Cinema Retro Editor-in-Chief Lee Pfeiffer looks at the new edition of the notorious French sexploitation film
Jerome Wybon, one of Cinema Retro's French correspondents, has recently completed a labor of love: producing and directing the documentary An Erotic Success on the new special DVD edition of Emmanuelle, the 1974 soft core erotic blockbuster that Lionsgate has just released in the USA. Naturally, I'd ordinarily be loathe to review a film with this much sex and nudity, but c'est la vie, in the interest of Monsieur Wybon, I thought I'd suffer through these tribulations to review the release that boasts his documentaries. It's a lousy job, but somebody had to do it.
I'm almost embarrased to admit I am among the few people on the planet who came of age in the 1970s who had not seen Emmanuelle. (I think there are two eunichs in India who share the distinction). Thus, I was able to view the new special edition DVD without any preconceived notions. I was well aware that although many people classify Emmanuelle as porn, these are the same folks who give that status to Playboy magazine. To be clear, Emmanuelle is not porn- never was and certainly is not by today's standards. However, this works in the film's favor. With the porn industry now so widespread even teenagers are dozing off looking at dirty images on their computers, there is something refreshing about the relative innocence of Emmanuelle both from the viewpoint of the film and it's titular (no pun intended) character. Unlike today's straight-to-video porn films, this one succeeds in rising above the norm on numerous levels. For one, it has truly impressive production values. The movie was shot mostly in Thailand and the low budget precluded the construction of sets. Thus, the filmmakers made excellent use of the majestic outdoor settings as well as eye-popping local residences. The cinematography is gorgeous and the film boasts an enchanting musical score.
The plot, such as it is, can be written on the head of a pin. Emmanuelle is a nubile young woman married to an "older" man of thirty-two. Her husband alternates between acting as a lover and a father figure for the impressionable and naive girl. They are sent to Thailand when her husband is assigned to the local French embassy. Like Beaver Cleaver's father, however, you don't see him doing much work at the office. Why should he with a nymphet wife at home who seems to have an insatiable curiosity about any aspect of sex? This type of work ethic may explain the collapse of French colonialism, but it also explains why the French seem to have more fun than anyone else. Because of her innocence and beauty, Emmanuelle is constantly the object of desire for free spirited men and women who move in her social circles. The swinging isn't just limited to the French expatriots living in Bangkok but also extends local girls who are instantly smitten with young Emmanuelle. All of this goes on with the encouragement of her husband who seems to put a few new notches in his own bedpost every evening through sleeping with the wives of fellow diplomats. The dramatic center of the film occurs when Emmanuelle goes on a spontaneous trip with a gorgeous lesbian and falls madly in love. The feeling is not mutual, however, and she returns to her husband emotionally devastated by the life lesson that women can use other women as sexual playthings just as men are prone to do. The final act of the story is as bizarre as it is unsatisfying. Emmanuelle's husband feels she needs the guidance of an older lover and sets her up with Mario, a French aristocrat old enough to be her grandfather. Mario proceeds to subject her to various sexual humiliations including gang rape and anal sex - all carried out by others as he mumbles enough mind-boggling philosophical theories to make you believe Emmanuelle has accidentally stumbled into Col. Kurtz's cave.
The film rests squarely on the shoulders of it's appealing cast with
Sylvia Kristel as fetching as ever in the role that has defined her
career ever since. She has a natural beauty and her apparent ease with
performing nude scenes allows for some truly memorable and superbly
photographed sequences - some of which have no overt sexual content
whatsoever. The camera simply loves her. She is more than matched by
Marika Green who plays the lesbian lover who lures Emmanuelle into an
ill-fated affair. Alain Cuny, the distinguished French actor shows up
in the final act of the film as Mario, Emmanuelle's older
mentor/would-be-lover. Cuny adds a sense of class and dignity to the
proceedings but his presence here is still rather startling. The film's
sexual sequences are rather tame by today's standards, but because they
are shot so lovingly and with such taste and style that even the more
repulsive acts depicted don't seem to be as offensive as one might
expect. The most notorious sequence in the film is a brief clip set in
a Bangkok brothel in which a nude dancer performs a certain act with a
cigarette. This is shown in all it's glory and because it is so much
more daring than anything else in the film, it's a real eye-opener. It
also led to this scene being snipped in several countries including the
USA and UK.
