Page 153 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

narrative form and genre. By the mid-1960s, however, these once revolutionary tendencies wete widely
co-opted by mainstream filmmakers. Enter Rousset-Rouard and Jaeckin with Arsan's novel, a bestseller
and franchise of literary sequels ready for movie-friendly audiences, additionally positioned to capitalise
on newly relaxed standards friendlier than ever to sensual imagery on-screen.
Emmanuelle, along with Bertrand Blier's Les Valseuses (Going Places, 1974) and Walerian
Borowczyks Contes immoraux (Immoral Tales, 1974), formed France's Tepoque erotique'" wherein
cinematic sexuality was encouraged rather than suppressed. Though French filmmakers had once been
known for extending the limits of petmissible subjects in the cinema, they had been systematically
herded in a more conservative direction during the post-wat years.
While American critics and viewers paid admission to, and then puzzled over, Jaeckin's film and
its out of sync imagery (as they also did with the current spate of carnal cinema stateside), France
entered a far more prurient phase. Characterising the times, A. H. Weiler wrote in the New York
Times, 'Emmanuelle is a fluffy consignment of romantic, slick, softcore, sexual simulations that is
largely uninspired and hardly a revelation to enthusiasts long exposed to the genre.'17 Missing from
his remarks, however, is the incredible sense of difference in Jaeckin's film since the French were not
supportive of erotic films in quite the same way as their American cousins.
Nowhere as derailed or licentious as any scene from Arsan's book, Jean-Louis Richard's adapred
screenplay is, nonetheless, lush with exterior shots of Thailand and liberal use of Sylvia Kristels
body in acts of simulated intimacy. Jaeckin's further application of fashion lighting, pop music and
suggestive sexual coupling, even tripling, was a brilliant flash of provocation. When added to the
reputation of the source novel, little else was needed to make the film a success, although certain key
additions were made, arguably to the picture's detriment.
Opening with Emmanuelle (Kristel) dressed in a scant tobe, she quickly boards a jet, all innocence
and wonder. As in the novel, she takes two different male lovers en route to Bangkok before landing in
the arms of her husband, Jean (Daniel Sarky). Overcome by the awesome poverty and physical beauty
of het new home she is nearly undone by a crowd of beggars. To calm her, the teunited pair make love
as two household servants look on with an echoing frenzy.
In Jean's subsequent absence tending unknown responsibilities, Emmanuelle visits the local
club frequented by diplomats' wives. There she meets Ariane (Jeanne Colletin), a pretty and notably
older cynic, along with Matie-Ange (Christine Boisson), a lovely teenager she invites home for easy
companionship. At a party she then meets Mario (Alain Cuny), though she considers him far too old,
and instead falls for Bee (Marika Green), an archaeologist.
The Sapphic pair then vanish on one of Bee's digs to explore the sights and sounds of the Thai
wilderness, ostensibly to mine historical ruins, though they actually have sex before breaking up. In
his wife's absence Jean visits a strip bar, gets drunk and rapes Ariane in a pique of anger recuperated
as the stuff of violent fantasy, another uncomfortable departure from Arsan. Returning home, then,
lovelorn and confused, Jean welcomes Emmanuelle and suggests she pursue a relationship with Mario
to distract her troubles. So begins our heroine's roundabout as Mario meets her for dinner before
taking her to a cocaine den where she is raped at his insistence. Afterwards they watch a boxing match
where he offers her as the prize for the winner and their evening ends in a threesome just as in the
novel's erotically overwrought finale.

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