With every remake, the same question comes up: was it really necessary to remake a film whose success corresponded above all to its time? Either it remains faithful to the original and is of no interest, or it moves away from it enormously and it would perhaps have been better to get rid of this cumbersome reference.
In the case ofEmmanuelle Audrey Diwan version, the question finds its answer very quickly, as boredom quickly numbs the screen. From the first scene, Emmanuelle (Noémie Merlant) has sex in the toilet of an airplane with a stranger, but without taking the slightest pleasure in it. The suitor lives up to his name, while she looks at herself in the mirror, her thoughts clearly elsewhere. Arriving in Bangkok, no time to visit the city: her job consists of meticulously inspecting the most luxurious palaces to improve the smallest details. Or even allowing the manager (Naomi Watts, who we wonder what she is doing there) to be fired, more to the taste of the board of directors of the hotel group. A task that will allow her to no longer have fun alone but in the company of a prostitute, Zelda (Chacha Huang) and to fantasize about a mysterious client with the particularity of sleeping… outside the luxury complex.
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So what? Nothing. Noémie Merlant gets naked a few times, but these sequences remain cold, emotionless, like the polished shots in glossy erotic magazines. Wanting to emphasize a woman who reclaims her body and her desires, Audrey Diwan mostly reveals a solitary, rather sad sexuality, without any real sharing. The final scene is particularly revealing on this subject. Strangely, while she tries to distance herself from macho clichés, only Noémie Merlant’s anatomy is revealed, not that of her male partners. And when Emmanuelle sleeps with a man, it is to submit to his injunctions and his desire.
Absolutely nothing is happening
The desire to highlight a modern woman free to make her own choices is clear, but good intentions are not enough. Between the bawdy scenes that are sorely lacking in passion and sensuality, the plot boils down to slowly dragging Emmanuelle from a scene in a five-star room to a stereotypical work meeting. Absolutely nothing happens. Given that the dialogues are just as pitiful, nothing comes out of the torpor. As during the screening of the equally artificial 50 Shades of Grey.
