News

Exclusive: Be For Films has acquired international sales rights to veteran documentarian Claire Simon’s Writing Life – Annie Ernaux Through The Eyes Of High School Students,about the Nobel prize-winning French writer.

The documentary is set to world premiere in the Giornate degli Autori sidebarat the upcoming Venice Film Festival.

The film is set in French classrooms and explores how Ernaux’s work is taught in French schools and the impact it has had on both teachers and students, particularly how her books continue to inspire young people in their quest for freedom and self-determination.

The French-language film is produced...

Valerie Donzelli’s anticipated film “At Work” (“A Pied d’Oeuvre”), one of the three French movies set to compete at this year’s Venice, has been boarded by Gregoire Melin’s international sales banner Kinology.

Adapted from Franck Courtès’s autobiographical novel by the same name, “At Work” is headlined by Bastien Bouillon (“The Night of the 12th”), who stars alongside Virginie Ledoyen (“Just the Two of Us”), André Marcon and Marie Rivière.

“At Work” tells the true story of a successful photographer (Bouillon) who gives up everything to devote himself to writing and is confronted with poverty for the first time. “This radical account, blending clarity and self-depreciation, portrays the journey of a man willing to pay the ultimate price for his freedom,” reads the synopsis.

Kinology has acquired worldwide sales to “At Work” and will introduce it to buyers at the Venice Film Festival.

Donzelli described “At...

French filmmaker Audrey Diwan made a splash in 2021 for her Golden Lion-winning abortion drama “Happening.” It was such an astounding second feature that everyone in the jury was unanimous in their praise for the filmmaker’s exceptional handling of a subject that still plagues us. The 1963 set film featured a breakout performance by Anamaria Vartolomei and instantly put Diwan on the map. So, it especially comes as a humongous disappointment that her new film “Emmanuelle,” starring the always dependable Noémie Merlant, is a load of hot garbage.

Based on the 1967 novel of the same name, which was turned into a successful series of films, the new reworking is set almost entirely in a luxury hotel in Hong Kong. Merlant stars as the titular character who arrives at the property as a quality controller, but is secretly looking for sexual adventures that completely supersede the disciplined work she is supposed to do.

Note: This review was originally published as part of the U.K. release. Emmanuelle arrived on VOD in the U.S. on June 6.

The most striking thing about Audrey Diwan’s reinterpretation of Emmanuelle––the infamous novel-turned-softcore franchise from fabulously named director Just Jaeckin––is that the original dramatic beats largely remain intact. Perhaps this is why it received a critical drubbing at its San Sebastian premiere: those expecting the drastically different, radically feminist take on this material you’d assume would materialize courtesy of the filmmaker behind the Golden Lion-winning Happening would be disappointed by an unexpected faith towards its source. The way Diwan and co-writer Rebecca Zlotowski recontextualize this material is also out-of-step with recent cinephile backlash towards the lack of sexuality in contemporary cinema. As soon as the film opens with Emmanuelle (Noémie Merlant) joining the mile-high club, the tryst framed as dispassionately as its heroine’s blank expression,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Alan Rudolph’s Dramas of Desire

One of America’s great, oft-unheralded filmmakers, Alan Rudolph deserves far more recognition than he’s accumulated thus far. We recently published two extensive interviews with the director and now the Criterion Channel has a mini-retrospective, featuring Remember My Name (1978), Trouble In Mind (1985), Afterglow (1997), and Breakfast of Champions (1999).

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Celebrating Gene Hackman

As we attempt to move on from a Gene Hackman-less world, the Criterion Channel has gathered some of his finest work to remember him by. Their series features The French Connection (1971), Scarecrow (1973), The Conversation (1974), Night Moves (1975), Eureka (1983), No Way Out (1987), and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Club Zero (Jessica Hausner)

Across her five previous features,...

Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” a cinematic love letter to the French New Wave which bowed at Cannes, will aptly kick off the third edition of the Biarritz Film Festival, also called Nouvelles Vagues, on June 24.

On the following day, Sofia Coppola, the festival’s guest of honor, will attend a screening of “Virgin Suicides” to celebrate its 25-year anniversary and take part in a masterclass before an audience filled with film students.

Coppola’s presence at the festival reflects the involvement of Chanel, a partner of the festival whose mantra is to shine a spotlight on young talent in front and behind the camera. Chanel hosted a glamorous dinner at the Grand Café du Grand Palais in Paris in honor of the festival on June 3.

Along with Nouvelles Vagues founder and president Jérôme Pulis, general delegate Sandrine Brauer and programming director Lili Hinstin, and Chanel president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky,...

