Audrey Dewan. “I asked myself, can I share the pleasure, tell the story of the female orgasm?”

In 1974 Emmanuel brings the smell of scandal to cinemas. the film with its gorgeous eroticism, led by Sylvia Christel, becomes a real phenomenon. Nine million spectators in France, 45 around the world, ten years of programming in one of the capital’s theaters. But in fifty years, the codes of sexuality have changed, the struggle for gender equality has begun to bear fruit, and screen representations have evolved. In the wake of the greats (Chantal Akerman, Jane Campion, Agnes Varda, etc.), a new generation of directors offers different perspectives, different questions.

Among them is Audrey Divan, who has become one of the prominent voices of French cinema in just two films. In But you’re crazyhe filmed the suffering of a couple faced with lies and addiction. In The eventadapted from Annie Erno and the Golden Lion of Venice, she defended a student trapped in pregnancy, thus bearing the voice of a free and resilient woman who fought against normative acts. Emmanuel, another fierce icon of another time, had everything to tempt him. Written by her and her co-author Rebecca Zlotovsky, the famous femme fatale no longer has desire or orgasm.

Captive of automatic and manufactured sexuality, she sets out to reclaim her pleasure, her body, her desires, when she meets a phantom man, an alter ego, who escapes her. Formerly an object, she becomes a subject in the form of Noemi Merlant. from Portrait of a burning girl By Celine Siamma, Olympic GamesBy Jacques Audiard, the actress’ cinematography and feminist sensibilities have dubbed her the new Emmanuelle.

“When I met Noemi, she immediately identified the key to the film: the consumption of desire and its challenge: the recapture of pleasure. Human intelligence, grace, absolute proof,” recalls Audrey Divan. For a recent Caesarized scenario Love and forests By Valerie Donzelli, Marital Hell of a Woman Under the Influence, and co-author of L“Love fu!”Gilles Lelouch — a romance between a thug and a woman who shakes his confidence (released October 16) — the director paints film after film, a plural portrait of today’s women. “Women’s stories have been invisible for a long time. There is still much to find out, to explore. It is an inexhaustible source. I have always known it. my personal and artistic search is in this place.

Madame Figaro. – Why do you accept the character of Emmanuel?
Audrey Dewan. – When the producer handed me the book, I read it for leisure. It was written in 1959, and many of the images are complex today: sexuality, women, colonialism. However, one thing surprised me: it is written in the first person, and the subject of the story is a woman. For relatively modern times. As for the film, I have never seen it in its entirety, I had the impression that it was not aimed at me. Moreover, many viewers remember the film less than the image of Emmanuel in his rattan Peacock chair. Above all, they have in mind a mental projection that caused this character to travel through time. A figure that I found interesting to revisit in the light of time, cleaning up the past.

Is it eroticism that you are questioning?
Absolutely. And eroticism is more tempting for the director, because it implies a relationship with the frame, an exercise in cinema. there has to be a tension between what we show and what we hide so that the audience wants to imagine what they can’t see. . I wanted to look for sensations and emotions elsewhere than in provocations. Fifty years have passed between the original film and today, and transgression has changed. In fact, it wasn’t the images but the words that made me want to make the film, an almost philosophical discussion between Emanuel and an older man about the erotica in the book. There was a connection to taste and aesthetics in their exchange that appealed to me. Pornography goes hand in hand with something gross and the body is often degraded in the image. I wanted to put the idea of ​​beauty back in the center, and it only made sense with the announcement.

Which revolves around lack of desire?
Our society is very demanding: you have to enjoy, enjoy, be seen… Me with this character, who feels neither pleasure nor desire, but asks the question: what does it mean to be a woman in this society? A man? How to fight executive orders? How do we treat pleasure when image and overcommunication have taken over? I started with something controlled, very radical, where the other person’s view of himself is almost a prison everywhere, and I gradually took the character to accept his own vulnerability and what we feel when we directly refuse orders. I imagined Emmanuel on a journey at the end of which he would open the window to finally breathe and let go.

