Emmanuelle (1974) User Reviews

Soft Focus Existentialism-Lite

[JamesHitchcock · 4/10 · 25 June 2004]

This was the first in a series of erotic films which were made possible by the increasingly liberal moral climate of the seventies and eighties and which enjoyed a success de scandale. The main character, Emmanuelle herself, is the attractive young wife of Jean, an older French diplomat in Bangkok, and the film chronicles her various sexual escapades. There is not, in fact, any real plot. Emmanuelle is seen having sex with her husband, with other men and, even more, with other women; lesbianism is, along with swimming, squash and cocktail parties, one of the main diversions of the bored ladies of Bangkok's French expatriate community.

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 thirty 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.

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. 4/10

Lack of story

[blumdeluxe · 4/10 · 20 March 2017]

"Emmmanuelle" tells the story of a young French diplomats wife in Thailand, getting introduced into alternative sexual lifestyles and thereby questioning the classic model of relationship and marriage she once had known.

You can't say that there is no story at all. Of course you can see kind of a development from the beginning of the movie towards the end. Nevertheless most of the characters just remain too flat to impress and all in all the plot can be summarized in two or three sentences.

I don't know in how far the idea of open relationships and marriages can be called revolutionary in that time, but I do think that the aura of the forbidden helped making this movie big. As for the message, everyone has his own idea of sexuality and erotic and for some, as we know, open models serve well. Still, rape and lacking consent are surely not a part of them and just show that some of the characters here are rather depicted as sociopaths than as people with differing sexual preferences.

Me Love You Short Time.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 13 December 2009]

Sylvia Kristel is a plausible candidate for lead in a lush soft-core porn flick. She has candid blue eyes and her even features come together successfully without being staggeringly beautiful. Her figure, reassuringly feminine, is rangy and graceless. She seems to be hunched over most of the time. Her breasts are modest and her limbs are rather shapeless. The thing is, though, that she slings this chassis slowly around with such careless ease that she seems to be sexier than she is. She doesn't just walk. She minces along. And if she sits down and props her crossed heels on a table she allows her robe to fall open, not because she's been directed to do it but because she doesn't care if anyone glimpses any forbidden areas. The dubbed voice doesn't do her justice. It's babyish and breathless where it should be throaty and mellow.

Alain Cluny had me pretty much convinced as the secretly desperate intellectual in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita," but I swear he doesn't do it for me here. I can't understand why any woman would place herself in his hands in order to be opened up to experience. The guy's head has all the salient features of a perfect cube. If any women find his face appealing, then I can be certain I'm not a woman trapped in a man's body because I thought he was ugly as hell.

The plot is a hackneyed male fantasy. Ordinary, bourgeois housewife is encouraged to find sexual adventures outside the marital boudoir. Initiated into certain rituals that expand her mind. You can find the same theme in works of some circumstance, like Bunuel's "Belle de Jour" and in unembarrassed crap like "Deep Throat." The movie was shot in Thailand and on the Seychelles. We get a tourist's eye view of the people and scenery. All the white folks are terrifically rich and live like Roman emperors. The darkies are happily subservient and will do anything they're asked to do. The girls are all cute too. One performs a trick with a cigarette on stage that I saw done in the Richmond Theater in San Francisco. Everything seems clean, even the opium dens, and picturesque and inviting. Alfred Hitchcock could have shot this movie if he'd been a dirty old man.

Not that this is straight pornography. No, it soft porn, so there are lots of candles and arty compositions and tinkling wind chimes. The sex scenes are neither pompous nor believable. They're just there because this is a soft-core porn movie. Of course it was ground breaking in 1974. Everyone flocked to see it and it made a bundle, leading to a dozen or more sequels. I think there's an "Emmanuelle Meets the Seven Dwarfs" in pre-production.

At the same time we have to note that this is a FRENCH soft-core porn movie, so it's not all in-your-face and breasts like basketballs, the way an American soft-core movie would be. Instead we have interesting "philosophical" tripe.

"Chastity is a lack of generosity." "Love, to be real, has got to be unnatural." "I'm a real woman now. I spit on the others." "Love between couples should be outlawed." If you can get through that kind of pretentious dialog you're rewarded by seeing Sylvia Krystel taken in half a dozen different ways, including from behind by a sweaty Thai fighter still wearing his boxing gloves. (She was the prize.) Actually there's more female nudity than in today's feature films. The moral pendulum seems to be cycling back towards puritanism.

