Emmanuelle

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Brent A 10% rating ... Garbage movie. Don't waste your time. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 09/20/23 Full Review david f I found this kind of dumb, I'm not sure what all the fuss was about. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Softcore, soft lighting, sophomoric philosophizing—but what else do you expect from a movie directed by a guy with the name "Just Jaeckin" (and I doubt he was the only one). Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie is part of my happy childhood memories Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member I remember seeing this as 'top billing' on Bournemouth Westover Road's cinema strip in 1974. It wasn't until almost 40 years later I managed to see the un-cut version from Russia. And I couldn't believe how much had been 'cut out'. No wonder I thought the original was 'tame' ! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member I wasn't exactly sure what was coming my way with Emmanuelle, whether it be an erotic drama like 9 1/2 Weeks or actual softcore pornography. Either way, the ambiguity fascinated me and I felt some sort of need to find out what could be defined as softcore while remaining a serious mainstream film. Emmanuelle proved to be surprising, because I found myself embalmed in a study of the female body and look at emphatic beauty on the features hidden underneath clothing in an artistic sense, with more emphasis on the beautiful skin tone of a woman than the usual hollow look at breasts and bush that erotic films would emphasise. I was surprised to find insight in an erotic film of this calibre because especially in the scenes where the women discuss their sexuality and what pleasures them at the start I became fascinated by the desire that a female's sexual mind experiences, and I actually learned something from a film defined as Softcore. I even learned a thing or two about love because the passion in Emmanuelle isn't about quickly tearing off clothes to embrace and orgasm, but rather embracing the love defined within making love and the actually artistic expression that comes with committing acts of love. This is due to the cinematography which zooms in on the face of the titular Emmanuelle as she enjoys her exploration of sexual desires, as well as various other women. The panning over the ripe and rich skin of her shows how she isn't a woman demanded by sexual antics on screen, but rather a character who enjoys the innocent pleasure of love even as she explores it in a controversial fashion, through a polygamist relationship. There is much excellence within the erotic tone of the cinematography executed in Emmanuelle, and that's the primary thing that elevates it beyond being a mere softcore film. And you'll notice that it emphasises the life within Emmanuelle's breasts as her nipples come to life, but never aimed directly at her vagina as it lets her play that in as she pleases in a more natural sense without emphasis on the mere physicality of her as a woman but rather the depth of the beauty working which truly is artistic. Essentially, Emmanuelle is a passionate piece of French cinema with well heightened eroticism and extremely well crafted sex appeal. Also, Emmanuelle features a surprisingly insightful screenplay which goes into the thoughts and desires of its characters and provokes a clever thought in the viewer, and that's what makes it the clever tale of love that it is. It really causes the viewer to consider the difference between having sex and making love, and the various approaches people take to such a matter. The approach Emmanuelle takes is clever and makes a clever train of thought to follow. And what ties the film together is the performance of Sylvia Kristel as the titular Emmanuelle, a character so unfathomed and innocent as she becomes increasingly exposed to a world of desire with a body that remains intact and becomes the prime symbol of beauty and innocence as it becomes explored in the film, and Sylvia Kristel's performance is charming and ideal for the character, as well as incredibly sexy. In terms of what doesn't work, the movie feels like it cut off too shortly. I was unclear what the meaning was in the ending and felt a certain emptiness as I wanted to see what Emmanuelle had learnt and was to experience, but it was cut off and he ambiguity wasn't playing to me. I felt like there was more that could have been covered about Emmanuelle but wasn't, and there was a sense of disappointment about that. Also, there were minor editing issues within Emmanuelle in scenes which sort of disturbed the flowing serenity at times. Lastly, many of the songs used in Emmanuelle dragged down the credibility of it because several of them are reminiscent of music from pornographic music from the 1970's which causes it to lose the sense of eroticism in scenes and deviate more into a mere sexualised atmosphere which wasn't ideal, although its effect wasn't too damaging. So Emmanuelle was a clever and sexy tale with insight and clever thought, even though at times it makes errors. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Emmanuelle

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