If you’re in the mood for something sultry on this fine Wednesday, you may want to check out the new trailer for Emmanuelle. Based on the 1967 novel by Emmanuelle Arsan, the film is a reboot of the long-running erotic franchise.

Billed as a bold, modern re-imagining of one of film’s most provocative characters, Emmanuelle stars Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), Will Sharpe (The White Lotus), Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), and Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive). The synopsis reads: “While on business in Hong Kong Emmanuelle meets Kei, a man who constantly eludes her. Though she indulges in the many alluring distractions the city has to offer, she can’t shake their chance encounter. Will she submit to her basest desires to forge a deeper relationship? Audrey Diwan’s film, freely adapted from Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel, casts a female gaze on the intimate quest of...

It world premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival last year and didn’t remain on the radar much long after that. Emmanuelle received its domestic release in France and we finally have some U.S. release plans – sadly it won’t be hitting theaters. Regarded as a third feature film misstep for Audrey Diwan especially after winning the Golden Lion in Venice for Happening, the erotic drama is going to take on a different strategy by the Neon folks who will push out the title via their Decal – going on demand June 6th. Here is a clip release.

Will Sharpe, Noémie Merlant, and Naomi Watts star in the sultry tale of one woman’s search for lost pleasure.…...

Will Sharpe is having his moment. The “White Lotus” breakout star leads the already buzzy Netflix series “Too Much” alongside Megan Stalter. As we await Lena Dunham’s return to TV with the rom-dram series, Sharpe puts his leading man moves on full display for Audrey Diwan’s erotic drama “Emmanuelle.” The film first premiered in San Sebastián last year and will finally hit VOD next month. IndieWire shares the release details and the trailer exclusively below.

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” actress Noémie Merlant stars as the title character in Diwan’s modern re-imagining of Emmanuelle Arsan’s 1967 novel. The film, Diwan’s first since her abortion drama “Happening,” centers on a woman (Merlant) whose business trip to Hong Kong leads to a sexual awakening. Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe, “Stranger Things” breakout Jamie Campbell Bower, Anthony Wong, and Chacha Huang co-star.

The official synopsis for the film reads:...

While the Trump administration has sparked uproar in the European Union over the president’s aggressive new trade policy, it’s also fueled tensions between the U.S. and European film industries.

Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Perez”), Costa-Gavras (“Z”), Audrey Diwan (“Happening”) and Claude Lelouch (“A Man and a Woman”) are among the French filmmakers who have called out the the offensive led by the American film community against EU regulations, including the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (Avms), which forces foreign streaming services to invest a portion of their revenues into local productions.

In an open letter signed on behalf of France’s two main film orgs, Arp and Srf (Society of French Directors), French filmmakers said they were “astonished” by the memorandum signed by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

The message, which was sent in March to the United States...

Female directors have gained significant ground in the U.S., U.K. and France since 2015, according to an Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study that was unveiled at an event hosted by Kering to highlight the achievements of its pioneering Women in Motion program.

Francois-Henri Pinault’s luxury group Kering — which will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its Women in Motion program at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — brought together leading industry figures for a roundtable at its Paris headquarters, notably Cannes president Iris Knobloch, who sat beside Kering’s group chief brand officer Laurent Claquin.

Since its inception, Kering’s Women in Motion program has championed and given a voice to female talent, filmmakers and executives in front and behind the camera, honoring Universal Studios’ Donna Langley, Michelle Yeoh, Salma Hayek, Jane Fonda and Viola Davis, among others.

The study, presented by Annenberg’s Dr. Stacy L. Smith and Katherine Pieper,...

Film4 is considering the commercial potential of its slate “more than we have done,” said the division’s director Ollie Madden during an on-stage interview at Film London’s Upstream IP pitching event on March 4.

“In British independent film, we’ve had an internalised snobbery about being too commercial,” said Madden, speaking in conversation with Film London CEO Adrian Wootton.

He clarified: “At Film4, [commerciality] is not the driving factor. We have a cultural remit, we’re a non-profit self-sustaining broadcaster. Unlike a commercial company like Warner Bros, that’s not the driving incentive.

“That said, look at how well Bridget Jones...

Mubi has unveiled their lineup for next month’s streaming offerings, featuring a selection of notable new releases, including Kazik Radwanski’s Matt & Mara, Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka, Monica Sorelle’s Mountains, Marija Kavtardzé’s Slow, Monia Chokri’s The Nature of Love, and more. Additional highlights include films by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Brady Corbet, Peter Weir, and more.

