Emmanuelle

X was never like this.

Calling an erotic film a masterpiece is a rather bold move in the world of film connoisseurs and critics alike. Can a soft-core sex film become a trendsetter and spawn sequels, parodies and doppelganger flicks? And the most important question, can it live up to the extent of the myth created?

Emmanuelle is a 1974 French erotica film, starred by the then unknown Sylvia Kristel and directed by Just Jaeckin (actually a photographer debuting his directing skills) The film follows the steps of a recently married beautiful women that goes by the name of Emmanuelle. She's married to a diplomatic that's constantly traveling around the world for working reasons. Nevertheless, the day this man decides to settle comes in and takes his lovely wife to the exotic far away lands of Thailand. It is right there in the middle of spectacular settings that Emmanuelle will unleash her true sexual charisma in order to be a better woman to his very open minded husband.

So you're telling me there's big Thai cocks waiting for me in the area?

My God! I swallow semen like water!

Whether you like it or not this is a milestone in the history of cinema. Like Star Wars set new standards for Sci-Fi in mainstream cinema, Emmanuel set new standards for sexual oriented films.

Certainly the film was an amazing hit and box office records quickly tumbled. It is the most seen French film of all time and holds the record for the longest run at a single non-multiplex cinema (18 months in Paris, France). After this film sex on film was a completely different beast and many directors (new and old) used part of the template.

Anyone wanting a dirty movie will be sadly disappointed. Here sex is treated as natural, rarely earth shattering and almost matter-of-fact. The bedroom is only one of the locations where the act takes place - in fact I am surprised the participants weren't arrested! (while producing the film, the government of Thailand would deny filming permits due to its sexual nature, so producers came up with a mock family rated script that was never used, thus allowing them to film anyways)

So, how do you have fun in Bangkok?

a masturbation gathering!

Sylvia Kristel plays a newly married wife of 22 (19 in reality) with no previous film experience (this is no accident). Previously she had only appeared in commercials. She is the innocent who becomes corrupted, but it is a journey of corruption she is happy to take. Her nice-but-cold older husband is also all for it. The circumstances behind their marriage are not even touched upon - but maybe it was a marriage of convenience as he is a world traveling diplomat?

For a film aimed at men, men are rarely shown in a great light. Emmanuel finds she is bisexual and looks happier with women than with men - who commonly treat her as a sex object. If she appeared brighter she could even be viewed as a feminist icon, but even the high queen of feminism Germaine Greer says she is a "bimbo."

Lot of things are dated in this movie. The view of casual unprotected sex certainly. There is even a casual rape. But its use of third-world locations is a treat on the eye (on the big screen especially) and there is nothing substandard about the production. Even the music is first class and still does the rounds on its own.

Fucking on a plane!

Fucking in the plane's bathroom with a random stranger for the second time!

The photography is as good as you would see (an expect from a photographer directing) in a big budget epic. The film moves along at a slow but steady pace and you do look forward to finding out what happens next or how a situation is resolved.
Although this was one of the first productions of the mainstream cinema to deal with erotic subject-matter frankly, it is not particularly explicit. Much of the sexual action is implied, and what is shown directly is often shot from a distance. The eroticism of the film is softened by the way it is photographed. Outdoor scenes are shot in a blurry soft focus against a background of brilliant sunshine; indoor ones, by contrast, are generally dark or dimly lit. The leading actress, Sylvia Kristel, with her slim, boyish figure and the gentle beauty of her features, seems perfectly at home in this soft, unreal-seeming atmosphere. Nevertheless, there are still scenes that seem shocking even forty years on. One of Emmanuelle's lovers, Marie-Ange, is a teenage girl only dubiously of the age of consent, something that seems to have caused less consternation in the seventies than it would do today. (The actress who played her was in fact eighteen, but the intention seems to have been to make the pigtailed, lollipop-sucking Marie-Ange a bisexual Lolita figure). Emmanuelle's Thai houseboy, aroused by the sight of her and her husband making love, pursues and has sex with one of the housemaids. It is never made clear whether or not this is an act of rape; the boundary between consensual and non-consensual sex is blurred in a manner which I found distasteful. 

Naked beauty.

a smoking pussy? WTF?

Like certain other Continental erotic films of this period, the 'Emmanuelle' series is marked by a certain pseudo-intellectual pretentiousness. This is particularly apparent in the second half of this film when the heroine, after being jilted by one of her lesbian lovers (the oddly named Bee), takes up with the elderly Mario, a man who, despite his grey hair and advancing years, fancies himself both as a lover and as a thinker. The rest of the film is frequently punctuated by Mario's thoughts on the meaning of life, carefully enunciated in a deep, gravelly voice, somewhere between an Old Testament prophet and an Orson Welles sherry commercial, which gives them the air of oracular pronouncements. Sex, in Mario's philosophy, ceases to be a taboo and becomes a duty. One owes it to oneself, and indeed to the world in general, to experience physical pleasure in as many ways as possible, with as many partners as possible, and to liberate oneself from all ways of thinking that might hinder one from this aim. The consequence of not doing so is that one will fail in one's solemn and sacred duty to Live Life To The Full.

It is this sort of Existentialism-Lite, Sartre meets Hugh Hefner, that makes the film seem so dated today, far more than do trivial period details such as Jean's sideburns or the garish lime-green paintwork of his sports car. This sort of cod-philosophy became one of the first casualties of the AIDS epidemic. If we watch 'Emmanuelle' today, it is not as an erotic experience, despite the undoubted charm of its heroine, and certainly not as an intellectual one, but as a slight, inadvertently amusing period piece. So, if you're not into this particular kind of film, you may find yourself with friends having a party while the film runs as background "erotic campiness"

Girl on Girl action.

Inter racial live sex!

Anyways, the film did so well that it spawned not only one but 5 sequels! and we're not counting the porn sequels and many unofficial sequels. Honestly, watching the original film would do more than enough for those who have never watched an Emmanuelle film. As above mentioned, the film tries to hard to tell us that rich people, and especially rich cool people have developed a new intellectual trend where the "sex for everyone" label becomes the motif that justifies the entire film from start to finish. Still, such intellectual trend is not developed very smartly I might add. For instance, do you really believe a couple of newlyweds would want to have sex with other people as to make their husband/wife glad? I for one, don't think so. Also, Emanuelle is so in love that she's willing to fuck underage girls, share lesbian sex with people she's barely met before and most importantly, go out with an old fart and end up having sex with unknown men in the middle of an illegal fight contest? Certainly not! not even the most open minded person in the world would do it as easy as 1,2,3. Nevertheless, We know this film is what I call "Sex Science Fiction" In addition, we also know the augmented reality on how the characters behave is just there to justify an erotic film with nice photography and good looking women (not those who look like retired pornstars)

A pity this film hasn't aged as good as other erotic films have. This is history in the making, but then again, it requires a lot of understanding and scholar knowledge on the eye of the beholder in order to see the potential this film had and still has despite its many flaws. Later in 1975, the inevitable sequel would premiere (we will review it next) and finally in 1977 the Goodbye Emmanuelle film would find our heroine finding true love has nothing to do with fucking everything that moves. so if I had to recommend a film besides the original I'd say part 3 pretty much corrects all the erotic campiness and becomes a much more enjoyable film in an overall feel.

Best friends, masturbate together.

The German VHS cover.

 Here's the original film trailer:

 Emmanuelle's Theme song: