The 72nd is underway after the world premiere of ‘s racy flick kicked off the festivities in Spain. The , which boasts stars such as Noémie Merlant ( ), Naomi Watts ( , ), Will Sharpe ( ) and Jamie Campbell Bower ( ), is inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan’s erotic novel. Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong round out the rest of the cast, all of whom bar Watts appeared briefly on stage before the showing at the city’s Kursaal Theater.
The director’s project centers around a woman, Emmanuelle (Merlant), on a business trip to Hong Kong working with a luxury hotel group. Searching for a lost pleasure, she seeks her arousal in experiences with some of the hotel’s guests. One of them, Kei (Sharpe), seems to constantly elude her.
Diwan has said the script was conceived as an exploration of eroticism in the post-#MeToo era. The French filmmaker, who co-wrote with Rebecca Zlotowski, won Venice’s prestigious Golden Lion in 2021 for her film . It marks one of ‘s glitziest-ever lineups, with honors for , and Pedro Almodóvar on the week’s agenda here on the Spanish coast.
Almodóvar’s first English language feature, premiered to a whopping 17-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month. The Spaniard dutifully thanked the crowd as the film’s stars, Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, stood with him. San Sebastian has also picked up some heavy hitters ahead of awards season with Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield’s closing the fest, as well as screenin.