Emmanuelle
エマニエル夫人
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A diplomat's wife in Bangkok is taught pleasure by strangers; ran at one Paris cinema for more than ten years and set Japan's 1970s box office alight.
Emmanuelle, a young Frenchwoman, flies to Bangkok to join her husband, Jean, a diplomat. He asks whether she took other lovers while she was in Paris; she says no. In Bangkok she meets Marie-Ange, a girl who talks to her openly about sex, and admits to her that she did have sex with two strangers on the flight out. When Jean hears about Marie-Ange's lack of shame, he encourages the friendship.
At a party Marie-Ange introduces her to Mario, an older man she calls one of her lovers; since Marie-Ange is still a girl, that is abuse, though the film never treats it as such. Emmanuelle is drawn instead to Bee, a French archaeologist who keeps apart from the expatriates. She follows Bee to a dig in the countryside and they sleep together, but afterwards Bee asks her to leave, and Emmanuelle comes home in tears, humiliated. Jean comforts her and suggests she take another lover. She quarrels with Ariane, her squash partner, who is jealous because she had hoped to be Emmanuelle's first woman lover, and who has slept with Jean.
So Emmanuelle goes to Mario. Over dinner he tells her that monogamy is dying and that she must let desire, rather than guilt or reason, lead her. To teach her, he takes her to an opium den, where she is raped while he watches. Then he takes her to a boxing ring and has two young men fight for the right to sleep with her. She chooses one, he wins, and she goes with him. Later Mario wakes her and tells her to put on a dress that can be taken off in an instant, ready for her next encounter. She is tired, and asks whether he will ever make love to her himself. He is waiting, he says, for the next Emmanuelle. She sits down at the mirror and makes up her face, hoping that if she follows him she will reach the pleasure he has promised.
Starring
Sylvia Kristelas Emmanuelle
A diplomat's young wife, newly arrived in Bangkok, whose husband encourages her to explore her desires.
Emmanuelle’s story
In Bangkok Emmanuelle tells Jean she took no lovers in Paris, which is true: the two strangers were on the plane. She falls for Bee, follows her to her dig and, after one night together, is sent away; she comes home in tears, and Jean tells her to take another lover. After a quarrel with Ariane, who has slept with Jean, she goes to Mario. He takes her to an opium den, where she is raped while he watches, then to a boxing ring, where two young men fight for her and she goes with the winner. When he wakes her for her next encounter, she says she is tired and asks when he will make love to her himself. She ends at the mirror, making up her face, hoping that following him will bring the pleasure he has promised.
Alain Cunyas Mario
An older man in Bangkok who sets out to teach Emmanuelle that desire, not guilt, should rule her.
Mario’s story
Mario is an old man known as an expert in pleasure. At a party Marie-Ange introduces him to Emmanuelle as one of her lovers; since Marie-Ange is a girl, that makes him her abuser, though the film never treats it so. Over dinner he tells Emmanuelle that monogamy will soon die out and that desire, followed without guilt, will take her to greater pleasure. He takes her to an opium den and watches while she is raped. At a boxing ring he has two young men fight for her, and watches her go with the winner. Later he wakes her and tells her to put on a dress that can be taken off at once, for her next encounter. Asked when he will make love to her himself, he says he is waiting for the next Emmanuelle.
Daniel Sarkyas Jean
Emmanuelle's husband, a diplomat, who urges her to take other lovers.
Marika Greenas Bee
A French archaeologist who keeps apart from the expatriates, and with whom Emmanuelle falls in love.
Jeanne Colletinas Ariane
Emmanuelle's squash partner, who wants to be her lover and sleeps with Jean.
Why it matters
Emmanuelle was sold as a story of a woman's sexual awakening, and its history is largely a history of who it was sold to. Held up by French censors until after the 1974 presidential election, it then sold nearly 8.9 million tickets in France, and one cinema on the Champs-Élysées showed it for more than ten years. In Japan it opened at New Year 1975 as a general release, cut in dozens of places; about three-quarters of its audience were women, many going in groups, and it became a social phenomenon. Columbia took it on in the United States after seeing that the queues were mostly women. Yet the woman at its centre is taught pleasure by men who arrange it for her, including a rape presented as a lesson, and French feminists called her an object of male fantasy. The film leaves open whether it freed its audience or only gave them permission to look.