Recently naming Matt and Mara one of the best films of 2024, Blake Simons said, “Kazik Radwanski’s misty-eyed, mostly improvised tale of friends-not-quite-lovers excels at capturing intricacies of the unspoken. There’s a warming tenderness and quiet sadness to Deragh Campbell and Matt Johnson’s restrained interactions. In the final moments, Mara places a crumpled receipt inside a book and returns it to its shelf. Sometimes that’s what a good film is: a leaf through our feelings. Matt and Mara is there on the shelf now, for when we feel like opening that book again.

Despite reports that audiences wanted less sex on the big screen, hanky panky has made an impressive comeback in the last year. A few thoughts.

Last year saw a rise in films that explored sex and specifically women’s desire on the big screen. Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor got in a steamy love triangle in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers and Nicole Kidman is currently drinking milk at Harris Dickinson’s command in UK cinemas in Halina Reijn’s Babygirl, which debuted in 2024. Anora, Sean Baker’s sex worker comedy-drama is one of the front-runners at this year’s awards season after bagging the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year.

We also got treated to more queer sex on screen, still a bit of an anomaly, at least in the mainstream. Alongside Challengers, Guadagnino also offered us Queer, in which Daniel Craig’s William begins a relationship with a much younger man,...

Stars: Noémie Merlant, Will Sharpe, Naomi Watts, Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang, Anthony Wong, Harrison Arevalo | Written by Emmanuelle Arsan, Audrey Diwan, Rebecca Zlotowski | Directed by Audrey Diwan

Back in 1974, the original Emmanuelle was something of a cause celebre, a French soft-core erotic drama that became a huge crossover hit, inspiring multiple sequels and bestowing instant fame on its eponymous star, Sylvia Kristel. Now it’s been remade, with French star Noemie Merlant in the lead, and given a 21st century spin by director Audrey Diwan, the acclaimed director of 2021’s Golden Lion-winning abortion drama Happening. However, whatever Diwan and co-writer Rebecca Zlotowski were intending with this supposedly erotic dalliance, it does not appear to have penetrated, so to speak.

Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) plays Emmanuelle, a high-flying quality controller for a chain of luxury hotels. She’s first introduced having a spot of mile-high fun with...

Disney’sBob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown,opens wide in around 700 sites across the UK and Ireland this weekend.

Timothee Chalamet plays the US musician from 1961, when the Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door singer was an unknown 19-year-old, freshly landed in New York from Minnesota. James Mangold directs the Searchlight title, with Elle Fanning and Edward Norton also in the cast.

Music biopics have – for the most part – performed robustly at the UK-Ireland box office of late. Studiocanal’s Amy Winehouse film Back To Black opened to £2.7m in April of last year and finished on £12.3m. Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love...

Noémie Merlant, Naomi Watts and Will Sharpe languish in a luxurious hotel in Audrey Diwan’s self-conscious remake of the classic French softcore drama

If anyone could have rebooted and revitalised the much-mocked 70s softcore-sexy franchise Emmanuelle, you would think it would be that formidably smart film-maker Audrey Diwan, winner of the Venice Golden Lion for her drama Happening. In the porn-chic era of 1974, Emmanuelle was an odyssey of saucy self-awakening which featured Sylvia Kristel seated on the iconic rattan chair, and was directed by Just Jaeckin, the man with the most outrageous name in adult entertainment. In theory, this meisterwerk is ripe for reinvention as a spectacle of unapologetic sensuality in our new world of the sex-positive and kitsch-positive.

But even with Noémie Merlant as her lead and no less a film-maker than Rebecca Zlotowski working with Diwan on the screenplay, this Emmanuelle 2.0 comes across as inert and self-conscious,...

The U.K. and Ireland box office saw Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” stay at the top in its fourth week, roaring to £2.2 million ($2.6 million) over the weekend and bringing its cumulative total to £24 million ($29.2 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

In second place, Universal’s “Nosferatu” earned $2.4 million in its second weekend, with a total of $10.7 million. Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” raced into third with $1.8 million in its third weekend, pushing its total earnings to $25.4 million.

Studiocanal’s “We Live In Time” secured the fourth spot, adding $1.6 million to its total of $6.3 million. Debuting in fifth was Entertainment Film Distributors’ “Babygirl,” opening to $1.3 million. Disney launched another new entry with “A Real Pain,” landing in sixth place. The drama earned $1.2 million in its debut weekend.

In seventh place, Universal’s musical blockbuster “Wicked” continued its stellar run, adding $1.07 million in its eighth weekend. With a cumulative total of $71.4 million,...

One of France’s most critically lauded producers of the last decade with movies such as Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion prizewinner “Happening,” Edouard Weil has sold his Paris-based production company Rectangle Productions to sales company Goodfellas after filing for bankruptcy in June.

