Emmanuelle (Special Edition) [Blu-ray]

As the story goes: Dutch beauty Sylvia Kristel advised filmmaker Pim de la Parra to cast her in his next film (1973’s Frank & Eva) because she knew that she was going to be a big star. Kristel did indeed find fame and fortune on the silver screen, the world over.  The role was Emmanuelle, the title character of a wildly successful trilogy of mainstream softcore.The U.S. trailer:"They call her 'Emmanuelle'.She is the most controversial woman in France. Her life was a book. The book became a movie. The president of France banned it forever. On July 15, 1974 a new government set it free. In the first 14 weeks after its released 2 1/2 million Frenchmen stood in line for it. 1/7 of the entire population of Paris has already seen Emmanuelle.Emmanuelle is today the most popular movie in France eclipsing even The Sting. It is fast becoming the most written about, argued about, whispered about movie ever."Right on cue, the now-classic adaptation of established French erotica, 1974’s Emmanuelle, made an unprecedented splash in cinemas.  Based on the 1957 novel The Joys of a Woman by Emmanuelle Arsan(The nom de plume of French actress/author Marayat Rollet-Andriane), Emmanuelle maintained popular cinema’s unspoken tendency to lag a good couple of decades behind the sensibilities of literature.  That said, the movie shattered a gasping array of mainstream filmic taboos- at least for a brief moment.  And believe it or not, mainstream it was. One cannot review a straight-up review of this sort of thing without qualifiers galore.  The strangeness one feels about publicly detailing this validly historic trilogy is a testament to how, in nearly half a century since the series premiered, we’ve become more conscious of the taboos therein, as opposed to the then-assumed cultural trajectory of less so.  Then there’s the final line of Emmanuelle’s trailer, “The first film of its kind that lets you feel good without feeling bad”.  Considering that two out of three of these films tend to end on frozen, glassy-eyed blank stares of its titular character, this aggressive attempt at de-stigmatizing Emmanuelle– going as far as to sell it as some sort of feel-good romance, or some such- may seem heavy-handed (It is. For all three films.) and weirdly inaccurate… but it apparently worked.  Riding the brief early-1970s wave of the X rating going mainstream, Emmanuelle proved to a global box office phenomenon.  Key to its success, Emmanuelle acknowledged, targeted, and appealed to the libidos of women during the march of second-wave feminism.  As for the male contingency, it’s a no-brainer.  For once, raincoats and sneaking around were not necessary- couples actually wanted to go see Emmanuelle.Hence its classification…  When it’s for women, we call it “erotica”, when it’s for men, it’s “porn”.  Aficionados can surely differentiate the two beyond mere semantics.  As one reviewer stated, this series (the first film in particular) blurs the line between erotica and pornography.  Is the Emmanuelle series built first and foremost as a turn-on?  Yes. A glass ceiling of sorts might be shattered in the meantime as the central character takes control of her own O and whatnot.  But that’s of course part and parcel to the aforementioned appeal. A dive into the cinematic side of the global sexual revolution:  All of that said, the sexual angle is no longer the most eye-opening aspect of this series.  Shot in lesser-developed exotic foreign lands while continuously spewing first-world opulence, the shifting global values of today combined with the far-heightened degree of explicitness that is now broadly available render this trilogy very much a product of its time.  There’s a long history of movies linking charged romance with material opulence (even nowdays - 50 Shades, etc.), and these three Emmanuelle films are no exception.    That, combined with more than a whiff of a colonialist attitude make for no shortage of problematic aspects. Not to mention the varying levels of male-gaze eroticism that’s forefront to the whole endeavor.Aside from these obvious targets for such PC-police finger-wagging, this forty-plus year-old trilogy succeeds where it’s meant to.  Unquestionably, these softcore character studies are sexy, sexual sex movies.  Though each entry is directed by a different man, certain care is taken to actualize the source material’s inherent female perspective, even amid the aforementioned shortcomings.As they say about actresses that doff their clothes with zero abandon, Sylvia Kristel is a fearless performer.  Despite being a tall Dutch woman as opposed to a petite Eurasian like the real Emmanuelle, series producer Yves Rousset-Rouard says that Kristel proved to be an immediately obvious choice for the part.  The filmmakers rightly realized that her rare porcelain physical purity is the precise quality their story of a woman’s bold sexual liberation requires.  Vitally, she makes Emmanuelle a fully sympathetic presence.  Indeed, the actress can telegraph hesitant naiveté as effortlessly as she can go full lusty.  