Bâille! (transl.: French for "Yawn!")

[Karl Self · 6 July 2008]

There is a whole raft of French 1970ies porn movies, and while a surprising number of them take place in beautiful French châteaus -- and their less picturesque cellars -- and are set to la-la-music that would bore the pants off Enya, quite a few of them are rather good, actually -- and really filthy.

Here we have the movie that started it all, and yet I was disappointed. Granted, it's beautifully photographed, and the sex scenes pack a lot of sizzle, but the rest was lame and shallow. Emmanuelle is a young woman who -- you guessed correctly -- wants to explore her sexuality. What I had to accomplish singled-handedly in the grubby furtivity of our garden shed with the bra pages from the Sears catalogue, she can have a go at with the cream of beautiful French actresses and all the Oriental totty they couldn't beat off with a soiled stick in beautiful Thailand. And in a squash court. You'd think the permutations were endless, but what it boils down to is a long alternation of heady talk (maybe my French isn't good enough, but I thought it was all gibberish) followed up by breathy sex scenes (which are strictly softcore, by the way). Maybe I'm the exception from the rule here, but I don't only watch a movie such as this for the sex scenes, I actually do care about the rest of the movie.

The story disintegrates further when Emmanuelle, after two encounters with random men and a romance with a younger girl and an older woman, inexplicably shacks up with a grubby old man, and reaches its absolute low point when he subjects her to gang rape -- which is all the more revolting because it is filmed in wonky ouh-ah soft focus.

Average

[csagne · 4/10 · 8 November 2007]

This film used to be a classic adult piece and is based on the book, which in itself was judged scandalous when published in 1970 something. Now, thirty years later, it is a fairly stylish soft blue film, which is served beautifully by its soundtrack and somehow by photography, which remains charming and announces the David Hamilton style of Bilitis.

As for the rest - and let's not talk about the supposedly adult character of the film, if anything it spread the word about "French" films in the English speaking world, but has the flavour of a 1970s film, which basically means handlebar moustache and burners, funky shirts and picturesque house furniture (especially in the opening scene in Paris).

Some aspects of the script, such as a rape scene, young Marie-Anne are shocking today - apparently they were not so much back then.

It ranks more as a drama with sex today and should be considered like Basic Instinct or The Lover or even Last Tango, rather than like soft porn. This style has very few exceptions that survive the years, oh! life is difficult for erotic romance.

Still the supposedly intellectual approach to sexuality is fairly boring today, and rather pedantic. 5/10 for a nice soundtrack and photography and a script which does tell a story albeit a dull one.

Disturbing and Heinous

[What_I_Think · 1/10 · 18 November 2005]

I can't imagine anyone finding this film erotic. The two rape scenes are heinous. And the idea that Emmanuelle's husband entrusts her to some self-centered, egotistical idiot spouting pseudo-philosophical BS about love and such, only to have her humiliated by being sexually taken by the winner of a boxing match in front of others is absolutely disgusting. I couldn't feel empathy for any of the characters in this sleazy film. The husband is an absolute fool. Mario, the old man to whom Emmanuelle is entrusted, is disgusting. Emmanuelle herself is far too confused to know what she wants and so is at the whim of everyone around her. She doesn't become "a woman" by film's end, as she declares, but a soulless sex machine who engages in sex purely to satisfy animalistic passions. Nothing loving, sensual, or enticing about this film. If couples watched this, I could imagine the women beating the crap out of their male partners if they imagined they got off to the rape, abuse, powerlessness, and humiliation of women. Stay away from this one.

Uncomfortably rapey. A warning.

[dresseddown · 3/10 · 31 December 2015]

The first half of the film is mostly beautiful, enjoyably naff erotica, with a great 70s soundtrack; as the titular character explores the sensual advantages of her open marriage (save for an uncomfortable interlude with two voyeuristic houseworkers who don't seem to be having entirely consensual sex...). But the second half of the film, in which Emmanuelle is pressured into taking sexual "education" from a controlling older man, who man-handles her into situations she is uncomfortable with, gives her away as a prize and eventually has her raped, is sinister to say the least. Particularly because it's clear that the film makers feel these scenarios are acceptable and presumably even a turn-on? For me, this was just disturbing, and negated any previous erotic enjoyment. I hope this serves as a helpful warning to others, as I could have done with one!