Goodfellas, the thriving sales company co-founded by Vincent Maraval, is a longtime collaborator of Rectangle Productions. Maraval previously handled international distribution on Rectangle movies while at Wild Bunch (which he co-founded and partially exited in 2019), and he and Weil have continued working together on movies after Maraval launched his standalone sales banner Goodfellas (formerly known as Wild Bunch International) on movies such as the erotic drama “Emmanuelle,” Diwan’s recent follow-up to “Happening.”

Although Rectangle Productions has been dissolved as a business entity, it “will retain its brand, creative independence, attached talent and ongoing projects” over at Goodfellas, said the company in a statement.

Producer Alice Girard,...

French film companies and long-time collaborators Goodfellas and Rectangle Productions have finalized a merger, which has been in the works since the summer.

The partners said in a statement on Friday that the deal marked “an important milestone” for both parties and “had been carried out in the interests of all stakeholders.”

The merger follows news over the summer, first reported by French trade paper Le Film Français, that Rectangle Productions was in financial difficulty and had filed for judicial reorganisation to keep its activities ticking over while it restructured.

Co-founded in 2003 by Édouard Weil, who was joined in 2012 by Alice Girard, Rectangle Productions has produced 60 films and TV series, including Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion winner The Happening and her follow-up film Emmanuelle.

The weak performance of the latter film at the French box office has reportedly not helped the company’s financial situation.

Under the deal, Rectangle Productions will retain its brand,...

Women directed or co-directed just 27.1% of French films in 2023, down from a historic high of 33.2% in 2022, according to the Cnc’s Gender Equality report published this month.

Women directors made 64 films in 2023, compared to 69 in 2022.This is triple the 33 films directed by women in 2003.

This compares to the 172 films directed by men in 2023, up 23.7% from 139 in 2022. Female directors accounted for just 26.7% of fiction features, down 7.3% from 2022, and 33.3% of documentaries, a slight rise from 2022’s 30.2%, but down from 2021 near-parity 47.7%.

There was a drop in the proportion of women directing or co-directing first films after a record 55% in 2021 with 34.2% of first films...

In theory, a modern, feminist or at least feminine update of a cult softcore classic by an award-winning filmmaker does not necessarily sound like a bad idea. But theory is one thing, while practice can be something entirely else, even if the filmmaker has a clear vision of what she is doing. In the case of Audrey Diwan and her reading of Emmanuelle, which premiered as the San Sebastian opener and now struggles to get bookings on the festival circuit, it seems that she and her co-writer Rebecca Zlotowski did not have the vaguest idea. We were lucky or unlucky enough to catch the film at the late screening at Zagreb Film Festival.

For those who were born too late or are completely uninterested in the history of porn, let us quickly recap the phenomenon of Emmanuelle. It started with a 1967 erotic novel by Emmanuelle Arsan that quickly spawned...

France’s Les Arcs Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 16th edition of its mountaintop movie marathon, taking place from December 14-21, 2024.

Eight European films will vie for the festival’s Crystal Arrow awards.

They include Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap, a comedy about titular west Belfast hip-hop trio that is Ireland’s entry for the best international feature Oscar race and leads the Bifa 2024 nominations, Runar Runarsson’s Icelandic drama When the Light Breaks that opened this year’s Cannes Un Certain Regard, and Kurdwin Ayub’s Moon about a former Austrian martial arts master hired to train...

Exclusive: It takes a certain kind of confidence to take a finished indie film to market with no presales, but if that completed film is a $24 million Spanish-language musical directed by a French auteur about a Mexican cartel leader that transitions from male to female, you’d better hope your sales agent has a backbone of steel and the experience to deliver.

Enter The Veterans co-founders Vincent Maraval and Kim Fox, who both arrived at this year’s Cannes Film Festival tasked with selling Emilia Pérez, the genre-defying musical from festival darling Jacques Audiard, which was competing for the Palme d’Or with just one key territory sale to France (Pathé) on the balance sheet.

“We knew it would be difficult to presell quickly because there were so many obstacles,” Maraval tells Deadline of the Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofia Gascón-led project. “Initial feedback from some distributors...

Exclusive: Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste and Luana Bajrami have been unveiled as supporting cast members in Rebecca Zlotowski’s murder mystery movie Vie Privée starring Jodie Foster.

The production has also unveiled the plotline for the film which follows renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner, played by previously-announced Foster, who mounts her own private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.

The supporting cast news and plot reveal comes as filming – running from September 30 to November 22 between Paris and Normandy – enters its third week.

The feature is Zlotowski’s sixth film after 2023 Venice Golden Lion contender Other People’s Children, An Easy Girl, Planetarium, Grand Central and Dear Prudence.

