A trailer has been released for Audrey Diwan’s “Emmanuelle.”
Back in May, I had mentioned, even before its lineup was revealed, that Cannes rejected “Emmanuelle”– –Diwan’s follow-up to the Golden Lion-winning “Happening” ––and it looks like Venice might have given it the same fate.
Regardless, “Emmanuelle” is going to open the 72nd San Sebastian Festival on September 20. Starring Noémie Merlant, Naomi Watts, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Will Sharpe, the film has had a shaky journey these last few months.
It looks like Diwan’s tackling of the erotica classic will be fairly faithful to the source material. Basically, softcore porn. It also seems to be a step back —artistically speaking— from 1994’s “Emmanuelle in Space”.
The film is an adaptation of Emmanuelle Arsan's erotic novel — which was originally made into a series of popular softcore porn movies in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Seinfeld hilariously parodied these films with the fictional “Rochelle, Rochelle” (“a young girl’s strange erotic journey from Milan or Minsk”).
As you can see in the trailer, Noémie Merlant is set to play the titular character and with that will come numerous sexcapades. I will say that, before the Cannes and Venice rejected the film, there were some expectations that this one could be good, but it’s now been relegated as an afterthought.