Sweet-looking Sylvia Kristel keeps our eyes alert

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 7/10 · 12 August 2008]

"Emmanuelle" is an elegant, excellently photographed movie, but too often rolls in a syrupy pretension…

It is about a young, French woman who joins her husband in Bangkok… There much of Emmanuelle's allure is that she isn't shy about her body, or even afraid to engage in sexual activity in semipublic places…

There are a number of rousing, lesbian meetings very typical of French cinema, coupled with encounters with handsome, sensitive men who enjoy superficial lovemaking… The film really deals in sensual images and an over-blown, continuous repeating of its erotic philosophy… There is sensual intimacy between Emmanuelle and the other women that is rare in the cinema…

My favorite moment when teen-ager Christine Boisson comes upon the nude Sylvia Kristel asleep… Without embarrassment, she leans forward and unusually caresses gently and affectionately Emmanuelle's breast with her finger

BORING

[Tito-8 · 2/10 · 6 May 1999]

I didn't have to watch very much of this film to see that 70's erotica is just as bad as modern erotica. In fact, this is probably a little worse. Quite simply, this is a dull movie, and no matter how many sex scenes took place, I remained terribly bored throughout. But as dull as the sex was, the dialogue was even worse. I had low expectations for this film, and yet, it was somehow worse than I had expected.

I won't bother thinking up a pun to go with Bangkok...

[The_Void · 7/10 · 1 August 2006]

Going into this film, the only thing that I was really worried about was that it might be boring. It's not that I particularly have anything against pornography; but what's taboo now and what was taboo over three decades ago are different things, and besides that; you can only watch people having sex for so long before it begins to get dull. However, I was wrong; the film isn't boring, and while the focus is usually on sex; there actually is a story, and it actually is quite interesting! The film is unlikely to appeal to people that are interested in the more perverted side of sex as the film doesn't feature anything above lesbian sex, but the tender way that the story is presented as well as the French style give it a very erotic feel throughout. The plot, as you might expect, focuses on the character 'Emmanuelle', a young woman that lives with her husband; an older man, in Bangkok. They share a sort of teacher-pupil relationship, and they're also very liberal where adultery is concerned, as neither one cares too much about the other's antics with other people.

This film inspired a barrage of slightly less tasteful sequels, as well as a range of Italian films, many of which were directed by sleaze God Joe D'Amato. I don't think the filmmakers intended Emmanuelle to be associated so closely with sleaze, and actually at times; it doesn't really feel like a porn film; more of a drama with sex. I've got no idea how many taboos this film broke upon it's release over three decades ago, but the fact that it doesn't really break many today does it a favour where class is concerned as the film never feels too dirty, and this bodes well with the high class of the lead characters and setting. Sylvia Kristel takes the lead role, and is believable as a sexually naive young woman. She is joined by a number of eye-pleasing actresses, including Christine Boisson and Marika Green, and all get to take their clothes off in several scenes. The settings in which it all takes place are pleasing also, and the film is of a much higher class than a lot of nowadays porn. I'm surprised that Emmanuelle still has a notorious reputation, as it's only soft-core at best; but it's definitely worth seeing, if only to see how much things have changed!

Style over substance? For sure!

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 21 April 2016]

I guess you might call EMMANUELLE one of the most influential films of all time, based purely on the amount of sequels and rip-offs that followed. Seen today, it's a rather slight and dated French erotic movie with lots of softcore sex scenes. Definitely a case of stylish over substance, although not without merit for fans of the genre.

The amusingly-monikered Just Jaeckin is a dab hand at creating carefully set up establishing shots and making the most of some location shooting in Bangkok. Unusually for the genre, lead actress Sylvia Kristel seems to have been chosen for her acting performance rather than her looks, because she's quite convincing as the woman undergoing an odyssey of self-discovery.

I didn't think that the sex scenes were particularly erotic, but nonetheless there's fun to be had from the globetrotting antics and the other plot elements, including an unexpected round of Thai boxing! Even some tension and creepy moments towards the climax. The likes of EMMANUELLE will never be favourites of mine because this isn't my one of my preferred genres of film, but as visually artistic films go you could do a lot worse.

