Page 149 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

and tricked out with a silly plot about a young woman's discovery of the ultimate turn-on'.' Others
derided it as 'a provocatively boring film with no characters, just mannikins; no acting, just gesturing;
no sensitivity just gloss'.4 These reviews were similarly critical of the film's 'philosophising about
personal relationships and liberated approaches to marriage - probably ooh-ha back in 1957 and still
pretty racy in France - is not only stale stuff but pretentiously banal as well'. 5
When considering its original gross totaling some $4 million 6 on a budget of f220,000-$600,000, 7
the film's popularity nevertheless outweighs the objections of its critics. In this way the film exhibits
a by now familiar binary between a high culture standard, determined as well-produced art serving
a fundamentally moral purpose, and a mass entertainment result, viewed as a disposable commodity
providing visceral, amoral thrills.
To then assert Emmanuelle was a successful product is precisely the point. With its exploitative
tendencies foremost in out thinking, we can turn to examine its wider influence. Such context
positions it as a nodal point in French filmmaking history both instrumental to, and symptomatic of,
a more generalised commercialisation of erotic images.
Down this road exist grindhouse raincoaters, art-house patrons, curiosity seekers and everyday
people craving entertainment from the most teadily available sources. Into this diverse spectatorship
is the novel, film and enterprise, Emmanuelle. As one title among several to permanently re-direct
French, and perhaps global, film culture, the behind-the-scenes view argues for the film's inclusion in
the recognised canon despite its critical marginalisation in film history.
This chapter accounts for Emmanuelle from not only a European, but also a specifically American,
viewpoint in order to trace its unusual history through to the present. Thus, the question is how do
we explain the film's status as a cult classic to certain aesthetes, a fetid backwater detracting from
French film culture to others and, to those interested few, a point of contention concerning all these
constituents? By first concentrating on the literary source, the answer is to be found in the resulting
back-story detailing the film's production circumstances and the overlapping participation of its
notable star, Sylvia Kristel. Lastly I shall consider Emmanuelle's influence on not only numerous
erotic movies and television programmes, but also on the debates around certain types of European
low/trash culture impulses that become recast in high culture publications.

THE CASE FOR A NOVEL

Marayat Bibidh was born in Bangkok, Thailand in 1932 of mixed Thai and French descent. Little is
known of her early life and sifting through the few available biographical details to form a complete
portrait offers three complicating twists of fate.
First, Ms Bibidh was married to a member of the French delegation to the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and thus assumed the name Marayat
Rollet-Andriane. Second, she began a hobbyist's career writing novels, for which she adopted the
pen name Emmanuelle Arsan. Third, she became an actress and used the name Marayat Andriane
for such work as Maily, the Chinese prostitute, in The Sand Pebbles (Robert Wise, 1966), and Tiree,
the Tahitian bondwoman, in episode 2.26, 'Turn of a Card', of the American television show The
Big Valley (Virgil W. Vogel, 20 March 1967). Together these name changes and career paths mean

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