calling it the driver of his “lust for life” while simultaneously seeming to maintain a wall between himself and his partners. The only photo he keeps on display is one of Christian in his prime.
Text messages between Bernard and Gianluca often flit across the screen over scenic footage of France, including rural views from a moving train and night life in and town scenes town streets, rural views from a moving train. The messages read like poetry, sometimes philosophy, in their expressions of affection, hope, and ideas for the future.
Throughout the film we see Bernard experience struggle as well as joy, capturing his present, past and a glimpse of the future. He celebrates with friends and enjoys nights out on the town. Bernard also has a particular fondness for old cars, but becomes anxious and spirals when he suddenly forgets how to drive his old car. Soon enough he seems carefree in the driver’s seat once again, taking the car out for a drive along a country road. He snuggles his two cats and grins widely whenever they’re around, and naturally panics when one cat goes missing shortly after the big move to the new apartment. We all feel the overwhelming relief and love when Bernard finds the cat safe and sound. The film is a revealing window into the subtle complexities of life itself.
The Last Chapter has its international premiere at this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in the Luminous section, after the film’s world premiere at the Venice International Film Critics’ Week. The IDFA is the world’s largest documentary film festival and will take place in person once again this year from November 17 to 28.