A woman rearranges her skirt, trying to cover her thighs, on a plane. He calls the stewardess and asks for lip balm. “The atmosphere is very dry,” he complains from his first-class seat. They bring it to him immediately. There are eyes watching your every move. A man is watching her. She takes off her jacket, takes a condom out of her bag, shows it and heads to the bathroom. He accepts the game and follows in her footsteps. They lock themselves in the bathroom together. They have sex without saying a word. He finishes. When they return to their seats, his eyes can’t show more sadness and his gesture doesn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the passengers. Especially by another man who reluctantly witnesses her return to the front row.
The sad look belongs to Emmanuelle, the protagonist of the new version of the film that became an international phenomenon in 1974 for its sexual and erotic content; and which itself was based on the novel of the same name written by Emmanuelle Arsan in 1959. The premiere of the feature film in France caused such a stir that, while the theaters were full at each of its screenings, in Spain it was forbidden by the Franco regime. The only ones who could see it were those who crossed the border to go to the cinemas of Perpignan and Bayonne.
The first translation of the book to the big screen was directed by Just Jaeckin and Audrey Diwan, director of The eventfor which she won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2021, was responsible for restoring it – and updating it – in 2024. The work, focused on female desire and pleasure, was responsible for inaugurating the official section of the San Sebastian Festival this Friday. It will arrive in the rest of the theaters on September 27.
The film follows the journey of its protagonist, a woman who devotes herself to evaluating the hotels that a luxury chain has established all over the world. In this case, from Hong Kong, where its director, played by Naomi Watts, specifies from the beginning that she was also “a shark”. He knows that he comes to cause her problems and “look for the fault” that will put her job in jeopardy. Satisfying wealthy clients is the top manager’s priority. To do this, satisfying their desire is essential, including that of the complex supervisor played by Noémi Merlant. (Portrait of a Lady on Fire).
Eroticism and sex predominate in all the images – to the point of touching the limit of plausibility -, leading the proposal that arrives at the cinema in a context where both are no longer foreign, not only to the film-going public, but to the whole of society, largely due to the magnitude and accessibility of the consumption of pornography. Choosing to represent it on screen intrinsically generates a reflection and debate to which the director and the protagonist affirm to have dedicated a lot of time and conversations. “It is true that we are exposed to many images of what porn is, but the feeling is that the same dynamic is always repeated, with the woman presented as a sexualized and dominated object”, he recognizes before a group of media among which is present elDiario.es the actress Noémi Merlant.
Since MeToo, women have more space to express themselves and explore themselves. We may not know where we are and what kind of pleasure we want. And we are in a time where we can afford to seek it out.
Noémie Merlant
— Actress
“Here, it was about doing a new exploration. I think that since MeToo, we have more space to express ourselves and explore ourselves,” she adds, indicating that she shares with her character the feeling that it is normal for women “not to know where we are and what kind of pleasure we want.” “Now, we are in a time where we can afford to look for it,” he congratulates himself while defending that the objective “is not to confront eroticism with pornography. “There is room for both.”
Consent and enthusiasm for cohabitation
Audrey Diwan shares that she is aware that by setting her story in Hong Kong, the setting immediately references want to love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000), considered “the best erotic film of all time.” “But if you think about it, it was really just people rubbing each other in the hallways and nothing more,” he criticizes. Embark on the new version of Emmanuelle This led him to reflect on what eroticism is: “Sometimes it’s as simple as the distance between the characters. About five centimeters change everything, they create another situation.
The film reflects Emmanuelle’s personal evolution, managing to look within herself and elucidate what suits her and what doesn’t, when she acts to follow the model imposed by society and when she truly responds to her own interests and appetites. The most powerful scene in the film reflects the culmination of what it means for her to take the reins and raise her voice to guide not only the man she has sex with, but even the camera itself. “He directs it by what he says, how he says it, what he looks like. She is the one who sets the pace. And yes, he is a man who listens to her but who does not only him, but everything around her. “He does everything so that she gets the pleasure she is looking for,” the actress describes.
Director Audrey Diwan supports her position, saying that the result is that “it’s not just exciting for her. And it works.” “In the film, it’s clear that consent and arousal can go hand in hand,” he reflects. Consent was the protagonist of the filming itself, which also features another performer, Chacha Huang, as a young hotel regular with whom the protagonist also has sex.
“We had a lot of conversations and rehearsals. Audrey explains very directly what the characters look like and where they come from. The rest was very fluid. The sex scenes are so well written that filming them was no different from filming someone walking down the street. They have a logic, they are not free, they are not forced or imposed. There is a context,” he emphasizes.
The male counterpoint is provided by Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) and Jamie Campbell Bower (Sweeney Todd, Twilight, Shadowhunters)The first in the role of a mysterious guest who quickly attracts Emmanuelle’s attention, and the second in that of a producer who shares in the luxurious spa his complaints about the director with whom he is working at that moment on an advertisement for a yogurt.
The one who becomes the protagonist’s “companion” on his journey is an engineer who never spends the night in his room and who nevertheless accepts that the company he works for pays him because it determines his “price” as a worker. He also admits that he has not had sex for three years, because he hated desire, as if it were a video game and he had beaten it until the last match. “My character no longer has needs and a connection is created between the two because they are both lost in the world. He knows how to listen and understand Emmanuelle. I like the way the film explores eroticism through consent. There is a dance between them that reveals what she wants and the result is a very emotional journey,” explains Will Sharpe.
