When Laure Met Néa

To my knowledge, Emmanuelle Arsan and husband/collaborator Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane had no involvement in the film adaptation of their short novel Néa (akaA Young Emmanuelle), so it was a nice touch to see director Nelly Kaplan include a copy of Arsan’s Laure as one of the erotic books in Sibylle’s secret Witch’s Cave book nook where she hides all her dirtiest smut (for research purposes, of course).

I would have liked to see the actual cover art, especially if it’s the edition that features a photo of Annie Belle plucked from the film’s press materials (see image #3), but I guess a spine will have to suffice.

Annie may not appear in Néa but her presence is felt through this connection to Arsan, who was actually in the middle of post-production on the adaptation of the Belle-starring Laure around the same time the shoot for Néa was wrapping up. In France, both films were released mere months apart. Nineteen-seventy-five and six were a busy few years for the Arsans, but the cool reception to their cinematic endeavors would see the secretive couple pull back from the spotlight, and close ranks around their intimate life together. When they died, they intentionally took many of their secrets with them to the grave.

Note: The books on the shelf credited to a pseudonymous “Belen” were actually written under said pen-name by director Nelly Kaplan herself, who was a novelist long before she was a film director.