Page 148 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

C H A P T E R 1 1
E M M A N U E L L E E N T E R P R I S E S

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray

INTRODUCING EMMANUELLE

It is virtually impossible to satisfy the thirst for Emmanuelle, and no single essay can ever do justice
to the complexities of the character or the series. Like the character herself implies, a voyeuristic
description is the next best thing to the real experience. From the distance of decades, director fust
Jaeckin's Emmanuelle (1974) sits atop a number of historical debates that position the film as a
grandmother of modern pornography. Produced as a response to Hollywood's conventions, and as
redress for older cinematic practices in France, it also offers a snapshot of changing aesthetic priorities
in European movies of the early 1970s.
The point is never so striking as in the difference between the uniformly negative critical reactions
and the number of paid admissions, which made it the biggest ever box-office draw in France during
1974.1 Some critics dismissed the film as 'pretentious twaddle',2 while being 'fussy, overdecorated,

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