Award-winning French director Audrey Diwan updates the original 70s erotic film with a strangely dispassionate and pointless drama that proves to be one massive anti-climax. It was a bit of a shock when Audrey Diwan’s newest film, , was absent from the line-up of both and this year – especially on the Lido, as the French director’s previous film, the poignant reproductive rights drama won the Golden Lion in 2021. The story goes that Cannes rejected it because the film wasn’t quite ready and needed a few more weeks in the editing room, according to Diwan, and that the Venice selection committee flat out turned it down.
Not a great sign...
And upon watching Diwan’s adaptation of Emmanuelle Arsan's erotic novel, it quickly becomes apparent why the festivals didn’t fight for it. The 2024 version comes with some weighty expectations. Arsan’s 1959 bestselling novel was originally made into an infamous softcore porn movie which became the most watched film in France in 1974.
Seen as the softer cousin to films released in 1972 like Gerard Damiano’s and Bernardo Bertolucci’s , it went on to become one of the highest grossing French films of all time. Starring Sylvia Kristel as the titular protagonist who embarks on a series of sexual escapades in Asia, even remained on the billboard of major Paris cinema UGC Triomphe on the Champs-Elysées for a grand total of 13 years – showing to what extent ’s film shaped the porn chic sub-genre. Fast forward 50 years, and Di.