‘Emmanuelle’ Review: Notionally Revisionist Remake of the Softcore Classic Is One Big Anti-Climax

As a longtime connoisseur of cinematic explorations into the realms of female desire and liberation, I found myself both intrigued and disheartened by Audrey Diwan’s latest offering, “Emmanuelle.” Having admired her previous work, such as the powerful and poignant “Happening,” I was eager to see how she would tackle this seemingly provocative subject matter.

In essence, reimagining “Emmanuelle” from a modern feminist perspective might seem like an invigorating concept on paper. However, delving into the original 1974 softcore hit directed by Just Jaeckin reveals a story so shallow that attempting a remake feels somewhat comparable to trying to revive a wobbly dessert like blancmange – it lacks any discernible life or ideas to bring back. Creating a meaningful and substantial commentary on female desire while preserving the film’s characteristic frivolous, ethereal sensuality is a delicate task that might be difficult or even impossible to pull off successfully. Unfortunately, Audrey Diwan’s new adaptation leans towards neither the fresh nor the faithful.

Kicking off this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival with a rather lackluster start, the film “Emmanuelle” fails to live up to the high expectations set by Diwan, the writer-director who won a Golden Lion at Venice three years ago for her moving and thought-provoking reproductive rights drama, “Happening.” Given that it seems an unusual sequel on an emotional level, one can still find some underlying themes connecting these two films that revolve around a woman’s control over her own body. However, “Emmanuelle” offers very little compelling insight or intrigue about its central character and barely touches upon broader ideas of sexuality and femininity. Moreover, its erotic scenes are too tame to captivate art-house audiences seeking something more daring. Primarily a piece of lifestyle cinema, filled with luxurious dark wood and plush textures, it’s as visually appealing and generic as an Architectural Digest video, destined for a commercial limbo between genres.

In this contemporary adaptation, Diwan and Zlotowski replace Emmanuelle’s husband with a career, making her a quality control surveyor for a luxury hotel chain. This allows her to work minimally in a comfortable setting where a premium bed is always nearby. As expected, the change from the original includes a reduction of explicit sexual content. The new, self-reliant Emmanuelle, portrayed by Noémie Merlant with a distant gaze and stylish, revealing designer attire, engages in few intimate moments, interspersed with periods of discontent as she patrols the corridors upholding the highest six-star standards.

Instead of excessive screen intimacy, we’re presented with vast stretches of void, mirroring the conventional approach in pornography that emphasizes minimal plot and shallow character development, without any underlying humor or satire. The narrative is sparse, offering little background or future events. Emmanuelle debuts in the softly muted surroundings of a luxury airplane journey to Hong Kong. In keeping with the original, she exchanges meaningful glances with a sharply dressed man, ventures into the restroom, and engages in an unspoken, serious, and artfully obscured act. Upon leaving, she receives a discerning look from another passenger, Kei (Will Sharpe), a calculating engineer who later identifies himself as a frequent international traveler, or FIT.

If you find this acronym intriguing, Diwan seems to share your interest. However, Kei and Emmanuelle, both staying at the luxurious Rosefield Palace Hotel, find themselves in a prolonged dance of attraction that isn’t consummated easily. While Kei appears uninterested, Emmanuelle seeks distractions – a threesome with other hotel guests, intimate moments with local escort Zelda (Chacha Huang), including some steamy Emily Brontë dialogues, and delving into corporate matters concerning hotel manager Margot’s (Naomi Watts) performance review. Yet, the corporate drama feels rather bland compared to the romantic tension between the two. This power struggle between the women never escalates to significant dramatic conflict.

Viewers might not anticipate drama in a “Emmanuelle” remake, but when basic sensuality is absent, it’s refreshing to see something different like the inclusion of an extended sequence about a sudden tropical storm affecting the hotel. This not only provides a change from the usual tranquil settings, but also offers cinematographer Laurent Tangy an opportunity to showcase more than just soft ambient lighting and immaculate bedsheets. For the most part, the scenes remain undisturbed, but it’s nice to see something other than constant calm.

The movie might be intentionally restrained in its sexual content, portraying modern Emmanuelle as a self-assured and selective woman. However, this intent gets muddled in the third act, where it seems to veer towards an outdated focus on sexual climax (with rather awkward advice like “lick upwards”). Furthermore, there’s a surprising lack of a female perspective in the sexually suggestive scenes, which are typically hazy and dreamlike. Interestingly, the male body is rarely shown throughout the film.

Diwan and Zlotowski, both skilled writers in French, struggle with dialogues primarily in English that lack authenticity, either sounding unrealistic for human conversation or overly reminiscent of poorly written softcore scripts. Merlant, contrastingly coming from the deeply emotional and sensory world of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” fails to inject a necessary campy charm into lines like, “I caught a whiff of his scent – it was peppery.” In this film, none of the actors seem to grasp how to perform material that is both mundane and stubbornly resistant to humor, often delivering performances with a similar detached chill. The one thing that truly stands out in “Emmanuelle” is the modern air conditioning system at Rosefield Palace, which feels more palpable than any actor’s performance – a 21st-century adult film where no one ever seems to sweat.

2024-09-21 16:46

‘Emmanuelle’ Review: Notionally Revisionist Remake of the Softcore Classic Is One Big Anti-Climax

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