Zlotowski co-wrote the screenplay with Anne Berest, whose credits include Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening and Other People’s Children, as well as long-time collaborator Gaëlle Macé.

The film...

She’s coming off a career-best with Other People’s Children (2022 Venice Film Festival selection) and recently was one of the scribes on Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, Rebecca Zlotowski is confirmed to be in production on her sixth feature – one that might be about couplehood and might be (as we reported a while back) an erotic thriller. After Cineuropa mentioned that veteran actor (and director) Daniel Auteuil was to topline the project, we now have the confirmation that Jodie Foster will indeed star in Vie Privée (formerly titled Nous étions deux). Production began this month on a screenplay co-written by Zlotowski, Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé.…...

South Korean writer Han Kang, whose international breakthrough novel The Vegetarian was made into a film, has won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2024.

The Swedish Academy unveiled the honoree Thursday, lauding “her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

Han’s 2007 novel The Vegetarian, her first novel to be translated into English, won the International Booker Prize in 2015. The story of Yeong-hye, a part-time graphic artist and homemaker, whose decision to stop eating meat leads to mental health struggles and problems in her familial life, was adapted as a feature film by Woo-Seong Lim and screened at Sundance in 2010.

The honor is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in 1895. The others are prizes in chemistry, physics and medicine, as well as the Nobel Peace Prize.

Han Kang is the first South Korean to win the literature Nobel.

While Europe has always lured Hollywood filmmakers, there are more opportunities today for transatlantic collaborations due to a number of factors, according to leading European industry reps taking part in the Zurich Summit on Saturday.

Outlining the many advantages and unique opportunities Europe offers at the Zurich Film Festival’s industry forum were Goodfellas’ Vincent Maraval, Mediawan Pictures CEO Elisabeth d’Arvieu, Constantin exec Martin Bachmann, Fremantle’s Christian Vesper and Karl Spoerri of Zurich Avenue.

While collaborations have always existed between the European industry and American filmmakers who wanted to do different kinds of films, the current situation has created more opportunities, Maraval said.

U.S. studios are becoming “more and more conservative,” he pointed out, adding that for creators today who feel frustrated or are looking for more freedom and more creativity, it’s easier to travel and work elsewhere.

It’s also becoming increasingly expensive to shoot Stateside,...

How many indie movies make money? was one of the questions posed to top European film financiers and producers today at the Zurich Summit, which takes place during the Zurich Film Festival.

Vincent Maraval, President Goodfellas / The Veterans; Christian Vesper, CEO of Global Drama and Film Fremantle; Elisabeth d’Arvieu, CEO Mediawan Pictures; Karl Spoerri, Co-Founder & Managing Director Zurich Avenue Ag; and Constantin board member Martin Bachmann, all took part in the session.

Film sales vet Maraval, who has recently handled high profile movies such as Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez starrer Emilia Perez and Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, responded: “I can only speak to what I know about our films. It’s different between independent American film and independent international film, but in terms of independent local [to Europe] film, I would say that probably 60 to 70% make money, or at least recoup and don’t lose money, because they are in...

Hello Insiders. Jesse Whittock here to take you through a week in international TV and film that comes from as far and wide apart as Spain and Indonesia. Read on.

San Sebastian Spotlight

Johnny Depp at the San Sebastian Film Festival

In-Depp analysis: Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival closes tomorrow, ending what many people on the ground described as one of the event’s strongest lineups in recent years. The festival opened with a bang with Audrey Diwan’s erotic remake Emmanuelle, but that film received mediocre reviews in Spain. Deadline’s Stephanie Bunbury was a little more generous, and described the flick as a “brave attempt.” There was a lot more love for the other big world premiere in San Sebastian — Johnny Depp’s second directorial effort, Modi — Three Days On The Wing Of Madness. The period flick debuted out of competition here in San Sebastian, where Depp...

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) unveiled its program for 2024, featuring a diverse selection of films and starting a new initiative to promote women in cinema. Running from October 28 to November 6, the festival continues to grow as a major event in Asian film.

A key part of this year’s festival is the Main Competition, with 15 films vying for top awards. World premieres in the competition include “Big World” from Chinese director Yang Lina, Philip Yung’s “Papa” out of Hong Kong, and “The Englishman’s Papers” by Portuguese filmmaker Sergio Graciano. A jury led by renowned Hong Kong actor Tony Leung will judge the films.

Another important element is the new Women’s Empowerment Section, created with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Programmer Andrijana Cvetkovikj curated nine movies that highlight female directors or stories. One selection is “My Favourite Cake” by banned Iranian directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who...

Noémie Merlant found she had a lot in common with her character in Emmanuelle.