A pleasant touch of sensuality in this film that so many of the modern day films lack.

[canunpawinyan · 8/10 · 12 March 2005]

Emmanuelle was the first adult film I ever viewed and it delighted me. It was erotic, but it had the added element of sensuality. I believe the element of sensuality is what made it so good.... For a woman, sensuality is an important factor. The fact that Emmanuelle wasn't hardcore, nor was it nasty made for better viewing. Nor was it harsh or ugly as many porn films tend to be. Too many of the films made today lack sensuality, they are cold and obviously put on. Although,I found the story was a bit odd, it was exotic. Exotic in the setting, exotic with it's use of dim lighting. Sylvia Kristel was beautiful and natural in this film. In the world of erotica, it's definitely a classic and worth seeing.

A milestone in erotic cinema

[Pedro_H · 7/10 · 17 October 2002]

Whether you like it or not this is a milestone in the history of cinema. Like the James Bond movie Thunderball set new standards for violence in mainstream cinema, Emmanuel set new standards for sexual content.

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 one 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!

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 travelling 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.

The photography is as good as you would see 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.

The film is nothing but a study of an open marriage from the female perspective. The fact that she yields to the experiences and becomes more sexual bold is clearly pleasing to the male viewer. No doubt this was a date movie for males those that wanted their partners to follow her lead.

This is a clever erotic movie. It stays in the mind long after seeing it and Kristel looks comfortable with or without her clothes. She is far from a great actress, but she does have poise and dignity. The sequels that followed are nothing more than attempts to extract more money from a franchise and are merely routine entertainment.

Life in a Ivory Tower.

[alexferdman-98602 · 2/10 · 26 November 2019]

Yes, I collect movies or, as somebody in this flick said, I collect situations. And this situation is as fake as it possibly could be. Lets see--husband and wife fool around plenty but question of protection or accidental pregnancy never mentioned. Situations themselves are as fake as they imagined. And these fake sex simulations just for kids at most. I short, why do I care--I don't. Yes, I need real life plus imagination.

The 30th Anniversary of an adult classic

[rcj5365 · 3 September 2004]

Rarely has a foreign film of such magnitude was so eagerly anticipated in America as when the movie "Emmanuelle" was released in the summer of 1974. Advance publicity had done the trick. The film was based on the controversial and quite scandalous 1957 novel by the pseudonymous Emmanuelle Arsan that was banned by the French Government and the Prime Minister of France not to mention several Asian countries where the film was not seen until 20 years later. But in spite having it banned,it was a shock only to see it become France's all-time box office champ. Even to this day,and in spite the film's 30th Anniversary,Emmanuelle is considered to be among the best soft-core adult films ever made and since then it has continued to draw well long after the success of it ran here in the states,despite negative reviews from critics and equally word of mouth,is one of the true mysteries of the cinema,and a protégé of what the 1970's adult cinema was to become. For one the film was a overnight sensation,and from this film spawned a record number of 13 Emmanuelle "sequel" films,each starring different actresses,ranging from Emmanuelle Arsan,Laura Gemser,Holly Sampson,etc; a late-night adult cable series based on the character,not to mention several "hard-core" adult films based on this too that went straight to video,and to this the series has become second to James Bond as one of the longest-running series in the history of the cinema,and as of this writing the Emmanuelle series is still going strong,30 years later.

But getting back to "Emmanuelle" the simple formula which was from the original and was to be used again in several of sequels of the series has the type of a beautiful "free-spirited" woman who seeks her identity through various sexual encounters with everyone and almost everywhere and with everyone in the cast;lots of stripping and nude sunbathing,full-frontal nudity,graphic sexual content that has acts of sodomy(where there is no protection of sexually transmitted diseases) including several acts of homosexuality between the men and the women(lesbianism),incompetent males who want nothing else than a piece of a woman's flesh and to do what they want with her,and extreme close-ups of women in the throes of sexual ecstasy with heavy breathing on the soundtrack-but it is done with lush music and plush sets. Unlike the other foreign films that go by the "soft-core" method,the simple formula for Emmanuelle would be used again in several films including another French erotica classic,"The Story Of O",the next year,1975.

