“Emmanuelle” Anno Domini 2024 is the brainchild of French director and screenwriter Audrey Diwan, who gained recognition and fame with the film “It Happened” from 2021. This brought her, among others, the Golden Lions at the Venice Film Festival, the International Federation of Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), the Gotham statuette for best international film, as well as nominations for the European Film Award, the César Awards and the BAFTA Award. Importantly, the film appreciated by critics and viewers is an adaptation of the memoirs of the same title written by Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux.
What do we know about the creators of the new “Emmanuelle”?
Diwan not only directed that adaptation, she also wrote the screenplay with Marcia Romano based on the novel. The same is true for the new “Emmanuelle”: this time Diwan has teamed up with Rebecca Zlotowski on the script. The plot is a modern reinterpretation of the famous book and will differ significantly from the original.
It is known that the main character will go on a business trip to Hong Kong alone (previously it was Bangkok) and that is where she will seek erotic experiences and raptures. The mysterious Kei will appear on her path, who will fascinate her so much that the poor girl will not be able to stop thinking about him. During this journey, Emmanuelle is to discover her new desires and previously unexplored aspects of her sensuality, which will also lead to her redefining what freedom and intimacy are. The director announces that the film is to be an “exploration of what pleasure is in the era after the #MeToo movement.”
The main role was played by Noemie Merlant, known from the film “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”, and the cast also included Naomi Watts, Jamie Campbell Bower, Will Sharpe, Chacha Huang and Anthony Chau-Sang Wong. All this suggests that the production will have more of a psychological film than an erotic music video like our domestic “365 Days”.
Photo: Gutek Film
People who know the director’s previous work have high hopes for the new production. “‘It Happened’ is a true masterpiece, I’m sure this film will be too. I trust Audrey Diwan”, “I hope this film will be as good as ‘It Happened'” – write French viewers under the trailer (and the rest are largely upset by the fact that the director decided to shoot the production in English, although “Emmanuelle” is strictly French literature and cinema).
The trailer for the production reveals that it features situations very similar to those in the original, for example, there is a strong suggestion that the main character is potentially having sex with someone in an airplane bathroom, and it also seems that she will strike up a friendship with an uninhibited woman who is potentially the equivalent of Marie-Ange from the film shot in the 1970s. The adaptation will be first seen by attendees of the San Sebastian Film Festival, and the world premiere is scheduled for September 20, 2024.
Erotic for women or the “Emmanuelle” phenomenon
It is safe to say that “Emmanuelle” filmed in 1974 with Sylvia Kristel in the title role is an iconic film. It is not only one of the most profitable productions in the history of French cinematography: it is estimated that it was watched by about 300 million viewers, and in France alone 8.9 million tickets were sold for the bold film adaptation of the scandalous novel. What’s more, it is said that in the Arc de Triomphe cinema on the Champs-Elysees “Emmanuelle” was played non-stop for 11 years (some sources say that ).
The reviews were very mixed, but the audience’s turnout and interest showed that the stories about the sexual explorations and experiments of the young wife of a French diplomat were worth telling. And so began a whole series of film productions about the same heroine. In total, six “official” cinema films and seven television films were made (let us add that Kristel starred in five of them), as well as numerous parodies or side and unofficial projects referring to the popularity of the main series. In Italy, for example, “Black Emanuelle” was made, and the Americans, in turn, made their own “Emmanuelle in Space”.
The film is considered groundbreaking because it focused on the experiences of a female character who explores different options. On the other hand, the production was also criticized for the fact that Emmanuelle is in fact “the object of male fantasies” here, and the rape scene in the opium den, which the creators intended to be an alleged play out of a fantasy, caused immense outrage. The fact is that Kristel herself did not feel good during the filming of the sequence and has emphasized in various interviews over the years that she was never able to understand how “rape could seem pleasant to someone.”
Sylvia Kristel photo: Hans Peters; National Archive, The Hague, Rijksfotoarchive: Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Fotopersbureau (ANEFO), 1945-1989 – CC0,
Softcore erotica broke conventions and showed things on screen that had been avoided before. This included not only “ordinary” sex scenes, but also shots where the characters swim naked in a pool or have intercourse on board a plane. There was also a masturbation scene and the particularly controversial rape sequences in a club or the one with a dancer who smokes a cigarette with her vagina (the director reportedly claimed that this was added without his knowledge and that he only saw it in the cinema).
