Emmanuelle (1974)

The wife of a French diplomat in Bangkok, Emmanuelle embarks on a voyage of sexual discovery.

Director:

Just Jaeckin

Writers:

Emmanuelle Arsan (novel), Jean-Louis Richard

Stars:

Sylvia Kristel, Alain Cuny, Marika Green

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Alain Cuny	...	Mario
Sylvia Kristel	...	Emmanuelle
Marika Green	...	Bee
Daniel Sarky	...	Jean
Jeanne Colletin	...	Ariane
Christine Boisson	...	Marie-Ange
Samantha
Gabriel Briand	...	Le deuxième homme dans l'avion (as Gaby Brian)
Gregory

Storyline

Emmanuelle is a beautiful young model and lives in Bangkok together with her husband Jean, who's several years older. She likes him because he's taught her much, and he likes her because she's learning so well - and wants to often. Both are very tolerant in matters of extramarital affairs, so he doesn't mind the young Marie-Ange coming over every so often, although she obviously wants more than talk from his wife. But Emmanuelle is more fascinated by the older Bee, and joins her on a trip into the jungle.

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Plot Keywords:

extramarital affair | multiple lovers | female rear nudity | voyeurism | pubic hair | 

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Taglines:

It is an X movie with a story handled with elegance. It is based on a novel that sold over a million copies in 17 languages. And no adult film has received wider acclaim.

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

(Banned)

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is a relatively rare example of an X-rated, erotic movie released in the USA by a major movie distributor (Columbia Pictures). Apparently, this came about because the movie had been particularly popular in France among women. The company reasoned that the movie would not be regarded as pornographic as long as women liked it.

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Goofs

(at around 1 min) When Emmanuelle is on the plane, she closes the blind fully and curls up. A fellow passenger sits down and embraces her. In addition to the high spotlight on her cleavage, there's a bright light coming from the direction of said covered window.

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Quotes

Mario: l want us to find the unknown by the unsettling of the senses. Couples should be outlawed. It should be compulsory to include a third person...

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Alternate Versions

For its original UK cinema release the film suffered BBFC cuts to reduce the sex scenes, a masturbation sequence and to completely remove a club scene where a woman smokes a cigarette through her vagina, and the film was withdrawn in 1978 by censor James Ferman to make an additional cut, removing the entire scene of Emmanuelle being raped in an opium den. The 1990 video release saw many of the cinema cuts restored although 1 minute 25 secs of cuts were retained to the cigarette and rape scenes, and the 2001 Momentum DVD release saw the cigarette scene restored and the cuts to the rape scene reduced to 38 secs. The film was finally passed fully uncut for the 2007 Optimum DVD.

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Connections

Followed by Emmanuelle: L'antivierge (1975)

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Soundtracks

Emmanuelle In Thailand
Written and Performed by Pierre Bachelet and Hervé Roy

User Reviews

The ambiguity of Emmanuelle

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.

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

26 June 1974 (France)

Also Known As:

Emanuela

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Box Office

Budget:

$500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Trinacra Films, Orphée Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min 89 min (R-rated) 93 min (cut) 90 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1