Was "Emmanuelle" a surefire moneymaker at America's reveal houses? When this film was released in 1974,the audience that were going to see this film weren't exactly popular with couples,but it was the men that were going back to see this film not once,but many times since the majority of the viewing audience were males,and their dates since the women in the audience may find this to be too shocking since it was very degrading to females. The film's distributor,Columbia Pictures-at the time was facing bankruptcy and was still smarting from one of the biggest flops with the musical disaster,the remake of "Lost Horizon" (1973)-had thought enough of Emmanuelle to make it the studio's second film to be "X-rated",and the first since "Bob,Carol,Ted and Alice"(1970) which was not very successful. Realizing that there was a major audience who wanted to sample a sex film,the studio(Columbia)wisely booked Emmanuelle into first-run theaters,making it a bona fide hit for the studio,which at the time no one particularly liked it since the French were preferring to it as "a masterpiece of eroticism".

The film gave an unknown Dutch-British actress Sylvia Kristel,who was very young when this film came out and made her an overnight sensation,which made her a major movie star,who would go on to star in three more "Emmanuelle" films. However,Sylvia Kristel is surprisingly good in a bad film;her lack of inhibitions,particularly in several scenes in the way she dresses,has an undeniably erotic effect and from there the she really shines in her performance despite the negative reviews. To also note that Kristel(the first Emmanuelle)is one of the few actresses to make to jump from sex films to mainstream films that are rated "R","PG",and "G". Most recently,out of the 13 films that were made based on "Emmanuelle" that series to this day is still going strong.

Happy 30th Anniversary-Emmanuelle!

Silly sex movie

[preppy-3 · 1/10 · 14 June 2004]

Emmanuelle (Sylvia Kristel) is happily married to an older man (she's about 20, he's 50s). He has no problem with her sleeping with other people (men AND women) and even hires an older man to teach her how to be a good lover.

Yawn.

I saw this at an movie house that showed old movies back in the early 1980s. It was showing as the midnight movie and a bunch of guys at my college encouraged me to see it. (Actually, I'm gay but I was closeted then). What I saw was a beautifully photographed, very sensuous but BORING film! Afterwords the guys agreed with me--they all hated it too--they said it was the most boring X rated film they had ever seen (these are STRAIGHT college boys)!

Film looks great but there's no plot and no motivation. Kristel is certainly beautiful but can't act. There's plenty of female nudity--no male nudity at all. Even the sex isn't that explicit! The one somewhat explicit sex scene is between two women--and NOTHING is really shown! I can't believe this still has an X--I've seen more explicit R rated films.

Still, historically, this IS an important film. It caused a major uproar in 1974 and was actually considered a serious art film (for a while). Still, the entertainment value is nil. Very dull and slow. Don't bother.

Weird People Doing the Freaky!

[mathhater4life · 4/10 · 9 September 2001]

The subject line I gave basically sums this flick up. There's this girl named Emmanuelle who lives with this older guy and he allows her to do the freaky with other people. She falls in love with another woman and eventually share a passionate night together. Make sure to watch for other wholesome lil' tidbits in between such as, naked women swimming together, a seventh grader who loves to masterbate and horny guys in a jungle.

Dull

[Groverdox · 4/10 · 24 April 2019]

There are few things more boring than pornography. This most famous of all soft porn flicks illustrates that well enough. The pace is slower than a snail crawling over liquid valium. There is a lot of nudity, but surprisingly little sex, and what there is isn't particularly explicit, nor is it erotic in the least. I never realised before how Sylvia Kristel isn't even that great looking. I believe she was an exhibitionist in real life, dancing naked on tables when she was a little girl. So I guess that helps.

"Emmanuelle" basically looks and feels like a '70s-era Penthouse photoshoot that someone brought a movie camera too as well. Funny how something intended as erotic has better use as a sleeping aid.

Aircraft Simulator

[loza-1 · 7/10 · 12 September 2005]

This film is loosely based on the erotic art novel by Emmanuelle Arsan.

The fact that it was directed by Just Jaeckin means that it is the best of the Emmanuelle series, and makes the others look like mere skin flicks, which I think they probably are anyway.

Sadly, in Britain, the censors, in an effort to save the British public from themselves, have hacked a few scenes out of it, including a "smoking" scene in a nightclub and a rape scene towards the end of the film.

