EXCLUSIVE: The success of Audrey Diwan‘s sophomore feature Happening made her next gig as a filmmaker an intriguing one. Her choice of project, created even more intrigue.
As we first revealed last year, that project is English-language debut Emmanuelle, inspired by the character and world created by writer Emmanuelle Arsan, whose 1967 novel of the same name was adapted into the lucrative and cult 1970s soft-core movie starring Sylvia Kristel.
Diwan’s adaptation deviates from that earlier movie and from the source material. We confirmed casting and production details about the movie this morning here, including a first-look image of star Noémie Merlant.
Plot details have been kept under wraps, though Diwan told us last year that the contemporary movie will take place in a luxury hotel where Emmanuelle (Merlant) works and that it will “explore her quest for pleasure”. Unlike the original movie, this film will see its protagonist on a quest not for “discovery, but research.”
Below is our new interview with Diwan in which she discusses the production process, what we can expect from the project, her thoughts on the French Oscar selection process, and what may be next for her.
DEADLINE: Thanks for speaking to us as you wrap production. How was the filming process on Emmanuelle and what can you tell us about the movie?
AUDREY DIWAN: It has been fascinating. It has been a huge amount of work. It’s always strange to talk about a movie you haven’t finished yet, but I can say a few things: this movie is based on a quest for pleasure, and a lost pleasure. I try to tell the movie through Emmanuelle’s sensations. Each sequence is like an exploration. Winning the Golden Lion gave me the freedom to try something quite different and to explore. That was where the motivation for this movie came from.
DEADLINE: I enjoyed what you previously said that this movie was less about a young woman’s “discovery”, like the original movie, and more about a mature woman’s “research”…
DIWAN: I will admit something to you. I haven’t seen the whole of the original movie. I wasn’t born when it came out. I discovered the story through the book. When my producers handed me the book I thought it was interesting but I didn’t initially intend to adapt it. It’s funny, I first started reading it on a plane and I got some funny looks from people [the racy first scenes of the movie are set on a plane]. When I stared working with writer and filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski we discussed a passage in which there is a long discussion between Emmanuelle and a man about erotic pleasure. I started to think about where eroticism is located in our society today and how we have to fight against the sad idea of pornography. Eroticism is different: it comes with the idea of beauty, sensuality, it’s what you show and what you hide. The frame summons people’s imagination, and personally I love that, to collaborate with a movie I watch as an audience member, not only to watch passively.
DEADLINE: How much of a challenge was it to capture that experience on camera?
DIWAN: I was afraid. But that’s a good reason to do something. When I feel fear and desire, I trust that I’m in the right place. That’s where creation often begins. It didn’t take me long to realise we were doing the opposite of pornography, which asks people not to think about something. Eroticism makes you the subject. It’s easy to see the poetry. I had a very strong relationship with Noémie Merlant who is in virtually every frame of the movie. I wanted her to think about her quest and not to think about the camera, for her to exist and not to show.
DEADLINE: How do you refer to this movie in relation to Just Jaeckin’s 1974 movie?
DIWAN: I refer to the book, not the movie, but in my imagination this was a completely different journey. I wanted to be as free as possible. This film explores the movement from rigid order to freedom, and something cold to something warmer. The biggest omission from pornography is the aspect of human relationships. Eroticism exists in the mind as much as it does in the body. It is fuelled by a gaze, a look, a brief interaction…
DEADLINE: Did you have an intimacy co-ordinator on set?
DIWAN: I spent time with a number of different intimacy co-ordinators so that I felt comfortable doing the role myself. I wanted to be precise and for everyone to feel comfortable. But I couldn’t accept the idea of giving that role to someone else because sensuality informs the very core of this movie and they would have become too central. That said, there were times I called on an intimacy co-ordinator during the shoot. We spent a long time talking about it with the actors, both the female and male actors.
DEADLINE: What can you say about your plot?
DIWAN: I can say it’s about a girl who is trying to get back to pleasure. I always remember a line from Bergman’s Scenes From A Marriage in which Marianne says her “sensation” of the world is running “dry”. For some reason, that sentence hit home with me. I wanted to interrogate that notion of the world turning ‘dry’ for someone.
DEADLINE: Do you anticipate future restrictions on how this movie is shown in cinemas?
DIWAN: It’s funny how we relate pleasure to organs. I’m more interested in what goes on in the head of a woman when she gets pleasure, which isn’t easy to depict. But it’s not about filming a part of the body. I’m not trying to capture pornography. I didn’t feel any restrictions because I wasn’t looking in that place.
DEADLINE: Could we see this movie at Cannes or Venice?
DIWAN: If the movie is ready and has its place there, I’d be very happy to go back to Venice. Also to Cannes.
DEADLINE: Some eyebrowns were raised recently when Justine Triet’s film Anatomy Of A Fall didn’t get the French Oscar nomination. Something similar happened to your film Happening. Do you have any thoughts about France’s Oscar selection process?
DIWAN: I know they tried to change the formula after Happening. I don’t know how it works in other countries but I know this question comes up quite often in our country. But it also speaks to France having a number of movies that have Oscar potential, which is good. I think Anatomy Of A Fall can still get Oscar recognition even if it isn’t France’s official entry. I was blown away by the screening in Cannes. I saw Justine the next day and told her I thought it was an instant classic.
DEADLINE: Are you committed to another project yet?
DIWAN: I have two things in mind. It’s a little early yet to discuss those in detail but I have one book I received from Ed Guiney [the Poor Things and Room producer], and there’s a contemporary French book that also blew me away. I don’t want my films to always come from books but I have a habit of leaning into books with my background.
Noémie Merlant in Emmanuelle
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Source: DLine