Of course, it’s the latter skill that ensured Kristel's fame, though she did manage a few non sexual roles in her career (she was the female lead in 1980’s PG-rated Maxwell Smart feature, The Nude Bomb).  Later in life, Kristel would become a truly accomplished painter, although never completely giving up acting.  At age sixty, Kristel succumbed to cancer in 2012.  EmmanuelleDIRECTED BY JUST JAECKIN/FRENCH/1974Bangkok is "simply lovely this time of year", particularly for a young sophisticated practitioner of free love.  Emmanuelle and architect lothario, Jean (Daniel Sarky) have a marriage that is open in every way.  While they love each other dearly, they have granted one another complete sexual freedom.  Following any outside tryst, they spare no detail in recapping the activity to the other.  Bourgeois libertine philosophy freely flows between Jean, Emmanuelle, and their cadre of likeminded bohemians friends.  It’s laughable nonsense, but in the confined context of their remote do-nothing/do-anything/do-anyone lifestyle, it make as much sense as anything else.  One need only look around in any direction to see impoverished natives toiling, they being the faceless “atmosphere” of the Caucasians far-off paradise getaway.  This is the first of three films that, along with their characters, are guilty of exoticising their location in the interest of cultivating a certain romance about it that may well not truly exist.The whole fantasy allure of Emmanuelle is enabled tremendously by the carefully rendered visuals of first-time director Just Jaeckin, a well-known still photographer at the time.  Jaeckin’s approach is one of continuous soft-focus sensuality, a dream world of dry mist and ethereal leisure.  One quickly notes the trendsetting impact of the cinematography of Emmanuelle, a style that’s since become cliche, even as few other films or parodies of such films ever truly arrive at Jaeckin’s precision.  (Jaeckin would later direct two iconic S&M classics, Gwendoline - his best and The Story of O.)Though the intended bottom line is Emmanuelle’s liberating sexual journey from curious girl to experienced woman (which resonated at the time), today’s widely accepted gender politics reveal yet another troubling aspect on a core level.  Namely, the fact that Jean urges Emmanuelle into the hands of curmudgeonly sex sansei Mario (Alain Cuny of La Dolce Vita fame)- an old man in a suit.  Emmanuelle eventually willingly turns herself over to his tutelage, which consists of a string of awkward erotic philosophies, phrases and visits to shady places.  (“…one must make love without shame or constraint. That virginity is not glorious. That the couple has its limits. And that these limits must be stretched to infinity”).Ultimately, her lessons culminate with him tossing her to a pack of sweaty locals in a dark hut for an orchestrated gang r***.  This action is an undeniably sick way to end a film bearing the central claim that makes you “feel good without feeling bad”.  This is the singular wrongest of wrongs in the entire trilogy.  Though Emmanuelle 2, the sequel that followed quickly on the high heels of this film is for all intents and purposes a feature-length audience debasement by comparison, Emmanuelle nonetheless sinks lower in terms of any one repulsive sequence.  Compounding the unfortunate nature of the end sequence is that it turns out to be the finale to both the film and Emmanuelle’s central journey.  Because of this, she is somehow now a woman.Emmanuelle 2DIRECTED BY FRANCIS GIACOBETTI/FRENCH/1975Hong Kong is "simply lovely this time of year", particularly for an insatiably lusty sophisticate looking to educate a young girl in the ways of sensual gratification without restriction.  With clear intentions of upping the ante on all things sexual, Emmanuelle 2 (Emmanuelle: L’antivierge) ranks as the most gratuitous of the bunch.  It’s alternate title, Emmanuelle: The Joys of a Woman, is an ironic monicker, considering how one needn’t look too hard into the eyes of Sylvia Kristel to see that whatever joy she had in performing this part is being stripped away.  Indeed, she’d say in a later interview that director Francis Giacobetti was even more of a visual stylist than Jaeckin, albeit with a far more misogynistic streak.  For this reason, combined with its embarrassing disregard for both story and character, Emmanuelle 2 becomes a grotesque freakshow. Simulated sex takes over the movie, escalating as it goes on.  More bodies are added to the frame, more writhing flesh all over the place.  This priority forces Emmanuelle herself into the role of unrelenting nymphomaniac.  While perhaps this is a presumable extension of where the end of part one brought her, it doesn’t make for much of a movie.What little story there is revolves around Emmanuelle now becoming the sex sansei for a new naive young virgin, Anna-Marie (Catherine Rivet, somehow retaining a sweetness amid all the ridiculous carnality).  Emmanuelle, in dragging Anna-Marie to nude go-go bars and full-on massage parlors, is buttering her up for a truly creepy goal: sleeping with her husband, Jean (now played by a more commanding and charming  Umberto Orsini).  Only then, will Anna-Marie be “a real woman”.  