Sylvia Kristel seems ideally cast as the protagoniste. Others have called her innocent, but this is not the case: she is not so innocent, but becomes even less so, as her adventures increase her learning and experience.

Compared with the novel, the sam-lo scenes are not so well done, and the Mario character is a bit tacky, otherwise the film is well done. Emmanuelle's encounter with Bee is better than the book. Not so good are one or two of the simulated sex scenes; they look pretty phony.

This film was exceedingly popular at the time it was released, and has lasted the test of time, even if some of the clothes have not.

Danielle snl brought me here

[ansirahka · 1/10 · 18 October 2020]

If only 'always wants to have sex' is all it takes to get a diplomat to marry you, i would've been on my 5th marriage by now

The ambiguity of Emmanuelle

[unbrokenmetal · 7/10 · 11 May 2008]

The biggest cinema surprise hit of 1975, based on a book by Emmanuelle Arsan, made Dutch model Sylvia Kristel a famous actress. The first thing you'll notice is that over 30 years later, the fascination with the exotic is still strong. It was worth going to Thailand and present the real thing instead of shooting "Asian" scenes in a park in Spain or Italy like many other European film crews did at the time. And it surely is one of the very few erotic films where you have to pay attention to the dialogs. It was important to explain the bizarre idea of "freedom" which the scandalous novel had introduced - arguably a two-edged sword. It is said that dependency is humiliating, but aren't scenes like when Emmanuelle is given as a "prize" to the Thai boxer even more humiliating? Easy to see why the movie stirred up discussions - which made even more people want to watch it. The ambiguity of this "freedom" in "Emmanuelle" thus was used for marketing. In her autobiography "Undressing Emmanuelle", Kristel recalls one scene with real horror: near the end, when she is raped by the opium smoker. The young man didn't understand a word of what she or the director said, so he just grabbed her. Sylvia's disgust is visible, and if the sequels hadn't been softer, she probably wouldn't have made them. The first Emmanuelle film still was experimenting with both visual style and a provocative attitude; it may have created a certain formula even though it didn't completely obey its rules, since it was rather the more gentle and glossy second Emmanuelle film which perfected the formula. I voted 7/8/6/4/6/7 for the six cinema films of the series.

Beautiful Kristel in beautiful Thailand

[LeRoyMarko · 4/10 · 26 August 2002]

Ouch! I went to see this one at an independent movie house, 15 years maybe after viewing it on late-night TV. What compelled me to go see it again? Answer: 15 years ago, this one was pretty exciting for a kid like me!

But 15 years later: it's bad, it's bad, and it's bad! Not to mention that the script is terrible. The film puts forward questionable notions of erotism. We're invited to take a look at the depravation of Emmanuelle. Everything goes.

I must admit though, that this movie must have cause a commotion when it came out in 1974.

Out of 100, I gave it 57. That's good for only * out of ****.

Seen in Toronto, at the Paradise Cinema, on June 11th, 2002.

There's something about "Emmanuelle"...and Emmanuelle...

[ElMaruecan82 · 8/10 · 26 April 2020]

Recently, I found a new interest in a kind of movies I thought was locked in the most obscure basements of my memories, belonging to a time where Internet didn't reign, nor pornography, but that's saying the same. Those were erotic movies, they didn't show much but what they hid was enough to arouse our beginning masculine senses, the female body was a total mystery for most of us and these movies handled it with the delicacy of a precious and thoughtful gift that had to preserve some of its mystery.

And I learned to be part of that show-a-little-and-enjoy-a-lot little game and appreciate the silly magic of these mindless stories set in ridiculously grandiose places, where love scenes were choreographed in slow motion under the smooth sound of a saxophone, allowing butlers or maids to break their routine through a session of window shopping. The love scenes could take place on the canopy of some Henry VIII room, in the vicinity of a vast swimming pool or under a chestnut tree not too far from the vineyard, the setting counted.

When the same thing happened over and over, the softcore film had to delight the eyes on another level than eroticism, if you don't admire nature of furniture at some point, something is missing. And it's not that "Emmanuelle" is a great erotic film because it set all these patterns but it's a classic because its French 'new look' treated a minor genre as if it was a major one.And "Emmanuelle" has everything: the candid heroin with an unexplainable thirst for sexual discovery, boredom and ennui making sex the only possible palliative, the exotic luxuriant setting adding to the luxurious places and a sweet little tone that poetically captures the spirit of the heroine if you have the chance to understand French.

