French director Audrey Diwan is opening the San Sebastian Film Festival this evening with third feature Emmanuelle , in the company of its star Noémie Merlant and supporting cast members Will Sharpe, Chacha Huang and Jamie Campbell Bower. Diwan, who won Venice’s Golden Lion for abortion drama Happening in 2021, has taken inspiration for her first English-language from Emmanuelle Arsan’s erotic novel, originally published clandestinely in France in 1959 and then officially in 1967. The work sparked a franchise of erotic, soft porn films, kicking off with Just Jaeckin’s 1975 cult movie, starring Sylvia Kristel as a woman who joins her diplomat husband in Bangkok where she embarks on a series of sexual adventures.
In Diwan’s contemporary adaptation, Merlant plays hotel quality control agent Emmanuelle, who is sent to audit a luxury hotel in Hong Kong, where she comes up against a steely hotel manager, played by Naomi Watts. Bored and stifled by her outwardly luxurious existence as she hangs out in the hotel’s high-end facilities, Emmanuelle attempts to shake herself out of her emotional torpor with a series of fleeting sexual encounters with staff members and guests. They leave her cold but there is one guest, who whets her curiosity and sets her imagination on fire, but he seems out of reach.
Deadline talked to Diwan ahead of tonight’s world premiere. DEADLINE: What inspired you to revisit Emmanuelle. The original film inspired by the novel feels outdated today an.