Emanuel: These 5 great films influenced the director

What if Emanuel 2024 had more in common with the mood of love or shame than the 1974 film Emanuel? This is an observation that some people will probably make after seeing the movie.

Director Audrey Divan has made it clear that he in no way wanted to remake Emanuel, but to take inspiration freely from the original book by Emanuel Arsani.

What is Audrey Divan’s real influence on this film? We asked him a question.

“I like having references, but I always worry when they are too direct, because I feel like they are locking me in one place, imprisoning me.“. And added: “There might be four or five films that inspired me, but it’s very different and mostly I use them to create the language I can have with the actors.“

In the mood for love and the cinema of Wong Kar Wai

The main influence of the film, the cozy atmosphere of Wong Kar Wai.”Wong Kar Wai I think we shouldn’t even try to escape because the figure is everywhere.

Obviously, when we shoot in Hong Kong, we know we’re not going to run away from Wong Kar Wai’s tutelage figure and in the mood of love. But for me, this is a very interesting example, because it is often cited in the best erotic films of all time. However, this is a film where the eroticism is based on bodies brushing past each other in corridors.

I had the opportunity to speak with the architect of the hotel and he was inspired‘In the mood of love When he created the hotel. I discovered this when I got there, when we had already chosen to shoot in this environment.

So we’re not going to run away from that figure, and somewhere we don’t want to run away, because there’s a hint of the sublime, the beauty brought to its paroxysm. That they assume so. And all that can happen between bodies without the silence, without the need to strip them because the film is set elsewhere.”

Note that in addition to the sentiment of love, Audrey Dewan cites Wong Kar-wai’s Our Wild Years as inspiration.

under the skin

“We spoke to Noemi Merlantunder the skinWhat is progress? I saw Scarlett Johansson moving forward and she knows she’s being followed. Despite the fact that his back is turned, it is as if he had eyes in his head and knew that the other, irreparably, was following his footsteps.“

Cleo from 5 to 7

“We also talked a lot about Cléo de 5 à 7, Agnes Varda’s film, but really in a different place. In Cleo between 5 and 7 we see a character who makes her own revolution in a short period of time. What does it mean to believe in this revolution? And what makes that moment, as an audience, we believe that this change is not artificial, but that it comes from within, that it comes from the character.”

Mother and whore

“I also depended on my mother and whore. I said to myself, Hey, what if we did a really long scene where you suddenly talk about sex, and then you say exactly how you felt when you had sex with this stranger on the plane. And when you say that, can it be more exciting than the scene we saw?

For me there is some theory of eroticism. It’s about saying to yourself: Hey, we’re going to try to recreate in words what we witnessed in its entirety. And maybe another version of the same scene, the words, will provoke more in us.”

Shame on you

“In the end, the reference was probably the most direct Shame on you. It is the experience of a broken body that no longer has pleasure, but it is a man’s. I thought it was inspiring to go back to Michael Fassbender’s character and also how he’s stuck in a loop and things repeat for him.“

In EmmanuelThe heroine on display since Wednesday is in search of a lost pleasure. He is flying alone to Hong Kong for a business trip. In this sensual city-world, she multiplies her experiences and meets Kay, a man who continues to elude her.

* Comments collected in Paris on September 17, 2024