“Emmanuelle”, starring Noémie Merlant, one of the most anticipated films of the year, finally unveils its poster and trailer. Audrey Diwan’s film will be released on September 25, 2024, and will be presented at the opening of the San Sebastian Festival.
The trailer is here! Finally discover the very first images of Emmanuelle, a new adaptation of the cult novel. The film directed by Audrey Diwan will be released on September 25, 2024.
Quel casting ?
The title role is played by Noémie Merlant. In addition to Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) plays the male lead. Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), Chacha Huang (La Casa de Papel) and Anthony Wong (Infernal Affairs) are also in the credits.
For the record, there was a casting change for the heroine: the first actress announced was Léa Seydoux.
“Noémie Merlant is a pure artistic choice, an obvious choice as was Anamaria Vartolomei in my previous film (The Event, Ed.)“Audrey Diwan confided in Deadline.
And to add: “I love Léa Seydoux, I want to make a film with her one day. But for me, it wasn’t the character I imagined. From Portrait of a Lady on Fire to Tár, I have never ceased to be seduced by the strength of Noémie Merlant’s acting.
She has the authority and the seduction necessary for this role. Noémie redefines the French woman. Her attitude, her smile, this hint of insolence… I am also sensitive to the idea of finding an intellectual partner in making this choice, someone with whom I will compose this character. This film will require a huge investment, and mutual trust. I know I have found the right person.“, concludes Audrey Diwan.
Quel synopsis ?
The synopsis is still secret, but Audrey Diwan, who wrote the screenplay, with the collaboration of Rebecca Zlotowski, made it clear that she started from the original book, the sulphurous novel by Emmanuelle Arsan. It is therefore not a direct remake of the film by Just Jaeckin, released in 1974.
We know that it will be a contemporary film whose action will take place in a luxury hotel, in which Emmanuelle’s character works. She “will explore his quest for pleasure“. It is specified that, unlike the original film, this will not be a quest for the “discovery“pleasure, but in a”research” some pleasure.
When I started writing, I often thought of Baudelaire’s Invitation to Travel.
“When I started writing, I often thought of Baudelaire’s Invitation to Travel: “there, all is order and beauty”, can we read in the columns of Télérama. To a place where, precisely, order and beauty would be everywhere like a diktat. That is to say a certain idea of pleasure. With my co-writer Rebecca Zlotowski, we very freely adapted the novel, keeping the questioning on the quest for pleasure, by reconstructing it around a woman of today.”
The film was shot in Hong Kong and Paris, in English.
What point of view?
For this new “post #MeToo” adaptation, the way this heroine will be viewed should obviously be very different from 50 years ago, and the version with Sylvia Krystel. What will be the share of eroticism? Will the carnal be more suggested than filmed? In the columns of Télérama, director Audrey Diwan explained that she wanted to tell “through Emmanuelle’s feelings“. In the columns of Deadlineshe explains that each scene will be like “an exploration“. And to add: “Winning the Golden Lion in Venice gave me the freedom to try something quite different and explore. That’s where my motivation for the film came from.“
As for Noémie Merlant, here is what she told us a few months before filming began: “I feel like there’s a risk involved, but at the same time, I like taking risks. It’s almost what I prefer. (…) From this woman’s point of view, connecting to her desire, her sexuality, her fantasies… That interests me. There are risks to take, but very interesting and liberating ones.“, Noémie Merlant told us about Emmanuelle in an interview exactly a year ago.
Noémie Merlant in the foreground
Noémie Merlant has had a string of great roles: we saw her in Louis Garrel’s L’Innocent, in a lovely comic performance (and a César to boot), and in 2023, in a major role alongside Cate Blanchett, in the American film Tár by Todd Field, but also in Les Ames soeurs by André Téchiné (video interview above), currently being broadcast on Canal+ / myCANAL.
Noémie Merlant talks to us about all these films in the podcast interview below:
Let us recall that Noémie Merlant has been very noticed since Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma, which brought her international spotlight.
A first film by Just Jaeckin that has become a cult classic
Rated …
“Emmanuelle, the first porn film to become a cult classic!”
During her stay, she meets two young girls, Marie-Ange and Bee, with whom she has an affair. Jean, meanwhile, decides to push Emmanuelle into the arms of a perverted sixty-year-old…
Emmanuelle, the 1974 version, had become a real phenomenon in theaters at the time, attracting more than 8.8 million spectators. The release date of this new Emmanuelle, Audrey Diwan’s version, is not yet known.
Who is Audrey Diwan?
In 2018, Audrey Diwan directed her first feature film, Mais vous êtes fous. In this drama, Pio Marmai plays a seemingly ordinary father who turns out to be addicted to cocaine. His life changes when one of his daughters is taken to the emergency room for having been in contact with his drug…
Audrey Diwan then directed L’Evénement, a drama adapted from Annie Ernaux’s novel in which a young woman decides to have an abortion to finish her studies and escape the social destiny of her proletarian family. The film was presented at the Venice Film Festival and was a consecration for the filmmaker since it won the supreme prize: the Golden Lion. Emmanuelle is her third feature film.
Emmanuelle will be released on September 25, 2024.