On one hand, at least Emmanuelle isn’t forcing her into a gang r*** the way Mario did with her.  On the other hand, though, a line seems to have been crossed into brainwashing cult-leader territory.  Jean’s own wife is recruiting and grooming his sexual conquests.Weirdly, Laura Gemser star of the Italian Black Emmanuelle films and Joe D'Amato 's muse. (One of many, many adult films and series’ to blatantly rip off the name) fame turns up as a masseuse.  There’s also Onanistic acupuncture, queasy brothel scenes… the list goes on.  For Giacobetti, the film seems to a checklist more than an actual movie.Goodbye EmmanuelleDIRECTED BY FRANÇOIS LETERRIER/FRENCH/1977Seychelles is "simply lovely this time of year," particularly for a veteran bohemian sophisticate awakening to the restraints of her chosen life path.In some ways the worst and in some ways the best of the series, part three mercifully backs off of the crude raunchiness of its immediate predecessor, settling instead for the most dramatic storyline of the bunch.  Fitting, as Goodbye Emmanuelle is all about the title character arriving to the fact that a life of continuous free love in beautiful locales does not deliver true fulfillment.  Though she never gets as far as exploring alternatives, or even forsaking the life she’s been living, she does begin to note how her husband Jean has been using the lifestyle to A) keep her tethered while B) he gets to do as he pleases.  Of course she’s always gotten to do as she pleases as well, under his oft-repeated pretense that “I love her and want her to be happy.  I do not own Emmanuelle”.  And, yet- even in the first film, Jean displays moments of jealousy.Director François Leterrier (Bresson’s star of A Man Escaped and the father of Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier) helms this final chapter with an increased if pedestrian sense of class.  In this disc’s edition of the multi-part retrospective “The Joys of Emmanuelle”, Kristel speaks of what a relief it was to have a director who’s focus was the acting as opposed to being a visual stylist.  While not skimping on the requisite nudity, Goodbye Emmanuelle almost completely backs off of the simulated sex scenes that so ate up part two and aroused audiences of part one.  So marked was the comparative taming that the French  ratings board was prepared to grant it their equivalent of the PG-13.  (Executive producer Rousset-Rouard laughs recalling his reaction that news, “No, no, no…!  That would be disastrous!  It too must have a ‘restricted’ rating!”).  Goodbye Emmanuelle is generally not a particularly “fun” film in any kind of escapist manner.  The entire second half is dominated by Emmanuelle’s growing detachment to everything and everyone.  Everyone, that is, except for visiting film director Grégory (Jean-Pierre Bouvier), her paramour of choice this time around.  Emmanuelle keeps Grégory around even after he treats her like a prostitute, deeply upsetting her.  Anyhow, he may be good for a feature film’s worth of sandy beach frolics, but Bouvier is a bona-fide non-presence onscreen.  The atmosphere is sexed up in amusingly dated disc fashion by the hammy musical score by the celebrated Serge Gainsbourg(!) The film’s closing use of a repeated shot of Emmanuelle turning and waving goodbye over a groovin’ whispered refrain of “Emmanuelle…!  Emmanuelle…!  Emmanuelle…!  Goodbye!” is the unintentionally laughable height of the whole series.  For those watching the Emmanuelle films for ironic laughs, it could be said that Goodbye Emmanuelle goes out on top.On the first of the three-part “The Joys of Emmanuelle” mini-docs that appear across the three Blu-rays, Just Jaeckin comes on immediately to clear up an issue from a few paragraphs ago.  Out of the gate, in this 2003 retrospective, he explains that erotica is implicit; pornography is explicit.  In the context of his original film, the comment holds water.  (One could also apply it to Goodbye Emmanuelle).  For those who must know or are simply curious, the approach to sex and nudity in these films is like their musical scores: continuous, constant, retro; groovy and altogether dated.  It’s frequently full frontal but never, ever gynecological (the Thai woman smoking a cigarette...down there is the exception. A big exception.)  It’s also never equal-opportunity, male nudity is scarcely fleeting.  Careful camera angles, leg positioning, and a tendency to focus on facial expressions go a long way in keeping any of the Emmanuelle films out of hardcore territory, though 2 pushes the envelope, even for Kristal, who claims in “The Joys of Emmanuelle” that she felt very used in making that film.  In any case, the threshold of explicitness in the Emmanuelle series may not always manage the filmmakers’ initial intention of dodging vulgarity, but it nevertheless does not surpass what’s readily available today on (critically acclaimed and commercially successful) HBO.Whatever ones own bar for this kind of thing is, binging all three of these films back to back to back is not recommended.  It’s the kind of experience that leaves one asking questions like, “Did the go-go dancer smoke the cigarette with her V in the first film or the second…?”  