Audrey Diwan on Emmanuelle, James Baldwin in Istanbul, Andrea Arnold's Bird and Jonathan Becker
Cultural stories on A Rabbit's Foot this week
“Let’s see what is erotic”: Audrey Diwan on creating Emmanuelle
“Let’s see what is erotic”. Now online from issue 9, Audrey Diwan discusses her upcoming remake of Emmanuelle, an erotic roman à clef which achieved notoriety as Just Jaeckin’s 1973 porno-inflected film adaptation. Setting her own version in the vacuumed world of a luxury Hong Kong hotel, Diwan’s Emmanuelle, played by Noémie Merlant, takes the archetype of French culture in an entirely new direction, reinterpreting its themes of eroticism and alienation through a distinctly female gaze. “Turning Emmanuelle into the story of a woman who doesn’t feel pleasure—that was a challenge. There were people who were strongly against this idea,” says Diwan. “I was helped by very good producers, who wanted this new Emmanuelle to exist, but it wasn’t easy. I couldn’t have just made a film about a woman’s sexual journey who wasn’t Emmanuelle. Maybe it’s dangerous but I wanted to play with the name because it meant something to reverse some ideas, to fight against representation.”
Writing distance: James Baldwin in Istanbul
Tired, sick and depressed, James Baldwin first arrived in Istanbul in 1961. A self-imposed exile, fleeing the racism he felt back home in America, there Baldwin found the distance he needed to finish his 1962 masterpiece Another Country. This chapter of Baldwin's life is explored in Sedat Pakay’s 1973 short film ‘James Baldwin: From Another Place', screening at the BFI as part of their season 'Tear This Building Down: James Baldwin on Film'. For A Rabbit’s Foot Ramzi De Coster discusses the film, how it portrays the torment and redemption his time in the city granted him.
"Another Country was the book [Baldwin] claimed almost killed him, whereas Istanbul was the city he credited as his saviour. What is potentially more interesting, though, is the possibility that what Istanbul really offered him was not a refuge but a lack of definition or clear distinction. In America, he was defined fundamentally by his race and sexuality. But in Istanbul, Baldwin found a place that (at least on the surface) rejected neat typecasts.”
The creaturely universe of Andrea Arnold
In a scene from Andrea Arnold’s Bird, a painted lady butterfly comes to rest on the hand of the film’s young lead, 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams). Sitting in her father’s flat in North Kent, Bailey quietly observes the natural beauty of this striking creature and its intricate anatomy: bright orange spots, soft wings and delicate antennae. She uses her phone to record the exchange, a mode of visual documentation that frequently returns throughout Bird. Robbie Ryan, Arnold’s cinematographer and longstanding collaborator, embeds Bailey’s iPhone footage into the aesthetic fabric of the film. A nimble shift in the screen’s aspect ratio marks our immersion in Bailey’s perpetual universe, an invitation to glimpse the world as seen through her curious eyes.
Now online, writer Hannah Parlett explores the animals—literal and metaphorical—that inhabit Andrea Arnold’s work, from American Honey and Fish Tank to Cow and her latest release, Bird.
A Rabbit’s Foot celebrate Jonathan Becker in London
On the evening of 5th November, as fireworks sparkled across London and the world anticipated the results of the American Election, inside Mayfair hotel and restaurant The Twenty Two, a cosier transatlantic affair was taking place. A Rabbit’s Foot Editor-in-Chief Charles Finch hosted an intimate dinner for the master photographer Jonathan Becker to commemorate the release of his book Lost Time, published by Phaidon.
“There’s no one I’d rather host a dinner for,” said Charles Finch, introducing the evening. Finch first met the photographer through their mutual friend Graydon Carter, whose Vanity Fair was regularly illustrated by Becker’s images of celebrity and society. Fittingly then, as well as close friends and family members, those who came out to celebrate Becker came from the worlds of art, fashion, film and media.