Her involvement in Audrey Diwan‘s new film, in the titular role, was so influential that she says it helped her re-examine her own relationship with female pleasure. “Like Emmanuelle, I was completely disconnected with my body,” the French actress tells The Hollywood Reporter.

With its world premiere opening the San Sebastian Film Festival Friday night, Emmanuelle has received buzz for its graphic content. Diwan’s movie, starring Naomi Watts (Mullholland Drive, Birdman), Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) and Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), is inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan’s erotic novel — and this eroticism certainly helms the project.

Emmanuelle focuses on a woman 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,...

Partway through “Emmanuelle,” the French filmmaker Audrey Diwan’s third feature, a sleazy producer strikes up a conversation with the title character in a hotel spa. “Only two types of guests frequent luxury hotels,” he purrs to Emmanuelle, “those on the prowl and those on the run.”

The fact that Emmanuelle (a simmering Noémie Merlant) is of the former type is one of the foundational principles of this sporadically sexy, frequently aloof, and occasionally ridiculous movie, which marks something of a departure for Diwan. Like her excellent character study “Happening” — about a woman seeking an abortion in midcentury France — “Emmanuelle” is again a literary adaptation, although that’s about where the similarities end. The new film is based on Emmanuelle Arsan’s 1967 novel, which in 1974 spawned a very different adaptation: a soft-core porn phenomenon of the same name.

In readapting the book, Diwan — who was approached to make the movie...

The 1974 romantic drama Emmanuelle caused quite a stir upon its release. Based on an erotic novel, the film featured explicit love scenes that were virtually unprecedented for mainstream cinema at the time. Starring a young Sylvia Kristel, Emmanuelle told the sexually liberated story of a woman discovering intimacy in Thailand alongside her husband. It proved a massive box office hit and cultural talking point, ostensibly helping to normalize depiction of female sexuality on screen.

Fast forward several decades, and French filmmaker Audrey Diwan took on reviving the property. Fresh off her acclaimed drama Happening about the 1960s abortion battle, Diwan set out to bring Emmanuelle into the modern era. This new version casts Noémie Merlant as the title character, now recast as a quality inspector for luxury hotels. Her latest assignment brings her to Hong Kong, where she finds herself drawn to both women and men.

With its stylish visuals...

Audrey Diwan: «El movimiento Me Too nos ha permitido encontrar nuestro propio espacio» © Ssiff

La 72 edición del Festival Internacional de Cine de San Sebastián abrió ayer sus puertas con la proyección de la película Emmanuelle, dirigida por la cineasta francesa Audrey Diwan. Basada en la novela homónima de Marayat Rollet-Andriane, más conocida por el sudónimo de Emmanuelle Arsan, la película regresa casi cinco décadas después de su icónica adaptación de 1974, la cual estuvo prohibida en España bajo el régimen franquista (y también en muchos otros países). Ahora, en un contexto muy diferente, esta nueva versión a manos de Diwan se presenta como la película inaugural de la Sección Oficial en Donostia, y lo hace con la promesa de generar debate.

El equipo de la película desfiló ayer por la alfombra roja de San Sebastián para acompañar su estreno. Entre ellos, la directora Audrey Diwan, cuyo último largometraje, El acontecimiento,...

A snigger-trigger from the moment its first trailer dropped, erotic drama Emmanuelle is more or less the embarrassing exercise in pointless revisionist filmmaking most were expecting it to be. It’s a work that’s all too easy to write off as another example of that very 21st century phenomenon, the relaunch of a campy mid-20th century brand but with more pretension, moodier lighting and an entirely fatal absence of humor.

In this case, the original property was a book turned softcore porn film (the tome by Emmanuelle Arsan, the picture directed by Just Jaeckin and starring Sylvia Kristel), which became a massive crossover hit in 1974, racked up mountains of receipts at mainstream theaters, contributed for good or ill to the discourse around the so-called “sexual revolution” of the time and taught millions how to convert regular jeans into cutoff shorts.

Director Audrey Diwan’s follow-up to her rightly acclaimed,...

On paper, a contemporary feminist spin on “Emmanuelle” sounds like a zesty idea. An ostensible portrait of liberated female sexuality firmly ossified in patriarchal politics, Just Jaeckin’s 1974 softcore smash is the kind of cultural touchstone so emblematic of its era that the very act of remaking it qualifies as a symbolic statement of sorts. In practice, however, “Emmanuelle” is a text so flimsy that reworking it is a bit like trying to defibrillate a blancmange: There’s no pulse of an idea there to activate, much less subvert. Saying something freshly substantive about female desire while honoring the film’s defining spirit of vapid, diaphanous horniness is a tricky, potentially unworkable brief; Audrey Diwan’s inert, frequently frigid new film opts to do neither.

