Scenes of Erotica #6

January 10, 2007 | Category: Erotic Cinema, Sexblogs

The scent of Emmanuelle Arsan already lingers upon Easily Aroused’s Scenes of Erotica section. The impact that her first cinematic adventure had upon my senses has already been described here. But for me, Emmanuelle’s appeal stretches beyond just the original film.

To the delight (and the bemusement) of many, Emmanuelle has gone on to enjoy a multitude of celluloid escapades since her earliest outing. She’s fucked and made love with a wide variety of men and women in response to her husband Jean’s encouragement, and then undergone cosmetic surgery to completely alter her appearance in order to escape him when Jean is eventually consumed by the jealousy he originally professed to be immune to. As the movies rolled off the production line, Emmanuelle’s face continued to change, along with her race and the spelling of her name. The lady has even conspired to find herself aroused and pleasured in the vacuum of outer space.

Transformation is one of the constants in this series. Emmanuelle 2 - The Joys of a Woman tells the story of an Emmanuelle much changed from the first film. Ostensibly, she’s the same female: beautiful, sexual and with an appetite for fresh experience. But the film takes place several years after the original, and our heroine appears to have grown, even evolved, into her desires. In Emmanuelle, the waif-like appearance of Ms Kristel serves to emphasise the girlishness of the character, her untutored naiveté. By Emmanuelle 2, it seems as though the character has slipped fully into womanhood: richly feminine, sophisticated and assured. Like the actress herself, Emmanuelle has matured into her role, and she is much more certain in how she goes about satisfying her wanton inclinations.

Emmanuelle 2 - Sylvia Kristel

Perhaps this is no better demonstrated than in one of the scenes that I happen to find arousing. In the first film, Emmanuelle is taken to a Thai kick boxing contest by Mario, the mature epicure of extreme sexuality. When the contest is over, Emmanuelle is given to the winner as a prize, and he takes her with little in the way of grace or consideration, much to Mario’s gratification. In the sequel, Emmanuelle attends a polo match. One brutish player catches Emmanuelle’s eye, and when he leaves the field of play with an injury, Emmanuelle trails him to the locker room. Again, there is an association of sex with sporting prowess, but this time, the circumstances are much different. In the first film, Emmanuelle is reduced to being a prize, an object, with little if any say in the matter. She is given. This time, she gives herself. And not to the winner, but to the player who has inspired her lust. In doing so, she objectifies the man in pursuit of her own satisfaction. Now she has the control. She has transformed herself from manipulated to the manipulator.

There is something in that scene that definitely appeals to the darker side of my sexuality. The man Emmanuelle gives herself to is brutish, his muscular upper body resplendent with elaborate tattoos. There is something of the pirate about him. He strips himself naked, and then takes Emmanuelle as she lies back on a bench in the locker room, her red dress pushed out of his way. The scene is short, and intense as he takes his pleasure with her. What I seem to enjoy most is her brazen desire, her wanton lust. I relish the way she offers herself to him, and then abandons herself, to his cock and her own needs in equal measure. That release of pent-up desire, that surrender to her inexhaustible sexuality, is a trait I find myself craving in all my women.

That’s not the only scene of interest in the movie for me, though. Director Francis Giacobetti provides a good deal of femme / femme eroticism, which is never a bad thing for a person who shares my particular predilections. The film opens on an Oriental ship, with Emmanuelle (presumably) travelling back to her husband Jean. The stateroom she has reserved is not available, and so she finds herself sharing a larger cabin with several other women. A blonde female passenger - also usurped from her first-class accommodation - begins to regale Emmanuelle with the tale of how she was overpowered and ‘raped’ by three female pupils when she was at boarding school, an experience that we share in flashback. Did it really happen? Or is it simply a fantasy, designed to entice Emmanuelle? If so, it has the desired effect. An Asian woman settles herself in her hammock whilst she enjoys the sight of Emmanuelle’s artful fingers pleasuring the blonde’s sex through her white cotton panties, before slipping inside and fingering her to a murmuring climax.