The special edition is a bit stingy on extras. The
one-platter DVD contains the French and documentary by Jerome Wybon about
the making of the film and another U.S.-produced documentary the challenges of marketing it
in different countries. Wyborn advises that he had to use footage of
interviews with director Just Jaeckin and producer Yves Rousset-Rouard
that were shot a few years before by Studio Canal, which authorized
this release in conjunction with Sony DADC in Austria. It's to Wyborn's
credit that this joint interview is incorporated seamlessly in the
footage he shot with the film's director of photography Richard Suzucki
and film editor Claudine Bouché. The documentaries are shot in an
old-fashioned, straight-forward fashion that is refreshing compared to
the lightning-fast, MTV-like editing styles seen in most DVD
featurettes. By allowing his subjects to talk at length, it adds to the
fascination of the story-behind-the-story. Having known virtually
nothing about this adaptation of the original erotic novel, I found all
of the anecdotes revealed to be very interesting. The crew speaks
candidly about the fact that, with the exception of the film editor (a
protege of Truffaut), virtually everyone else had no experience making
a feature film - including Sylvia Kristel, who was chosen out of the
blue to play the title role. The documenataries are filled with endless
anecdotes about the countless screw-ups and near-disasters that
occurred during filming. Among them: the inability to get promised
permits to film in Thailand, the complete inability to screen dailies,
the panic on the part of the producer and editor when the initial
footage was deemed to be disastrous, the arrest and jailing of the cast
and crew when local monks stumbled on the lesbian scene being filmed
and the unremittingly unpleasant behavior of Alain Cuny.
When
the film became an unexpected international blockbuster, no one was
more shocked than the people who had created the movie. In one Parisian
theater, the film played non-stop for over a decade. Equally
interesting are Wyborn's interviews with Americans ranging from
feminist Camilla Paglia to marketing executives who had the unenviable
task of selling an X rated movie to main stream America. Just Jaeckin
and Yves Rousset-Rouard confess they didn't feel the film was really
worthy of all the attention, but recognize that it did break down
taboos pertaining how lesbianism was portrayed on-screen. Prior to
this, most lesbians were portrayed as Rosa Klebb clones, but in Emmanuelle, the sex was between gorgeous women and was shot as romantically as anything in Gone With the Wind.
The filmmakers say they received stacks of "thank you" letters from gay
women around the world. Most amusing is the fact that the cast and crew
were so convinced they had made an unreleasable disaster that virtually
all of them passed up the offer to share in the film's profits, opting
instead for a steady paycheck. Richard Suzucki says that one of the few
crew members who opted for the profit share plan is still living
comfortably off the royalties today.
I wish there had been a
still photo gallery included on this set, and the absence of Sylvia
Kristel is sorely missed (she had scheduling conflicts). Also, while
the transfer is gorgeous during the scenes shot in daylight, the
interiors are often far too dark and look as though they were shot in
an inkwell. This may well be the case with the 35mm master print, but
one wishes that the scenes could have been improved for the DVD
transfer. Lionsgate has also saddled the DVD with a bland sleeve that
looks like a knock-off of the poster for Showgirls instead of
using the iconic photo of Kristel sitting in the wicker backed chair.
Nevertheless, it's the extras that make this edition particularly
worthwhile. Jerome Wybon has done an impressive job of providing the
first in depth look at the making of this cult classic to be released
on DVD. I guess we'll keep him on the "comp" list for future issues of
Cinema Retro. C'est magnifique!
TO ORDER THE EMMANUELLE SPECIAL DVD EDITION FROM AMAZON CLICK HERE