Emmanuelle in Venice – Emmanuelle a Venise (1993)

Directed by: Francis Leroi | 90 minutes | romance, fantasy | Actors: Marcella Walerstein, George Lazenby, Sylvia Kristel, Joel Bui, Jay Hausman, Pham Duc-Tu, Daniel Hung Meas, Vibbe Haugaard, Tony Senegal, Frédéric Fratini, Sénégal Fratini, Natala Sevenants, Jean-Pierre de Varenne, Robert Terry Lee , Corinne Mafiodo

As in the entire ‘Emmanuelle’ series from the 1990s, this episode is presented as a long flashback. Old Emmanuelle (Kristel) sits on an airplane with old friend Mario (George Lazenby) as she recounts her past sexual adventures. In ‘Emmanuelle in Venice’ she takes possession of the body of Anais, who lives in Venice with her mother-in-law and maid and is having a hard time coming to terms with her husband’s death. She takes out her frustrations on the maid. We see this in a scene at the beginning of the film, when the maid is whipped for dropping her sewing kit on the floor when she wants to leave. She has to pull down her pants and bend over on the bed as Anais thrashes about it. The girl clearly does not like it, but the viewer is presented with a voyeuristic point of view. The mirror positioned behind her gives us an ideal image of her buttocks. However, the viewer feels especially uncomfortable because of the atmosphere. Also, we don’t get much sympathy for Anais here, which makes the next tantalizing scene, when she’s masturbating to her late husband’s portrait, a lot less exciting. Too bad, because her naked body is beautifully filmed here and atmospherically lit.

But when Emmanuelle enters the story, the tone changes from gloomy to sweet and charming. She takes possession of Anais’ body through her magical perfume, in order to better express her feelings. Now she asks the maid to come over for a glass of champagne with her, and a little later, to help her undress. They even end up in bed together, making love to each other in an extremely tender way. Anais also takes the girl to Paris to shop and eat ice cream. It is wonderful to see how this previously shy girl is gradually blossoming. After this, the focus shifts to the story of Penelope, Anais’ mother-in-law, who receives a letter that a former lover of hers has passed away, and recalls a beautiful amorous night with him. She is devastated, but Emmanuelle offers a solution. She goes to investigate the origin of the letter. In the meantime, we see how Anais and her maid get men around with marriage proposals. However, they do not know that the maid is posing as Anais. It’s a fairly amusing game, and allows the real Anais to have sex as someone else with nice candidates, which in turn makes for the obligatory, more or less, steamy scenes.

‘Emmanuelle in Venice’, like so many films in the series, is plagued by disfigured acting – Penelope in particular seems so plucked off the streets – and there are some curious, and not always well-functioning scenes, including one in which Penelope naked on a table is on a masquerade ball and squirms a bit, while a group of people stands around it. Still, the film has its moments. Especially the part with the reviving, liberated maidservant lends the film the necessary goodwill. Good is different, but for the enthusiast there is still something to get out of it.