How Did “Emmanuelle” Come About? A Mysterious Author and an Aura of Scandal
The groundwork for adapting a novel like “Emmanuelle” was, in fact, set by the success of the 1972 film “Last Tango in Paris.” Producers realized then that there was definitely an audience interested in adult films, so it was worth addressing the subject somehow. Producer Yves Rousset-Rouard acquired the rights to Emmanuelle Arsan’s book in 1972 and offered the direction to Just Jaeckin, who was primarily a photographer and artist. He had never made a film before, but after reading the novel, he felt so intrigued by it that he decided to make “something soft and beautiful with a nice story” based on it.
It is worth adding here that the book itself was a sensation. It was initially published in France in 1959, but without any name on the cover. For a long time, it was not known who was the author of the book written in the first person, which tells the erotic adventures of a 19-year-old married woman who goes to her husband in Bangkok, where Western expats give vent to their wildest hedonistic fantasies.
It was not until the 1967 edition that “Emmanuelle” was signed with the name Emmanuelle Arsan. Initially, it was assumed that this was the pen name of Marayat Rollet-Andriane, a Thai-French author and wife of diplomat Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane. It was then that it turned out that the novel contained partially autobiographical threads, which added a so-called spice to the whole.
‘Emmanuelle’, directed by J. Jaeckin (1974) / Still from the film Promotional Materials Trinacra Films / Orphée Productions
There are striking similarities: Marayat met her husband at a ball when she was 16 and he was 30. Supposedly, it was love at first sight, but the lovers only got married a few years later, in 1956. Then they settled in Thailand, because Rollet-Andriane was appointed UNESCO ambassador to the diplomatic mission in Bangkok.
The couple quickly became known in their circles for their very frivolous and hedonistic lifestyle and open approach to group sex. The couple’s reputation would soon spread beyond their immediate circle and it is said that stories of their excesses contributed to Bangkok becoming a popular place for couples interested in swinging.
Years later, information emerged that “Emmanuelle” was actually written by Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane himself, but it was his wife who took on the authorship, because it is not necessarily appropriate for a diplomat to publish erotic novels. Nevertheless, the couple, together with director Just Jaeckin, published the erotic magazine “Emmanuelle, le magazine du plaisir” from 1974 to 1976 and produced films such as “Laure”, which told the story of the “younger incarnation” of Emmanuelle.
A star by chance
The auditions for the film were pan-European. But apparently, Dutch actress Sylvia Kristel ended up at the casting completely by accident. She was supposed to audition for a commercial, but she got the wrong door. When she discovered the mistake, she went for it. Since she already had experience as a model and had worked in a black outfit, she was not at all bothered by the request to take off her clothes during the audition. The director thought Kristel had a lot of charm and offered her the role without hesitation.
‘Emmanuelle’, directed by J. Jaeckin (1974) / Sylvia Kristel CAP/NFS via EastNews
The crew began filming in early December 1973 and finished in February of the following year. Filming took place partly in Paris and partly in Thailand. The finished production had to wait for its premiere for several months – French censors initially did not want to give permission to publish the scandalous material. Eventually, permission was granted and the film became an international sensation. Interestingly, the French softcore erotic film was the first “adult film” to be released in . Nevertheless, this was possible thanks to extensive cuts and the removal of most sex and masturbation scenes. Surprisingly, in the USA the film was shown without cuts. It was distributed by Columbia: the decision-makers were intrigued when they learned that “Emmanuelle” was watched mostly by women. The French production earned $11.5 million in the States, and, for example, $8.7 million in Japan.
New “Emmanuelle”. It won’t be pornography
For Audrey Diwan, “Emmanuelle” will be her English-language debut. The director admitted that she had never watched the 1974 film in its entirety and that she only really got to know the story by reading the book. Initially, she did not intend to adapt it, but slowly began to change her mind when she joined forces with screenwriter Rebecca Zlotowski. They began to talk about the chapter in which Emmanuelle has a discussion with a man about erotic pleasure. “It made me think about the place of eroticism and eroticism in contemporary society and how we can combat the sad concept of pornography. Eroticism is different: it comes from the idea of beauty, sensuality, what you show and what you hide. This framework stirs the human imagination and it is something that I love when I watch films myself, because it means that I do not just do it passively,” the director explained in an interview with “Deadline” magazine.
– At first I was afraid, but it was a good reason to do something. (…) It didn’t take me long to realize that we were doing something that was the opposite of pornography, which doesn’t encourage people to think about something. Eroticism makes you the subject. You can easily see that in poetry – She explains that she was most interested in capturing what goes on in a woman’s mind when she’s having fun, which is not easy to show. It’s not about filming a part of the body – the director notes. We’ll see how she did it in September.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
