Léa Seydoux Set For Audrey Diwan’s English-Language Directorial Debut ‘Emmanuelle’ – Cannes

Palme d’Or winning actress Léa Seydoux will star in Happening filmmaker Audrey Diwan’s English-language directorial debut, Emmanuelle, inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel and based on a script co-developed by Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski.

Richard Giannoro

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The Arsan book follows a young woman’s sexual journey from the arms of her husband to intimate encounters with the wives of his business associates, to further explorations wherein the philosophical and aesthetic facets of eroticism are expounded—and enacted—to the fullest degree.

Diwan’s second feature, Happening, adapted from Annie Ernaux’s book recounting her illegal abortion in the 1960s, received the Golden Lion at the 2021 Venice Film Festival; four César Award nominations, including a win for Most Promising Newcomer for Anamaria Vartolomei; and a BAFTA Award nomination; among other honors. The pic features a cast of stellar emerging French acting talent including Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet-Klein and Luana Bajrami.

Diwan’s feature directorial debut, Losing It, was released in 2019 and starred Pio Marmaï and Céline Sallette.

Zlotowski’s credits include the award-winning Belle Epine (Dear Prudence), Grand Central, and The Summoning. In 2019, she directed her first mini-series, Savages, for Canal Plus, co-written and adapted from a novel by Sabri Louatah. Her fourth film, An Easy Girl, premiered in Directors’ Fortnight in 2018 and won the SACD Prize. She is currently in post-production on Other People’s Children.

Seydoux returns to Cannes this year with two films premiering at the festival: David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future and One Fine Morning from Mia Hansen-Love. Her recent credits include the $774M-plus grossing success, No Time to Die, and Wes Anderson’s French Dispatch. Seydoux won Best Actress at Cannes for Blue Is the Warmest Color in 2013. Other feature credits include Anderon’s Oscar winning The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster and the 007 movie Spectre.

Diwan is represented by CAA and Adéquat; Zlotowski is represented by CAA and Seydoux is represented by Adéquat and UTA.

Adaptation rights for Arsan’s book were acquired by Chantelouve (Marion Delord and Reginald de Guillebon), who are producers on the project.

Wild Bunch International and CAA Media Finance will introduce the project to buyers this Wednesday, May 18th, in Cannes at an exclusive presentation featuring Diwan.

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