There's something about the way the film looks, the way it sounds and the way director Just Jaeckin elevate it as close to a character study as an erotic film can get and whether its take on eroticism should make us laugh or cringe or think, it does, there comes a point where you cease to look at it as "just an erotic film". And it has to do with the the magnetic and enigmatic performance of Sylvia Kristel (who sadly left us in 2012), Emmanuelle is a young woman married to a French diplomat based in Bangkok. The husband is an enthusiast of free love and allows Emmanuelle to have other encounters. Despite her free-pass, Emmanuelle never cheated on him and yet when she's on the plane taking her to her man, she serves herself on a silver platter to two passengers.

Interestingly, the plane scene is put as a flashback after we saw her making love with her husband. This is a woman who knows about love but handles sex as a mystery, when she teases these two travelers, is she testing her sex-appeal or is she too much aware of it? That she literally donates her body to the first newcomer makes tempting to classify as an easy woman but in reality, she's too conscious of the complexity of sexual attraction, she enjoys the tension implied by the desire rather than the ephemeral pleasure and the stream of emptiness that comes after. Desire should be more than a quest for pleasure.

And that might explain the choice of the director to shoot the marital sex scene under the veil of a mosquito net directing our attention to the interplay between the two Thai servants and culminating with certainly the film's first shock. That moment gets us prepared, announcing the kind of dirty stuff contained in that vast spectrum of sexual games, and our hypocrisy toward them. Since there's an inner transgressive quality in sex, how does that combine itself with good behavior? And can eroticism be a philosophy of the body that set itself apart from ethics or another philosophy, hedonism to name it? Maybe there's more than pleasure in that erotic initiation.

And baking under the sun and melancholy, Emmanuelle wanders from one place to another, being verbally hazed by bourgeois housewives bragging about their sexual exploits, expecting to find a mentor. Her curiosity is raised by the youngest one who enjoys teasing older men with a lollipop then she has a sensual relationship with her squash partner, the blasé Ariane. Her initiation goes on with Bee, a beautiful blonde, who unlike the others, has a job: she's an archaeologist, and maybe because she's got a life of her own, she doesn't beat around the bush and after an idyllic episode, lets Emmanuelle go. She doesn't love her but like her enough not to hurt her. The "Bee" sequence proves the bias of the director, he doesn't show them having sex because he cares for passionate sex and believes that this passion had to be driven by transgression.

And this is where Alain Cuny's character makes his entrance as the pygmalion. At that point, I won't spoil the rest of the film, I will only say that the final act of "Emmanuelle" marks the climax of the heroine's coming of age and seals the film's legacy. She learns (the hard way) the layers of eroticism according to her mentor and some are petty shocking. However, no matter how far it goes, we had to time to relate to Emmanuelle and to accept that she would go that far for the sake of discovery, one that goes beyond the judgmental barriers because of its transgressive nature. It is a character study after all, but where love itself and sex are treated as characters.

And "Emmanuelle" treats its material with dazzling imagery, beautifying our ugliest impulses, and making a real landmark of the erotic film, one that spanned many sequels and that made this one the most successful film of 1974. It's beautiful to look at this film, sometimes disturbing, but it always finds a way to be fascinating.

Emmanuelle awakened more than just sexual adventures of the 70's

[lambiepie-2 · 7/10 · 13 April 2007]

If you were a child in the 70's - the film industry was doing some remarkable things. The old "studio" system was out, women were starting to get into executive levels in film. The marketing was more exciting than today because you could easily determine what was 'forbidden', you picked up on and couldn't wait to be old enough to see these films for yourself.

Well the "grown up" part came in the 80's when I was old enough to experience the VHS boom and live on my own. The Los Angeles based "Z" Channel solved all those "grown up" problems for me and here's another one of their "Night Owl Films" I got to see. I was just out of my teens and just experiencing 'the world' when I first saw this original film Emmanuelle. Yeah, my mouth hung open in shock during my first watch of this. I NEVER saw or heard of nice women doing ANYTHING like this even though it was 10 years old when I saw it for the first time. Yes, this was the "world of porno" to me. But it was also the world of 'memory'.

