Emmanuel (1974)

Directed by: Just Jaeckin | 90 minutes | drama, eroticism, romance | Actors: Alain Cuny, Sylvia Kristel, Marika Green, Daniel Sarky, Jeanne Colletin, Christine Boisson, Samantha, Gabriel Briand, Gregory

The original ‘Emmanuelle’, with a young Sylvia Kristel in the lead role, is a nice film in the genre of soft erotic films. Director Jaeckin takes you to the sweltering environment of Thailand, where it is always warm and love is cheap. A mixed story, reasonable actors and actresses and… quite a bit of nudity. ‘Emmanuelle’ is set in Thailand; a country known for its significant contribution to the sex industry. It’s 1974 and it’s hardly surprising that Kristel and her husband (Sarky) are looking for maximum personal freedom. As befits a seventies film, the protagonists are out on a sexual quest and the search for their own self. Emmanuelle, who is in her twenties, starts out as a wallflower, but quickly transforms into a self-confident woman, who is not afraid to show her sexuality. A nice fact is that she and her husband leave each other free in their choice of sexual partners, but it is Emmanuelle who likes this fact more and more while her husband goes mad with jealousy. And does Emmanuelle’s husband have reason to be jealous? If he has to be jealous, then some members of the opposite sex. Emmanuelle is initiated into the rich life of a number of ambassadors’ wives and comes across the somewhat older, but no less attractive blonde Ariane (Colletin). A game of squash between Ariane and Emmanuelle eventually leads to a heartwarming climax! Emmanuelle also seems briefly captivated by the young, sassy Marie-Ange, who at one point makes herself comfortable with a photo of a young Paul Newman in her hand! In the end Emmanuelle falls for the blond Bee (Green), but this ‘friendship’ does not quite come to fruition either.

After Emmanuelle’s outings with some ladies, she comes into contact with the older Mario (Cuny) and from here the film really goes downhill. First of all, it’s rather implausible (and sometimes laughable) to realize that this old man is a household name in and around Bangkok when it comes to erotica. Secondly, he spends the whole time snooping about self-development, breaking free from social chains and the laws of sex, causing the quality of the film to drop visibly. Of course it can be interesting to see how Emmanuelle deals with the advances of an unsuspecting pedestrian or what happens when she walks into an opium house where only men dwell, but it is not really interesting. Especially not when you realize that these kinds of escapades, according to the ‘scholar’ Mario, are the true erotic pleasures.

No, ‘Emmanuelle’ is not very special, although the impact of the film at the time and afterwards was of course great. The young Kristel established her name as a star of soft eroticism and never lost that name, no matter how hard she tried later. ‘Emmanuelle’ is a film about breasts and buttocks, but it doesn’t really get you warm.