Sebastian Kicks Off Star-Studded Showcase with World Premiere of Erotic Feature ‘Emmanuelle’
Audrey Diwan’s risqué English-language feature, starring Noémie Merlant, Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe and Jamie Campbell Bower, premiered Friday night at the Spanish film festival.
The 72nd San Sebastian Film Fest opened with the world premiere of Audrey Diwan’s erotic feature Emmanuelle.
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 onstage before the showing at the city’s Kursaal Theater.
The movie centers on 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 Emmanuelle with Rebecca Zlotowski, won Venice’s prestigious Golden Lion in 2021 for her film Happening.
It marks one of the festival’s glitziest lineups, with honors for Cate Blanchett, Javer Bardem, and Almodóvar.
Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, The Room Next Door, premiered to a 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.
Emmanuelle will get its theatrical release in France on September 25 by Pathé.
