Taglines: Let’s you feel good without feeling bad.
Emmanuelle (Sylvia Kristel) is a 19-year-old model who joins her new husband Jean (Daniel Sarky) in Thailand where he is a member of the French embassy. Although she now lives in a beautiful estate full of local servants, Emmanuelle is unhappy because she is bored with the people she meets, especially the unproductive women she joins for some nude sunbathing.
They tease her because she has never had and affair… though Jean has suggested that she do so for he is in support of an open marriage. Emmanuelle wishes she could be like the teenage Marie-Ange (Christine Boisson) and have sex without having guilt. That is her goal that Emmanuelle makes to herself.
Although Ariane (Jeanne Colletin) her squash partner, constantly tries to seduce her, Emmanuelle is more attracted to Bee (Marika Green), an archaeologist whom the other women shun for being different and for ignoring them. Emmanuelle pursues Bee, and they eventually make love. Emmanuel is very content in this new lesbian relationship until Bee tells her that she doesn’t love her in “that” way, and their brief affair comes to a quick end.
Jean, who was very jealous when his wife was with Bee, is very happy to have Emmanuelle return to him. While he continues to have extramarital affairs with other women, including Marie-Ange and Ariane (who finally manages to seduce Emmanuelle at last), he sends Emmanuel to receive sexual instruction from the elderly Mario (Alain Cuny) who many of the women say is the best love they ever had.
Upset my her failed experience with Bee, Emmanuelle is completely open to Mario’s sexual philosophy which includes “Destroy all values, conformity, and morals”. He further tells her, “Throw away the pleasure of love, and realize the dream of eroticism”. During one night, Mario tells a drunk stranger to remove her panties, escorts her to an opium den where she is raped by local men.
Mario then offers her as the prize of a prizefight, and proves to her and sex is the best when there is a third person involved. Mario never actually tries to seduce Emmanuelle and rejects her offer of sex by saying “True love is erection, not orgasm”. Feeling as if Mario had freed her from her personal prison, Emmanuelle physically makes herself up into a sexual animal, realizing that this is what she wants to be now.
Emmanuelle is a 1974 French drama film directed by Just Jaeckin. It is the first installment in a series of French softcore pornography films based on the novel Emmanuelle. The film stars Sylvia Kristel in the title role about a woman who takes a trip to Bangkok to enhance her sexual experience. The film was former photographer Just Jaeckin’s debut feature film and was shot on location in Thailand and in France between 1973 and 1974.
Emmanuelle was received negatively by critics on its initial release and with a more mixed reception years later. On its initial release in France, it was one of the highest-grossing French films. Columbia Pictures released both the original version and an English-dubbed version in the United States theatrically, making it the first X-rated film released by the company. The film was popular in Europe, the United States, and Asia and was followed-up in 1975 with Emmanuelle, The Joys of a Woman. Several other films influenced by Emmanuelle were released including the Italian series Black Emanuelle.
Emmanuelle (1974)
Directed by: Just Jaeckin
Starring: Alain Cuny, Sylvia Kristel, Marika Green, Daniel Sarky, Jeanne Colletin, Christine Boisson, Gabriel Briand, Samantha, Gregory
Screenplay by: Jean-Louis Richard
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Richard Suzuki
Film Editing by: Claudine Bouché
Costume Design by: Georges Bril
Makeup Department: Christine Fornelli, Andrea Pfister
Music by: Pierre Bachelet
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Parafrance Films
Release Date: June 26, 1974 (Paris)
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