caught this movie on my late night cable network and settled in to watch one of the great erotic masterpieces of the early seventies by erotic auteur just juecken of Gwendoline and the histoire of o fame. i did enjoy the lovely and lush scenery, theme song and exotic locales but found the pace rather slow moving for my taste. i though that Sylvia Kristel who plays the iconic role was just perfect and certainly didn't shy away from the nudity. the only part of the movie that intrigued and piqued my interest was when Kristel character met up with and began an affair with Marika green's character. immediately Kristel is fascinated by green and invites herself to tag along for the trip. you see the the two as they travel along and work side by side doing their daily chores. the way that Kristel absolutely adores and fawns over green. its' a shame that the writers didn't continue this storyline as it would have been interesting to see how it would have all played out. this one role catapulted a than un-known Kristel into super-stardom and se would go on to star in several sequels in the emmanuelle series much of it forgettable. she could not launch her career in America and what roles she did receive were usually stereotyped sexpot ones such as private lessons, Mata hair and lady chatterly's lover. it must have proved frustrating for Kristel who clearly wanted to move on from her one role. a decent flick if you're looking for something to watch on a Friday evening with a lot of skin.

I first saw this film back in 1976, and only remembered that it was fiercely arousing to a young man at the time. I didn't catch the story, however. Times have changed since then, and I recently viewed the film a couple of times, when I wrote subtitles to it so I could show it to a close friend.Emmanuelle falls between X-rated and art-house. If one views it as an adult film, then the lack of male frontal nudity and full-on intercourse make the film feel timid. OTOH, for an art film, the plot is quite thin.When the film premiered in the mid '70s, it made a stir. Most of the brouhaha was about it being shown in regular theaters instead of seedy back-alley ones. Today we see so much erotics and sex in regular films and on TV that such discussions would seem ridiculous.Emmanuelle is based on the autobiographical novel with the same name, by Emmanuelle Arsan. The book (1971) was banned in France, ostensibly for too much erotic content, but the Foreign Department may have influenced this, since the story gives a decadent impression of them.Young and innocent Emmanuelle travels to Bangkok to her newly-wed husband, ten years her senior. He lives in a setting where bored Embassy wives resort to promiscuity and intrigue to fend off a sense of boredom and lack of purpose in life. Her husband clearly feels at home in this setting.Both her husband and the wives tell Emmanuelle to "get free of inhibitions", which they themselves clearly have done. The film is essentially her journey towards that goal. Her husband has others help him in "her education".At first viewing the film is admittedly just an erotic flick, with thin connections between the erotic scenes. But after a few more times it becomes clear that director Jaeckin and screen writer Richard really tried to follow the book, and the characters and their actions seemed plausible and natural.Perhaps the most surprising thing about this film is, it does not seem old, like many other European erotic films of the time.One can also view this film as a discourse between the male and female aspects of sensuality. There is the male dream of sex and eroticism without emotional commitment, and promiscuous relations with beautiful, willing girls and women. And the (possibly today somewhat outdated?) female sexuality as sensuality, commitment and pure love, with its slow love making and longing for true companionship.Emmanuelle can also be seen as a spiritual road movie, where she starts off as an innocent, yet strongly sensual girl, who slowly reaches sexual awareness and competence. From sex drive as the master to her as the master and erotics as just another tool in her chest.I would strongly recommend this film especially for grown-ups who have seen enough porn, or love scenes in regular films, and who want to remember instead what erotic meant. There still aren't that many films in this niche between porn and mainstream.

Going into this film, the only thing that I was really worried about was that it might be boring. It's not that I particularly have anything against pornography; but what's taboo now and what was taboo over three decades ago are different things, and besides that; you can only watch people having sex for so long before it begins to get dull. However, I was wrong; the film isn't boring, and while the focus is usually on sex; there actually is a story, and it actually is quite interesting! The film is unlikely to appeal to people that are interested in the more perverted side of sex as the film doesn't feature anything above lesbian sex, but the tender way that the story is presented as well as the French style give it a very erotic feel throughout. The plot, as you might expect, focuses on the character 'Emmanuelle', a young woman that lives with her husband; an older man, in Bangkok. They share a sort of teacher-pupil relationship, and they're also very liberal where adultery is concerned, as neither one cares too much about the other's antics with other people.This film inspired a barrage of slightly less tasteful sequels, as well as a range of Italian films, many of which were directed by sleaze God Joe D'Amato. I don't think the filmmakers intended Emmanuelle to be associated so closely with sleaze, and actually at times; it doesn't really feel like a porn film; more of a drama with sex. I've got no idea how many taboos this film broke upon it's release over three decades ago, but the fact that it doesn't really break many today does it a favour where class is concerned as the film never feels too dirty, and this bodes well with the high class of the lead characters and setting. Sylvia Kristel takes the lead role, and is believable as a sexually naive young woman. She is joined by a number of eye-pleasing actresses, including Christine Boisson and Marika Green, and all get to take their clothes off in several scenes. The settings in which it all takes place are pleasing also, and the film is of a much higher class than a lot of nowadays porn. I'm surprised that Emmanuelle still has a notorious reputation, as it's only soft-core at best; but it's definitely worth seeing, if only to see how much things have changed!

Emmanuelle, a "girl" in her 20s, played by Sylvia Kristel, is an authentic and plausible character, who gives you the impression that she could in fact be experiencing the many erotic adventures - amongst them many lesbian encounters – which she embarks upon in Thailand. Maybe it helps to point out that Sylvia Kristel, born in 1952 in a small town in the Netherlands, was brought up in a very strict Calvinist family and went on to study English, in hopes of becoming a teacher, before she ran away from home, giving up all she had had, defying all of her relatives and friends, and started working as a model from the 1970s on in Amsterdam. In her first Emmanuelle film (a French erotic film), she acts the role of her life, becoming famous immediately in France, and soon thereafter in the world. She plays a young married lady, the wife of an ambassador, living in Thailand with her husband. There, she experiences many erotic adventures with and without him. The intriguing fact is that her husband encourages her to do so; he would like her to "improve" her sexuality and gain experience, ultimately learning to differentiate between love and sex. Sylvia Kristel plays Emmanuelle with such authenticity, and with the vulnerability and timidness, only a young woman of her age, lacking sexual experience, could have. In summary, she doesn't give you the impression that she is doing yet another boring porno- flick, where she is forced to do "some acting", in order for the movie to HAVE a plot, other than gynecological nudity scenes, or 3-minute "sex-adventures". The countless sequels to this first Emmanuelle film certainly don't measure up to the artistic standard - or even to the erotic standard - of this one. If you are willing to forget that it seems unrealistic that a young lady sleeps with other women and men, while her husband encourages her to do so, you are in for a really sensual and - for guys, a very realistic - account of what an unreserved, 20 year old, bi-curious girl might really experience in Thailand; the country of erotic massages and exotic climate.