Obviously this sort of thing isn’t conducive to sensible day-to-day conversation.  So clearly, Emmanuelle hasn’t been as boundaries-breaking as it’s commonly put forth.  The closest thing we have to it today, the Fifty Shades trilogy, took all the wrong lessons from this series: Among them, there’s the lesson that excessive materialism plus excessive sex equals female liberation and gratification -   hard to believe so many woman ate up that tripe. By part three of her trilogy, even Emmanuelle knows that that is (male) fantasy. I.e., The ever elusive "Cool Chick" - as deconstructed in Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl.Although the transfers for these new individually sold Kino Lorber Studio Classics Blu-ray editions of the Emmanuelle trilogy are said to be sourced from the scans prepped for 2003’s standard definition DVD releases, these films look and sound pretty darn good here.  There’s detail and clarity even when you might not really want it.If this series has any value beyond the prurient, it likely lies in its continuing theme of female independence- however misguided its narrative semantics may be.  More often than not, the films succeed in celebrating the true physical pleasures of sex and the beauty of human bodies, albeit mostly of the idealized Euro variety.  Humiliation and crude debasement are, with the very glaring exception of the climax of the first film, not in the mix.  Do not confuse this trilogy with the many, near hardcore name-only - actually spelled "Emanuel or "Emmanule" - presumably for legal reasons - imitators. (Which I prefer, they're largely honest in intent and execution.)  Even so, these films, as films, are not all that good or even memorable.  Today, they’re noteworthy solely for their novelty aesthetics and status as premiere vintage mainstream erotica.  Kino Lorber, leaning on recycled transfers and bonus features, has put little if anything new into these Blu-ray releases, though perhaps they didn’t need to.  With these high-definition releases, for better and worse, (and with all the subtlety inherent in the statement) Emmanuelle has come yet again.If you're interested, there is a BBC doc streaming on most tubes called The Real Emmanuelle. Quite good.

The 2015 Lionsgate reissue of EMMANUELLE is very different to the old 2003 Anchor bay dvdboth dvd versions have the same 94min Unrated cut which had a Graphic rape scene of Emmanuelleand some other explicit sex scenes that were cut from the original Theatrical releasebut the extras are very Differentthe 2003 Anchor bay Emmanuelle collection dvd which is tragically out of print nowhad the 3 Emmanuelle films over 3 Discs inside foldout Digi-pakall 3 films are Unrated and they're Definitely uncut1st is 1:78:1 ratio with English 2.0 Dolby digital stereo with a 17mins retrospective featurette Joys of Emmanuellewhich has new 2002 interviews with Sylvia kristel, Director Just Jaekin & producer Yves roussardthe prodcuers interview is French with English subtitles, Sylvia's & Just interviews are EnglishSylvia kristel speaks excellent English for foreign actressthe 2nd Disc is Emmanuelle 2 in much wider ratio 2:35:1 ratio with again English 2.0 Dolby digitalthe picture quality looks excellent Anchor bay made the effort with both 1 & 2 Emmanuellesthere's another 10min retrospective interview on the making of the sequelwith the same interviews as the first featurette, it's a continuation of the previous 17mins featuretteand the 3rd Disc which has Goodbye emmanuelle in the same 2:35:1 ratio & the same English stereo mixthe 3rd making of featurette is the last 9mins with Sylvia kristel & the french Director & producer of the previous 2 filmsif played together, it's a long 27min interview with all 3 contributors talking about their experiences making Emmanuelle 1,2,3but for some stupid reason Anchor bay decided to edit the interviews into 3 seperate featurettesi think it would've been much better to have the whole 27min interviews together on Disc 1cause for the first 15mins all 3 of them are talking about the first Emmanuelle film anyway.the extras on the Lionsgate dvd is EROTIC SUCCESS- MAKING OF EMMANUELLEwhich is 50min French TV broadcast in French with English subtitlesyou get interviews with the writer, producer, Director of Emmanuelle, plus French film Historiansno interview with Sylvia kristel, no interviews with any of the actors from the filmthere's another extra SOFT SELL EMMANUELLE IN AMERICAwhich is U.S. retrospective featurette on the original Emmanuelle film- 25minsthe Anchor bay dvd is worth getting more because the 3 featurettes on each 3 Discsare interviews with Sylvia kristel, Director Just Jaekin & the Producer Yves roussardtragically Sylvia kristel died of Lung & throat cancer at age 60 few years agoapparently she was a chain smoker thru her whole career so she was about 50 year old when she did the Anchor bay interviewbut it's your Decision, amazon.com does not have the anchor bay dvd listed anymore it's long out of printso your better off looking for a used copy on ebay.com5 stars for the Anchor bay dvd, maybe 3 stars for the Lionsgate dvd the extras are the only highlights on the Lionsgate dvd

