For what it could be, it was very modest at the 72 San Sebastian Festival. San Sebastian Film Festival, Emmanuelle. It has been a symbol of eroticism in the filmography of the last century, and this remake had its expectations because we were told that it was going to have “tweaks of feminism”… But the appearance of naked bodies on the screen, at present, is not very well founded. How things are. It's pretty objective to say that. As there are fewer and fewer popular bars left in this city.

Proof of this are the few applause he has received after the morning press conference, which will take place at night in the inaugural event, after two Catalan humorists and monologues in beautiful Spanish. Therefore, the film cannot be advanced far beyond the synopsis and the two details: Emmanuell travels to Hong Kong, a luxurious hotel where he works as a quality meter for this hotel chain and where he establishes a strange relationship with a person.

The film is about desire, lack of desire and some ghosts of the past that are not reflected in any way. Desire and pleasure, fear, dread... They hide behind the looks. There is also an effort to make sex workers visible, but by the time it was possible to work this aspect is not too interesting.

At some point, the truth is that both the story and the way of counting can generate intrigue, because the environment is so yellowish, in a luxury hotel and in an environment created with looks of erotic tension. But, from the sequences, many visions are lost in diffuse smoke; the French director, Audrey Diwan, has extended too much the threads that have not been deepened and that are not transcendent. The director won the award of the Golden Lion of Venice in 2021 with L’Évenement, but it would also be surprising that in Emmanuelle the road approached the level of the other.

Emmanuelle has been the world premiere. The film will reach cinemas from 27 September this year. Those who like a little eroticism, the film may like it, some may not, because more than one has had a hard time putting themselves in the armchair.