And how do we convey pleasure and desire on the screen?
That was the whole point of the movie. withevent, I had worked hard on the transfer of sensations, but at the point of pain. I wondered if I would also know how to share pleasure, tell about the female orgasm, what it causes… Less studied questions that may be of interest to men and women. Finally, I think that eroticism is worked on like any cinematographic material. through words, silences, looks, oddities, it should invasively contaminate the atmosphere of the film. I didn’t want to limit the exercise to a few body sequences.

How did you work with Noemi Merlant?
Like what I experienced with Annamaria Bartolomei The eventNoemi is the pillar of the film. We did a lot of work on the body, which was initially very rigid, like a shell. For a long time, the female body was an object of desire offered to the audience. I wanted to reverse the process so that Noemi could focus on her own sensations. If I had to define them a bit radically, this is what makes the difference male veil from women’s veil In the first case, the woman exists for the other, for the man. in the second he is at the center, he is the subject.

Did you use an intimacy coordinator for the sex scenes?
Many people take the exercise in its most positive, liberating dimension even to understand in advance what the times are telling us. I needed to identify the scenes to better understand them and create a pleasant working atmosphere for everyone. There are certainly actors in this equation, but the technical team can also feel modest. The need to watch is sometimes annoying. On the set, the actors regularly came in a combi. everyone knew what we saw and what we didn’t see on the screen, and then they could feel free to play with this framework. But the essential thing that allows us to experience these sequences as others, to alleviate the shame, is the dramaturgy, the meaning we decide to give the images and construct together. But I will never lock my actors into a scene that is gesturally accurate. There should be a space of freedom in play, but this freedom is built through respect and listening.

In all three of your films, your female characters live in apnea, seeking escape…
Stronger than me, almost obsessive. I imagine that my position in society made me feel things of this nature, the command to perform, the difficulty of breathing. This definitely encouraged me to want to push walls, think big, explore. During projects, I discover recurring motifs in my work… Maybe one day get rid of them? I’ve come my way surrounded by strong, highly inspiring female characters, and today I have a distinct taste for characters who nurture a form of defiance, resistance, rebellion, and resilience. This is probably not a coincidence.

The main thing that allows us to experience these intimate sequences like others, to alleviate shame, is the dramaturgy, the meaning we decide to give the images and construct together.

Audrey Dewan

Could your Emanuel exist before MeToo?
As it is, I don’t know. Offer a non-standard story, reverse its narrative principleEmmanuel, The idea of ​​a woman who no longer has pleasure and is searching for herself was still an issue for some when we were looking for funding. After that, a new war was to begin The event.

However, French cinema is more open than before.
I have no doubt about it, and I myself have received a lot of support from my producers. We have to be vigilant, there are no achievements, and cinema is still subject to its funding system, but we are making strides, new voices are emerging, guided by transgenerational encouragement.

There are many films that put femininity at the center. Can we fear mercantile opportunism?
I can get a little tired of the movie-themed stuff myself, but I love that new perspectives emerge through honest fiction. It is the emotional, the sensual that should prevail. It was also a point of heightened vigilance Emmanuel. I don’t like the idea that the feminine is written only through the theme, to the detriment of the story, the world, the journey, the atmosphere… Likewise, the western, which will satisfy the masculine theory. without fleshing it out, without trying to get us on board, I wouldn’t care.

I imagined Emmanuel on a journey at the end of which he would open the window to finally breathe and let go.

Audrey Dewan

Judith Godrech recently called out the film industry on violence against women and children. Do you think he was finally heard?
We are in shock and would like answers immediately. But a deep revolution in thinking takes time. I would like equality and respect to be permanent so that this hearing is established as a fundamental principle. Let this not become a hot topic. And there are already places where this is happening. The old cinema is no longer the norm. Today there is a positive way to capture images, review them together, work differently. Our cinema is already written differently.

Emmanuel, By Audrey Dewan, with Noemi Merlant, Will Sharp… Released on September 25.