Emmanuel is not Deep Throat nor can it be compared to The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It is an entertaining and a provocative journey,glimpsing into fantasy"s we've all indulged in,even today with nothing left to the imagination,Emmanuel lends romance to sexual pleasures that most call off limits. We're not uncomfortable watching this almost childlike woman ready herself to step beyond her comfort zone and allow her vulnerability to assaulted. Games on and her sexuality is ripe for the picking,to be enjoyed by the more sophisticated array of men and woman who live in the erotically charged "Town and Country-like"backdrop of Shanghai and Bangkok....No one could have captured this more stunningly than Sylvia Kristel,albeit somewhat passive in her ingenue role as she samples each new delight,she is still genuinely believable.It's a pleasure to watch her move with a natural grace unaware of her desirable body.and the seductive effect it generates..Hardly more voluptuous than a woodland nymph, Kristel's fresh scrubbed, dewy pout entices almost anyone who's caught her scent...Like a student a student trying to learn graduate courses,Emmanuel seems slightly puzzled as to whether she's absorbed the content of what she's been taught. I too saw the original movie with more explicate sex scenes that added an edgier slightly raunchier feel but this is still delicious to watch,the simple storyline is carried visually like a series of dreamy photographs accompanied by an excellent musical score.It's just pure entertainment to roll in erotic fantasy,lovely to look at,satisfying both the artistic eye and a desire to tap into our own passionate nature.

Another of those occasions when you develop a bizarre interest in something that the internet helps you indulge. Recently bought a secondhand copy of Ms Kristel's "Undressing Emmanuelle" autobiography. This resulted in an Amazon search for the film. This is a really good version - looks gorgeous. Ms Kristel is lovely - as are most of the female cast. The blokes are a bunch of really dodgy 'French' types. It's much raunchier than I remember from a sleazy London cinema in the 70s. The modern audience, sated by internet smut, can't possibly appreciate what a seismic event this was at the time. Having read Ms Kristel's book, you get a better understanding of the film.

In the 1970s. when this film was made it was a great sensation as far as the liberalization of film-making was concerned. In short, it was a break-away from the era of strict censorship and part of the new threshold into the realms of pornography. However, in the "anything goes" reality of the 21 st century "Emmanuelle" doesn't get past second base. As the main focus was on nudity and other boundary-breaking activities of that time, the story line was not a big priority and can only be described as "incidental to the movie". Similarly, the photography is "middle of the road" and could certainly have made better use of the natural beauty of Thailand. I gave it three stars only because it does have a certain historical and sentimental value. By today's standards, two stars would be adequate,

This was the one of those so called 'ground breaking' sexy films of the 70s. I didn't see it then and possibly might have had a different attitude at the time (in my teens) but this is a film with nothing to say and merely for sex. Now, all these years later, I / we found it to be unpleasantly exploitative in its treatment of women - quite horrid to us now - especially towards the end of the film. As the film progresses Emmanuelle is used (even raped) by one after another under the influence of a sadistic, manipulative older man. It wasn't helped by the mostly poor acting and lack of plot or cinematography. Cheap and tawdry.

I saw the original back in the 70's. It was an iconic lesbian "outing" film for me at 15, as it was FULL of lesbian sex scenes. Didn't quite have the same impact seeing it at 58. Soft porn is the right description. Crass dubbed English dialogue, and now very dated music. I left it in 1975 thinking Sylvia Kristel was beeautiful and certain scenes were equally beautiful and sensual. They still are, but not "quite" the same as my magical first watching back then.. If you're a lesbian - watch it. It's still iconic. Not many films to recommend for us on that basis. It's one of the better in that sense.

This film, after Tango in Paris, is considered the one that showed the possibilities for a woman's sexual liberation in the 20th Century, and brought this open theme to mainstream cinema. The story is framed in a diplomatic community that shares (informal) membership of the cult of eroticism and details the continuing development of heights of sexual experience for the title character. Today the theme of the story is probably still somewhat suprising, but the characters are beautifully portrayed, and Sylvia Kristel is beautiful dressed and undressed. Not much depth is given to any of the supporting characters, but the single minded pursuit of sexual excitement by these characters to alleviate general boredom with their lifestyle of wealth supported by multiple servants perhaps allows little room for deeper stories.