With filming having wrapped in Paris, France, Deadline has officially unveiled a first-look image from director Audrey Diwan’s (Happening) upcoming erotic drama Emmanuelle featuring Noémie Merlant (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) in the title role from the loose adaptation of Emmanuelle Arsan’s 1967 novel.
As well as unveiling the first-look image, the trade has also revealed that Merlant is joined in the cast of the English-language film by Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive), Jamei Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), Will Sharpe (The White Lotus), Chacha Huang (Money Heist) and Anthony Wong (Infernal Affairs).
Arsan’s novel received international recognition due to the cult 1977 movie adaptation starring Sylvia Kristel, which was a huge financial success and launched a stream of softcore sequels and knock-offs. While plot details on the new film are being kept under wraps, Diwan has confirmed that it will deviate from the original movie.
“I can say it’s about a girl who is trying to get back to pleasure,” states Diwan. “I always remember a line from Bergman’s Scenes From A Marriage in which Marianne says her ‘sensation’ of the world is running ‘dry’. For some reason, that sentence hit home with me. I wanted to interrogate that notion of the world turning ‘dry’ for someone.”
Expect Emmanuelle to premiere on the festival circuit in 2024.
