Customer Reviews

The Emmanuelle Collection (Emmanuelle / Emmanuelle 2 / Good-bye Emmanuelle)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This boxed set presents the three original Emmanuelle movies, the ones starring Sylvia Kristel. There were lots of imitators, most ranging from bad to worse and beyond. At the time of the first Emmanuelle, though none of that had yet happened - please hold that happy thought. Perhaps these three aren't high art, but they're generally good entertainment for adults. They are also so different from each other that they deserve to be reviewed individually, not as a lump.

* Emmanuelle: Back in the 70s, this was a groundbreaking movie. It was openly erotic, and openly meant for the general public. I'll leave the social commentary to others. For me, it's just a beautiful movie. It's set in beautiful tropical locations. It stars beautiful actresses, back before implants were part of the uniform. Most of all, it shows beautiful (if artificial) exchanges of physical affection between Emmanuelle and just about everyone, man and woman.

Still, there were a few things about this movie that I didn't care for. It usually depicts Emmanuelle as a passive figure, to be led and acted upon. I prefer the stronger character in the sequel. Later parts of the movie depict coercion, something I really don't care for. The haughty poseur at the end was annoying, but distantly true to the book. Still, book fans shouldn't get their hopes up. This movie is its own creature, and pleasant enough if taken on its own terms.

* Emmanuelle 2: The best of the bunch, I think. This is a warmly sensuous film. This might even be the one to use for introducing a shy viewer to movies about physical happiness. Emmanuelle is fully her own woman - every scene lies well within her consent and enjoyment. A new character, Anna Maria, is a sweet, innocent young thing. Emmanuelle, of course, broaches that innocence in an elegantly filmed sequence of encounters. A few scenes, like the infamous "Jade Club", come across as crude, but only when meant to. Still, they don't seem threatening. That's another aspect of this film that I like better than the first.

It's too much to say that this movie has a plot, but it does have a story line of sorts. The movie is really just about happy eroticism, though, the kind that relies more on your imagination than on actual imagery. It's sort of like a musical where I come out humming the tunes even if I can't remember the words. Couples might like this movie, even bashful couples, and might like playing along with the actors on screen.

* Goodbye Emmanuelle: This is the third and last of Kristel's Emmanuelle movies, but don't hold her responsible. The backer had run into censorship problems with the second movie, and wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. The result is a disappointing attempt at being serious. It completely lacks the warm mood and physicality of the two earlier efforts. Even the background music has a very different style, one that I found far less successful in framing the visuals and dialog.

It tries to show Emmanuelle and husband Jean growing into a more stable, monogamous relationship. Instead, it just descends into petty jealousies and possessiveness. Jean, especially, pulls tricks that would have seemed silly even in high school. Perhaps the movie meant to show swelling affection and bruised feelings. Instead, it just showed swollen egos and bruised pride.

//wiredweird

Although I've had the first two Emmanuelle films on VHS for several years, I didn't see Goodbye Emmanuelle until just recently, after watching the complete Emmanuelle Collection sequentially. What struck me about the series is the evolution of, or changes in, Emmanuelle's character.

Emmanuelle: Here, she is something of an ingenue. The scene where she puts on boyish expressions corresponding to different ways of wearing a baseball hat expresses the charm of her (relative) innocence. This is my second favorite in the series.

Emmanuelle l'Anti-Vierge: [How the "Anti-Virgin" subtitle was translated into "Joys of a Woman" is beyond me!] This is my favorite of the three films. Very, very erotic! A good story well directed. Great music. Great script. Wonderfully acted. It's a miracle this film is able to get in so much erotica and yet make it all seem so natural and plausible. I love Sylvia Kristel in this film. It's the only one in which she has long hair. And her character is absolutely seductive in every way. Also, she is given quite a few comic-ironic zingers which I anticipate and relish with every viewing. When a woman with whom her husband has made love in the sea (Emmanuelle complains that for her, it's just the bathtub or swimming pool!) comments on the performance of some Asian fan dancers, qualifying the dance as "erotique," Emmanuelle responds sarcastically, "Aquatique." But she'll get a chance to mate like (cold) fish in her next film, Goodbye Emmanuelle. In this film, Emmanuelle is very wise to the world, and her cynical maturity makes her a very interesting character to watch.

Goodbye Emmanuelle: Having just watched it for the first time, I must say that it is my least favorite. Jean (played again by Umberto Orsini)is not as charming as he was in the second film, and Emmanuelle is either troubled, sad, rebellious, or angry. Her emotional range is broader, and she shows her acting skills very well, but her character is just not very likeable here. The film has few sex scenes compared to the previous ones. And while more total frontal nudity (including brief flashes of male frontal nudity) is on display when the plot comes around to the sex, there is just nothing erotic happening anywhere in this film. The film should have been called Emmanuelle l'Anti-Erotique. The cold matter-of-factness of the nudity along with Emmanuelle's negative moodiness just saps any fun from this last official outing. What saves the film, and prevents me from lowering the overall grade of the collection, is the solid acting (but, alas, no memorable lines), true character development (even if it's not in the direction I would have preferred), and some great Seychelles locations. Goodbye Emmanuelle does offer a (sad, but perhaps inevitble) resolution to the "free couple" philosophy that Jean espoused from day one.

Sylvia Kristel signed for three films. Forget about her brief apearance in Emmanuelle 4, or whatever the actual French title is. I saw it once, and hated it. And forget about her bookend appearances in later Emannuelle offerings. The Emmanuelle Collection is a true trilogy. And what makes it a trilogy is the evolution of Emmanuelle's character. Had this series been made in Hollywood, Emmanuelle would have no doubt reconciled with Jean, and they would have become strictly monogamous, living happily ever after. The French, instead, opt for a moral lesson. Be careful what philosophy you preach. It may just bite you in the derriere.