I grew up in New York/Philadelphia/New Jersey areas and before political correctness in marketing, the radio station WABC in New York ran advertisements for almost ALL movies opening or playing in New York City. There are ones I remember so vividly because they were done SO well such as "Midnight Cowboy", "M*A*S*H", "The Lords of Flatbush", "Myra Breckenridge", "The Exorcist", "Jaws"...and yes even: "Deep Throat", "The Story of O", and "Emmanuelle"! In these radio ads, you could TELL something was going on and you wanted to SEE them. (Well, as a child you're curious to see ANYTHING like this!) The ads were regular ads, but the voice over was more sexy, deep and at the end the announcer stresses: "...rated X for mature adults only. Now playing..." Kinda interesting for a 9/10 year old. But I wanted to see these films. As time marched on, I sorta forgot about some of these but thanks to moving to Los Angeles and the "Z" channel 10 years later... I did.

After the initial shock of seeing this 'soft porn' (I can call it soft porn now since I've seen regular adult movies/X rated porn against this!), I watched it on the Z Channel and every time it came on (maybe 2 or 3 times) -- and it hit me: Emmanuelle WAS the 70's. And in conversations with others about these soft core films of the 70's Emmanuelle was film's answer to the freedom of sexual expression for women.

Emmanuelle was the "poster woman" of the 70's - young, pretty, married a rich older man -- and was bored out of her skull. She got into a journey of sexual expression without consequence that - at that time - women may have wanted to do, but Emmanuelle ... did. This was not so much a titillating soft-porn movie for men ... as it was a film of showing sexual liberation for the housewives (and not prostitution like 'Belle du Jour') of the 70's who presented freedom as more than just equal pay for equal work. Women fantasized for equality in the bedroom exploits just like men too. Of course they didn't all rush out to do it then, but Emmanuelle did.

Nowadays Emmanuelle's life is a commonplace for many women (except for the conservatives who want to ignore it) and before the onset of real sexual diseases as one of the consequences without protection. But again, this is a film - a film of liberating and freedom for women of the 70's who were just finding their voices as the world was changing to see them as a viable and equal part of it.

Worse than I expected

[Criticalstaff · 4/10 · 13 August 2020]

I went into this movie blind. Yet, I had heard about this movie through osmosis, it has been referenced in mainstream media here and there with the reputation of being somewhat risqué. I was going in, expecting a highly artistic, maybe more sensual than average film. Reading the description on Netflix, I had the impression I would be witnessing the fascinating yet intimate tale of a young woman's coming-of-age story.

Aaaannd it turns out it is porn!

I should have known when the tile card announcing the director says Just Jaeckin.

I am not going to review the artistic merits of this film. Firstly, because of the genre, it is made only to excite the libidinal senses; its artistic quality does not go beyond that. The acting is bad, the story is so to speak inexistent. It is a succession of scenes of people having sex. Secondly because I stopped watching halfway through.

There are a few things I will comment on. The movie takes place in Thailand in the seventies. It reminded me of The Man with the Golden Gun. I gives the movie a certain old school cool, a certain old-world charm. And, I always find it pleasant when films or movies go to exotic locales. Even more so for a French film, it is nice when it does not take place in Paris. It is shame that the movie is lewd, because it looks, relatively speaking, good. Another thing I appreciate is that the film is adapted from a book. How delightfully quaint is that? I do not know if it is an erotic-book but in any case, it is hilarious that they adapted it in an adult film. As I mentioned, the movie's purpose does not need a story. You do not need a narrative for sex scenes. You can have one, but it is a luxury. It is the cherry on top. So, the idea that there was not only a narrative for this film but that it is actually derived from a book is in itself amazing. It would mean that there are characters in this movie that have lines of dialogue, coming from a script. Potentially it means that some actors maybe misspoke their lines or forgot them and they had to have another take? The whole movie's existence begs more questions than answers. Not merely why it exists, but how did it attain cultural significance? What is so special about this movie? If I had to guess, I think that it might have been for previous generations what Fifty Shades of Grey is for ours.

In the end, I am still yearning for the film I thought this would be. Or, I could envision a non-erotic behind the scenes of the making of this movie: how they got the script, the difficulty to film in Thailand, how Just Jaeckin found his calling etc... Anything really, except for what Emmanuelle actually is.