Opening this year’s San Sebastian festival on a tepid note, “Emmanuelle” can only be regarded as a disappointment from Diwan, the writer-director who landed...

It’s a surprise to find out that director Audrey Diwan had never seen the original Emmanuelle — a gauzy soft-porn feature that got la toute France hot and bothered when it was allowed to be shown in normal cinemas in 1974 — before she was approached to do this remake, which opens the San Sebastian Film Festival in Competition. In its day, Emmanuelle spawned a string of sequels, each reputedly worse than its predecessors, while star Sylvia Kristel became so immediately famous for taking off her clothes that the expectation blighted her entire career. It also made a huge amount of money.

But what’s most surprising about the fact that Diwan — who made The Happening, which won the Golden Lion in Venice three years ago — had not seen Just Jaeckin’s then-so-scandalous film is that this one seems to be constructed as an answer to it. Both are based on Emmanuelle Arsan’s pseudonymous 1967 novel,...

The 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival is underway after the world premiere of Audrey Diwan’s racy flick Emmanuelle kicked off the festivities in Spain.

The film, which boasts stars such as Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), Naomi Watts (Mullholland Drive, Birdman), Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) and Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), is inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan’s erotic novel. Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong round out the cast, all of whom, barring Watts, appeared briefly onstage 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...

Spanish national treasure Javier Bardem became emotional Friday night as he gushed over his wife, Penélope Cruz, while accepting his Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 San Sebastian Film Festival.

Bardem, who has had starring roles in Dune: Part Two, No Country for Old Men — which bagged him an Academy Award — and Skyfall, among myriad celebrated Spanish projects like Huevos de Oro and El detective y la muerte, accepted the award from his siblings, Monica and Carlos Bardem, who paid tribute to their brother at the Kursaal Theater during the opening night gala.

Bardem referenced his Silver Shell win for best actor 30 years ago, nearly to the day, in 1994. “It was the beginning of a great friendship with this beautiful film festival that has given so much to me personally and professionally,” the actor said.

“San Sebastian is a place where 30 years ago I won an award that I still...

French director Audrey Diwan is opening the San Sebastian Film Festival this evening with third feature Emmanuelle, in the company of its star Noémie Merlant and supporting cast members Will Sharpe, Chacha Huang and Jamie Campbell Bower.

Diwan, who won Venice’s Golden Lion for abortion drama Happening in 2021, has taken inspiration for her first English-language picture from Emmanuelle Arsan’s erotic novel, originally published clandestinely in France in 1959 and then officially in 1967.

The work sparked a franchise of erotic, soft porn films, kicking off with Just Jaeckin’s 1974 cult movie, starring Sylvia Kristel as a woman who joins her diplomat husband in Bangkok where she embarks on a series of sexual adventures.

In Diwan’s contemporary adaptation, Merlant plays hotel quality control agent Emmanuelle, who is sent to audit a luxury hotel in Hong Kong, where she comes up against a steely hotel manager, played by Naomi Watts.

Bored...

Mubi horror The Substance leads the new releases at this weekend’s UK and Ireland box office, opening in 521 locations.

It is Mubi’s widest-ever release, beating out Priscilla which opened in 295 cinemas in January and the 150 locations How To Have Sex debuted in last year.

The Substance stars Demi Moore as a fading star who takes a mysterious drug that enables her to live as a younger version of herself, played by Margaret Qualley. Coralie Fargeat wrote and directed the feature which also stars Dennis Quaid.

The film had its world premiere at Cannes in competition, where it won...

José Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastian Film Festival, has just over a week until opening night when he sits down for an interview with Deadline, and he is still plagued by one niggling organizational issue.

“It’s always so difficult to close the jury,” Rebordinos explains as he rushes out of the room to take a call about his potential jury head.

When he returns, he explains: “A few weeks ago I was speaking with Thierry Fremaux. He said even for him it’s always a problem because jury members have to be at your festival for 10 days, you don’t pay, and it’s complicated because people are often working and when they aren’t, they want to spend time with their families and friends.”

A few days later, the competition jury is finally confirmed, with Spanish filmmaker Jaione Camborda leading alongside Leila Guerriero, Fran Kranz, Christos Nikou,...

Opening up this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, Audrey Diwan’s “Emmanuelle” marks an unexpected follow-up to her Golden Lion winner “Happening” – at least on paper, anyway.

If anything, the filmmaker followed a similar line, using a literary adaptation to emphasize sensorial experience, in this case the evasive quest for physical pleasure. “The project was one of renewal,” Diwan tells Variety. “Reviving sensations then sharing them with the audience.”

Updating the 1967 novel from Emmanuelle Arsan, the latest version imagines a thirtysomething Emmanuelle (Noemie Merlant) as a kind of leisure quality control inspector, sent to stress test a Hong Kong luxury hotel run by Naomi Watts and haunted by a mysterious guest played by Will Sharpe.

And though centered on pleasure, the film often sees those needs unmet, focusing as much on frustration as on elation. “Pleasure, and the pursuit thereof, should remain a mystery,” says Diwan. “So I meant...

In terms of stars — Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton, Pamela Anderson — and auteur power — Pedro Almodóvar, Sean Baker, Costa Gavras, Edward Berger, Mike Leigh, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Joshua Oppenheimer, François Ozon, Lupita Nyong’o, Mohammad Rasoulof, Walter Salles, Maite Alberdi — this year’s San Sebastián Festival promises one of its biggest editions ever.

Yet it’s the Spanish festival’s wealth of new talent and rising names in its industry competitions sets it apart. Here are 10 things to expect from the fest, which runs Sept. 20-28 at the stunning Basque seaside resort:

Blanchett, Almodóvar, Bardem, Depp, Swinton, Anderson

Blanchett, Almodóvar and Bardem will collect career achievement Donostia Awards, with Blanchett talking up Guy Maddin’s Cannes hit “Rumours,” set for U.S. theatrical release via Bleecker Street on Oct. 18; Almodóvar and Swinton will present Venice success “The Room Next Door.” Depp will unveil “Modi,” his second film as a...

Pablo Larrain’s Maria starring Angelina Jolie and Heretic featuring Hugh Grant as a villain will round out AFI Fest’s Red Carpet Premieres section at the Los Angeles festival.

Horror-thriller Heretic from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods premiered in Toronto and will receive its gala screening on October 24, while Maria Callas drama Maria, which premiered in Venice, will screen on October 26.

The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2.

The festival also announced on Thursday that Venice Golden...

If the race for Best International Feature Film feels rushed this year, it is: the Academy pushed up country submission deadlines by a month. Films still have until November 15 to play in theaters in their respective countries. The Academy has also laid down more rigorous rules for who serves on the Oscar selection committees: 50 percent must be filmmakers (including artists and craftspeople). France, for example, beefed up its committee from seven members to 11.

As a country with a robust film industry, France has often been criticized for picking the “wrong” Oscar submission, from Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Titane” (Neon), which was not nominated, to “The Taste of Things” (IFC Films) over Neon’s eventual Best Picture contender, “Anatomy of a Fall.”

In fact, Audrey Diwan, director of “Happening” — a film many thought should have been submitted instead of “Titane” — is now on the French selection committee, along with veteran...

Things are looking up for “Emilia Pérez.” France has chosen the upcoming Netflix release as its submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. Acquired by the streaming service out of Cannes, the film won both the Jury Prize and Best Actress prize for its female ensemble at the 2024 edition of the annual international film festival along the French Riviera.

The operatic crime drama about a fearsome Mexican drug cartel leader that enlists a plucky lawyer to help coordinate their gender reassignment surgery is written and directed by French auteur Jacques Audiard, whose 2009 film “A Prophet” was one of the last of France’s submissions to receive a Best International Feature nomination.

The film was chosen by revamped Oscar committee featuring 11 French professionals on both the artistic and industry side of filmmaking, including recent Oscar-nominated producers Nadim Cheikhroua (“Four Daughters”) and David Thion (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Oscar-winning filmmaker Florian Zeller,...

France has picked Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical Emilia Perez to represent the country in the best international feature category at the 2025 Academy Awards as it attempts to sing its way to a victory in the category for the first time in more than 30 years.

The primarily Spanish-language song-filled film is about cartel leader Emilia, who enlists an unappreciated lawyer to help fake her death so Emilia can live authentically as her true self.

It won both the Cannes Jury prize for director Audiard and a shared best actress award for its female cast Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana...

France has selected Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez to represent it in the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

The drama stars Karla Sofía Gascón as cartel leader Emilia who enlists the help of unappreciated lawyer Rita (Saldana) to help her fake her death so she can live authentically as her true self.

It premiered at Cannes, where it earned its four actresses – Gascón, Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz – a collective Best Actress award, and also clinched the jury prize.

The film was selected from a short list of four films which also included swashbuckler The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte; French-produced Indian drama All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia and Misericordia by Alain Guiraudie.

This year’s revamped selection committee featured sales agent Carole Baraton, producer Nadim Cheikhroua (Four Daughters), Venice Golden Lion...