Deadline talked to Diwan ahead of tonights world premiere.
DEADLINE:What inspired you to revisit Emmanuelle.
AUDREY DIWAN: Ive never seen the film.
Audrey Diwan at San Sebastian Film FestivalGetty Images
DEADLINE:Even in preparation for this film?
But there is the book, which is situated in another place.
Its a way of thinking which is terrifying.
But there are also questions which I perceive as being treated differently.
She is the subject of the story, not the object.
DEADLINE:What was it specifically in the book that inspired you to bring it to the big screen?
DIWAN:About a third of the book is a very long conversation about eroticism.
I originally read the book recreationally.
I wasnt thinking about adapting it.
In the 1970s, eroticism was situated between what was shown and what was hidden.
It works because people always want to see more.
DEADLINE:Its a complex exercise.
Eroticism has been dominated by certain codes of seduction and domination in literature, cinema for centuries, decades.
How did you set about exploring this today?
DIWAN:I wanted to involve my inner self in the film.
Were talking about depicting something that cannot be seen.
Everything is done inside.
The complexity of this desire and the path it takes are things that cannot be seen.
I wanted us to be in this hotel, a bit like in a mental space.
eroticism, sexual fantasies can be something very private.
How easy was it for you to explore this openly in this way for the film?
I told myself I would remake a film the day when fear and pleasure meet.
For me, its a good balance for getting down to creating.
I had people around me saying, Are you really going to make this?
I am actually very modest.
I found the process beautiful, even it was terrifying.
DEADLINE:Did having director and screenwriter Rebecca Zlotowski as a co-writer help?
DIWAN:She was mainly there at the beginning of the work.
She helped me set the foundations stones and the pilers of the project.
She also has great freedom and takes pleasure in talking about the body.
I understood that from her filmAn Easy Girl[about a hedonistic teenage girl].
I felt she would help me open these doors.
She supported me in this quest and maybe even lent me some words.
It was really important to have started this adventure with her.
DEADLINE:Noemie Merlants performance as Emmanuelle is a tour de force.
This power and consciousness allow her to determine where she wants to take it.
Noemie is someone who goes really far in her work.
DEADLINE:How did you set up the erotic scenes?
DIWAN.Eroticism interested me as a subject but not in the moments where there are naked bodies.
That doesnt interest me at all.
What interests me is the atmosphere,the way in which people look at one another.
How they venture to control themselves and then, gradually, looks can become tinged with desires and interests.
I think a storm can be erotic, words can be erotic.
Noemie and I shared that idea and we worked on it throughout the film.
We ended up with three times twelve minutes.
Noemie was searching and Laurent was following her, and I told myself that how its going to be.
DEADLINE:Do you think the fact that Noemie is also a director in her own right helped?
Will Sharpe is also a director.
I was surrounded by actors who helped me push the frame.
It really helped me that these two actors were also directors.
The setting was the symptom of this problem.
Emmanuelle does not come from this background.
Shes always been told it is the Holy Grail to get there.