I'm not aware of any other soft core erotic trilogy where a central character actually evolves. I believe this is what sets these films apart from what I imagine to be the rest.

Finally, I've read a few reviews elsewhere on the internet emphasizing that the Emmanuelle movies are somewhat erotically tame by today's standards. I can't really say. But the lasting popularity of this trilogy seems to attest to my supposition that some of us prefer it a bit tame. Eroticism is not so much about sexual explicitness. It's more about the characters involved, what you sense they are feeling (physically and emotionally), and what you don't see but must instead imagine. Some of us don't want material that is too explicit and exploitative. Based on my somewhat limited familiarity with erotic films (I do have, for example, L'Histoire d'O and Red Shoe Diaries), Emmanuelle l'Anti-Vierge is erotica cooked up just right. The perfect blend. And since I care about the title character, this is, for my money, the best erotic film series.

I recently bought the "Emmanuelle Collection" for nearly $100 and what a disappointment! According to the totally false advertising in the "Editorial reviews" these movies are presented complete and uncut. This is so not true. All three movies are cut, but Emmanuelle 2, the Joys of a Woman, generally regarded as the best of the series, is literally butchered! Everything from the keyhole anime sequence to the incredibly beautiful bathouse sequence is cut to shreds. In particular, the bathhouse scene, a masterpiece of gentle sensuality, is completely obliterated in this butcher's cut. Generally speaking, most of the eroticism in all three famous erotic films (and I love these films, and saw them uncut in the theater, and own Emmanuelle 2 uncut on laser disc) has been destroyed by someone who cut the films (and someone who particularly hates sensual scenes of women together). These films are valueless, as their essential appeal as erotic viewing is gone. This is a total ripoff and the claim of being uncut is a total lie, as I can prove to anyone who wants to fire up my laser player, or who has any kind of memory of how beautiful these films used to be before someone took big scissors to them. Don't buy!!

Just FYI, the Korean edition of The Emmanuelle Collection is HEAVILY edited (all three films are missing significant amounts of footage) and does not have the documentary as a special feature. The Anchor Bay edition is uncut, but sadly out-of-print.

The French does artistic eroticism like no others and Emmanuelle (the original) is arguably one of their best works. Emmanuelle is highly artistic, visually stunning, and sensuously erotic. It is one of those movies whose degree of critical/financial success was unanticipated but totally understandable with 20/20 hindsight. However, in my opinion what makes Emmanuelle a (lasting) classic is the after-taste, the vagrant, lingering of stirred emotions in the viewers long after the movie was over.

Somehow, I received the Korean version, where all the liner notes are in Korean and the English on the box is misspelled and grammatically incorrect. Had I known I would have received the Korean version, I would not have bought it.

Of these films only the first is known as being a benchmark in erotic cinema and although none of the films are good all around there are things to enjoy about all of them. I find all of them beautifully photographed and locations, but the first one has the best storyline and I think that's why it's remembered so fondly. With that being said it's also too mild for my taste, but I can definitely appreciate it.

The second Emmanuelle film is the one you should truly get to see has how erotic things can get. It doesn't have the story that you might feel is essential because it's all about Emmanuelle and her husband doing whatever pleases them sexually, so it's all about the detour and as such it has a lot of sexy scenes that are unconnected to plot, so it's good for people who like to skip around in scenes, but the this movie is the best shot film of the series without a doubt. It's beautiful from head to toe. I think this is probably more erotic than stuff that's around nowadays, I'm not sure, I'm not a connosieur of the genre, but it seems the new stuff is made on a factory line, and this has some semblance of artistic merit, even if it's not essentially dramatic.

The last film is the worst for a few important reasons. 1)the producers had to kill it, since they realized there was no future in making these movies with success being controlled by political climate so they ended in the most conservative way possible, they took the fun out the sex, the beauty out of the nudity, the gauziness out of the visuals, and the Emmanuelle out of the story. It doesn't work in comparison to the other movies because it's specifically about Emmanuelle's gradual dislike of sex simply for pleasure and has her fall in love with some guy, who the movie isn't interested in. While life changes are inevitable, this series brings with it a certain expectation and the love scenes are a bore, not erotic, or even mildly titillating. Worst of all, the man who plans Jean is given the worst task of trying to seem like a jerk and do nothing else. Yes, it's the most dramatically stagnant movie in the series, but the movie boringly moves along a crucial plot point that brought the end to the series. I just wish they would've only made two and not even done a third. This movie is a funeral.

As for the extras, the featurettes are wonderful and gradually get shorter as time goes along. I wish the second one would've been longer, but you can't always get what you want.

The product description lists this movie as being put out by "Starz / Anchor Bay" in an uncut version. Amazon did not carry it themselves but referred me to one of their sellers. What was received appeared to be a Korean knockoff that had been heavily edited and cut. If you are looking for the original Emmanuelle films, look elsewhere - you will be extremely disappointed!

Lovely erotic scenes. Interesting take of early attempts to explore open relationships. Needs a modern remake. How would this fly today with emphasis on safe sex? Great topic for discussion and inspiration for romance.

I remember watching Emmanuelle and The nothing to do with Original -Emmanuelle In Bangkok(no pun intended) and fascinating to watch if just for the all sexy stuff except that two guys 1 girl part yuck! leave it to the french,to europeans to make such a movie and label it "art". Again as a Guy, Cool to watch the movie, but I see no art value and some would argue art is in the eye of the beholder. well behold this good skin-a-max film. highly recommended just for the scenes but watch it first.