French actress Léa Seydoux will play the title role in the erotic film Emmanuelle that her compatriot Audrey Diwan, last year’s Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival, will direct for her psychological drama The event.
The project was presented at the Cannes Film Festival film market, held for 75at years from Tuesday. Two films starring Léa Seydoux will also be shown at the world premiere: Future crimesby David Cronenberg, and A good morningby Mia Hansen-Love.
Based on Emmanuelle Arsan’s eponymous novel published in 1967 – but of which a secret edition began to spread from 1959 – the screenplay was written by Audrey Diwan and French filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski (Grand Central, An easy woman).
Success in cinemas and in bookstores
A true socio-cultural phenomenon at the time, the novel resulted in approximately thirty film and television adaptations, made in France and Italy from 1969 to 1993.
Emmanuelle Arsan for her part has published a dozen other novels featuring her famous character, a young married woman who explicitly recounts her sexual adventures and fantasies.
This is Audrey Diwan’s first film shot in English, and second adaptation based on a novel. The eventinspired by Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical story, tells the story of a student who became pregnant in France in the 1960s, before the legalization of abortion.
Source: Radio-Canada
