After watching the wonderfully saucy Brigitte Lahaie movie Couple cherche esclave sexuel last night,I looked for a second slice of French smut/ "Erotica" to make it a double bill. Looking round online,I stumbled on an intriguing Emmanuelle clone,which led to me meeting Emilienne.View on the film:Rushed out to turn some quick tricks after Emmanuelle became a smash hit, director Guy Casaril & cinematographer Jean Monsigny actually show some care towards the production,which follows its inspiration by going for the erotic,rather than the raunchy, with Casril focusing on the sensual facial reactions of the trio in the sex scenes. Backed by a groovy score from Nino Ferrer, Casril gives this skin flick a tasty 70's mood of eye-catching clothes and chessboards,along with peculiar erotica involving honey, and a dog giving new meaning to "French Kiss."Taking the clothes off of Claude Des Olbes's novel, the screenplay by Eric Losfeld and Philippe de Jonas display an unexpected level of maturity,as the sexy frolics between Emilienne and Claude take a serious turn when Claude attempts to have both Emilienne and his wife Nouky ("Nouky" He He! ) be in a joint relationship with him. Tragically dying from a suicide age 44 in 1989, Betty Mars gives an alluring, sensual performance,that steams up the screen as Emilienne.

This movie was rushed into production to cash in on the sudden and unexpected success of Just Jaeckin's EMMANUELLE, which explains the directorial presence of a hack like Guy Casaril whose biggest hit had been the slightly naughty farce LES NOVICES, pitting then reigning sex goddess Brigitte Bardot against experienced comedienne Annie Girardot.Production values are fair (decent cinematography, fluent editing but awfully dated soundtrack full of elevator muzak) but the travelogue footage of the original it's trying to emulate is sadly missing. And yet this is still my personal favorite among that revered soft porn blockbuster's myriad cinematic siblings (and I duly apologize to lovely Laura Gemser for that statement, true though it is !), largely because of beautiful blonde anti-bimbo Betty Mars in the title role. A talented torch singer who sadly took her own life in the late 80s, she's best remembered for supplying her vocal chords to the title character otherwise played by Brigitte Ariel (whatever happened to her ?) in Casaril's biopic PIAF. Her only movie appearance 'in the flesh' (and, boy, that's no euphemism !) was here as the bisexual spouse of arts professor Claude fooling around with conniving student Nicole, 'Nouky' to her friends. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Mars attacks (sorry, couldn't resist that one) the part with such intensity, she completely overshadows the rest of the not terribly convincing cast. Her female co-star Guerin in particular is a source of irritation, her whole repertoire consisting of mugging and pouting. Thanks to our Betty's haunted performance, sex scenes such as her discovery of the joys of Sapphic romance in the arms of a small legion of blonde and buxom Widows of the Sea (don't ask how this came about, just sit back and enjoy) end up far more stimulating than they might have been. Another aspect that puts this movie apart from most other titillation romps is its dim view of marital bliss with some of the harrowing scenes in its middle section (when the protagonists attempt a 3-way marriage with disastrous results) playing like Strindberg Lite.