Emmanuelle 2 - The boat seduction

Then there’s the gradual education of Anna-Maria (Catherine Rivet), an ambassador’s daughter who is drawn into Emmanuelle’s circle of acquaintances. With Emmanuelle now occupying the role of experienced seductress, the eager Anna-Maria becomes the movie’s substitute ingénue. First, Emmanuelle and Jean take the innocent teenager to a bath house, where Anna-Maria receives a full body massage at the hands of the glorious Laura Gemser, the actress who went on to become Emanuelle in a subsequent series of Italian films. This is Anna-Maria’s first experience of true sensuality, and there is a definite tension in the drawn-out pleasure she experiences, and in the way that her pleasure is reflected by the actress. Note the way she slowly slides Ms Gemser’s hand from her stomach until it is between her thighs. And, of course, this all takes place whilst Ms Kristel and her husband are both being caressed by their own delectable masseuses.

Emmanuelle 2 - The Bath House

Ultimately, the measured seduction of Anna-Maria reaches its climax in a scene in which she is made love to by Jean and Emmanuelle together. As someone who has a powerful desire to experience just such an amalgamation, it’s a scene that’s always inspired and aroused me. There seems to be a slight degree of imbalance (it’s a pity that the kisses shared by the two women don’t display the same degree of passion evident when either of them is kissing Umberto Orsini), but it’s still a tender and erotic threesome, and their ménage á trois always turns my envious gaze towards the future.

Emmanuelle 2 - The Threesome

Unfortunately, the law of diminishing marginal returns is amply demonstrated by the Emmanuelle series. It’s arguable as to just how high the bar was set by the first few films, but since 1977 (the year that the third in the series, Goodbye Emmanuelle hit the screen) the trajectory has described a downward arc. This is the usual fate of film series (just consider: Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street Hellraiser). After the initial impulse of creativity that gives birth to a franchise, producers inevitably come to realise (either through necessity, desire, or a combination of both) that money can still be prised from the end user even if there is a reduction in ambition and quality. Eventually, the only link between the latest incarnation and the original is in the name of the central character. Whatever those earliest aspirations might have been, they’re long gone by the time part twenty hits the screen, whether that be in a cinema or a living room.

In addition, I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the series declined following the departure of Sylvia Kristel (she did return to the role in the early nineties, but as an older incarnation of the character, looking back at the adventures of her younger self, who was played by Marcella Walerstein this time around). As with so many actors and actresses who get the first crack at embodying a cinematic character, Ms Kristel took the opportunity to define the role. The image of her as Emmanuelle is one that I find hard to shake off. And I don’t especially want to shake it off. For me, she was, and always will be, Emmanuelle.

Buy 'Emmanuelle 2' @ Amazon.com

 
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3 Comments

  1. Ed on January 12th, 2007
    1

    Hi there EA. I wasn’t all that keen on the first film, but I loved the second one. I haven’t seen it since I saw it in the cinema when it came out but much of it is still vivid in the memory - such as the acupuncture scene. I agree Sylvia Kristel is much more sexy in the second film and, as you say, the menage-a-trois at the end is sensational - more so because of the gradual build up to it throughout the film.

    And I agree that the films were never the same without Sylvia Kristel. I’ve tried watching Emmanuelle 2000 which seems to be on Sky constantly (on Sci-Fi, I think) but I’ve never been able to watch it all the way through. I think they should have stopped after the first two.

    Hello Ed. Long time and all that. I hadn’t realised you’d returned to the scene - good to see you back!

    I’m with you as to the second being the better film. The original had a couple of highlights, but the sequel was a much more erotic and sensual affair, and as you mention, it’s the gradual yet inevitable build-up to the concluding ménage à trois that makes it so rewarding. If you haven’t seen it in a while, you ought to treat yourself. Anchor Bay have just released a remastered edition on DVD…

    ~EA

  2. Linda Smith on January 15th, 2007
    2

    These look like genuine sex scenes. I’m glad the entire human population has forgiven me for my blatant enjoyment of all forms of sexual pleasure and especially, sexy men and women, thus speeding-up the World Peace Process. *Seriously.* Thanks everybody for the arousal.

    There is a certain erotic and sensual attention to detail in Emmanuelle 2, Linda…

    ~EA

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  1. Easily Aroused: the indecent reflections of an oversexed Englishman » Scenes of Erotica #6

 
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