I first watched this film about five years ago, expecting no more than a soft porn flick with a badly incorporated story line to link the titillation.However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was so much more.I'm not saying that it is the Citizen Kane of French cinema, but this soft porn movie does have an interesting plot, involving some pretty raw emotions. Conflict, rejection, jealousy, anger, desperation and love are all laid bare on the screen, giving the watcher a genuine interest in its characters and plenty for us to empathise with.Eurovision beauty Betty Mars, plays Emilienne, an art dealer and dutiful housewife to her husband Claude, played here with Freddie Mercury moustache by Pierre Oudrey.College lecturer Claude has a secret lover in the form of one of his beautiful young female students Nicole, known to her intimates as Nouky.Nouky, (Nathalie Guérin), is a spoilt brat of an art student with a spiteful streak a mile wide and she is constantly asking for Claude to leave his wife.It is only when Claude refuses once and for all, she decides to do something about it. If Claude won't leave Emilienne, then Nouky will join them.Claude finds out about Nouky's plan quite early on and is at first against the idea, but the thought of seeing his two women together seems to excite him beyond words and he eventually goes along more to satisfy his personal fantasies than any of the women in his life.Nouky visits Emilienne at her gallery and shows her some self portraits in erotic poses. Despite telling Nouky that her gallery never exhibits portraits, she none the less buys them, secretly turned on by the pictures and the young artist who painted them.It is at this meeting Nouky seductively asks Emilienne to pose nude for her, and after a few days of fighting what is apparently an unknown and suppressed bisexuality, Emilienne finally agrees.What then follows is the start of a full on lesbian affair between the two, with Emilienne torturing herself by hiding the guilty truth from Claude, who of course is already aware of everything.It is disturbing to see Emilienne in these scenes as we know she is purposely being exploited by both her husband and their mutual lover. One such scene is where Nouky lets Claude secretly watch her and his unsuspecting wife.Finally Emilienne, driven by guilt and confusion, confesses to Claude that she is not only cavorting with another woman but she is also in love with her.Claude, lays on his best startled and surprised routine, but is quick to comfort and console, after-all his plan is working beautifully.It is therefore decided to Claude's inner delight, that Emilienne will be allowed to bring her new lover into the marital home and the three live together in a sort of Ménage á trois.This arrangement works happily for a while, after all Claude is free to love both women and Emilienne is able to keep her marriage together and conduct her relationship with Nouky openly and with her husbands blessing. Nouky shows all the signs of contentment, but it is all on the surface. She has other ideas planned.She considers the Ménage á trois as a means to an end. She has no real feeling for Emilienne and is just using her to be near Claude. When she realises the arrangement is actually bringing Claude and Emilienne closer together, Nouky maliciously tells Emilienne about her and Claude's prior relationship and as how their current situation is a direct result from a plan of their concocting.This is heartbreaking and earth shattering news for Emilienne who feels betrayed by the two people she loves. However, she does continue to try and make things work despite Nouky changing the boundaries of the threesome to the extent that it is now her and Claude who are the couple and Emilienne the guest in their midst.However Nouky's evil streak has come to the forefront with her new found power and she mercilessly bullies Emilienne and humiliates her. One scene that stands out in particular is where Nouky forces Emelienne to perform a sexual favour for a visiting male friend.Finally humiliated to breaking point and too aware of her pitiful status in her own home, Emilienne decides to leave and files for divorce from Claude.Emilienne, is the true victim in this film, it is her you relate to more than any other character, and on her departure from the house, you can really sense the hurt and despair she must be feeling.Not only has she lost her husband and her lover, she is confused as to her real sexuality. She is confused as to whether or not it is women in general that attract her or just Nouky herself. She tries sleeping with prostitutes and frequenters of the local gay bar, but these encounters seem to lack whatever it is that satisfies her new found lust for lesbian sex.In the end it is Nouky and Claude who find Emilienne's departure the most painful. Now married with a child, they come to realise that it was Emilienne's presence that made the whole thing special. Nouky feels nothing but guilt and heartache as she slowly appreciates just how much she really did love her, and they both want her to come back home.And this is how the story ends, with Emilienne returning to the house, this time with a complete roll reversal and two partners who really do love her as much as she loves them.Still a porn flick at heart with some gratuitous nudity at times (the lesbian orgy scene in Brittany for one) but on the whole fitted neatly into a very entertaining and serious love story which defies conventional attitudes.

In the wake of the world and French success of "Emmanuelle" with the stunning Silvia Kristel as the erotic heroine, producers went searching for other erotic material to be made into an erotic movie in the hope to get a piece of cake that the world was discovering. The novel by Claude des Olbes was removed from its dust and rewritten into this movie. Everything what the movie "Emmanuelle" makes as an erotic experience lacks this movie. Starting at the top with its heroine down to the script, production, setting, story, actors...Both movies are as opposite as black and white. As colorful and mysterious Sylvia Kristel is as Emmanuelle so flat and stuffed is Betty Mars as Emilienne. She is so boring and uninteresting as a character that you wonder why her husband did not go sooner in a relationship with a younger woman. Seeing Kristel as Emmanuelle gives you the notion that she is capable of leading a life that she lives with her husband and lovers (male and female) in an exotic locale like Bangkok, Bali, Hong Kong...Emilienne as a movie gives you such a claustrophobic bourgeois feeling in Paris/France and their houses that the only thing comes to your mind is to get out of the room screaming longing for fresh air and sunshine. Emilienne is a movie only for those who would like to torture their brain or would like to have a good laugh.