Story of 1974's Emmanuelle with 'vagina smoking' clip banned in UK

The French soft-porn movie Emmanuelle was first unleashed to the world in 1974 in a move that shocked viewers with its steamy scenes and focus on a woman's voyage of erotic discovery.

Following the life of teen Emmanuelle as she moves overseas to distant Bangkok, forsaking her marriage vows before she has even touched down by having two sexual encounters with strangers on the way over, the film caused a stir upon its release.

Deemed 'unacceptable to British taste', tasteless', and 'extremely problematic' - among a swathe of other negative reviews - the scandalous cult-classic was slammed in France for its striking representation of female sexuality.

The film broke several taboos of its time, including showing masturbation, having multiple sexual partners, and having sex with anonymous people - but despite the controversy, Emmanuelle was a box office sensation, selling nearly nine million tickets in France alone after being initially banned by French censors.

Becoming the first adult film to play in regular British theatres, the film went down in history as a landmark production and was one of the first French films to become a global phenomenon.

But upon the release of the 2024 remake, which has a new feminist twist that has received a mountain of negative reviews - MailOnline has delved into the full pearl-clutching original story that caused a whirlwind scandal across the globe.




French film, Emmanuelle, released in 1974 caused a stir due to its striking portrayal of female sexuality

The story of Emmanuelle

Directed by Frenchman Just Jaeckin, and starring Dutch actor Sylvia Kristel as Emmanuelle, the film follows the tale of a 19-year-old wife of a French engineer on a visit to Thailand.

Emmanuelle is unhappy after becoming bored of the people around her, but a pair of unproductive women she joins for nude sunbathing draws her interest.

They begin to tease her for never having had an affair, although her husband Jean has encouraged her to as he is in support of an open marriage.

All the residents, whether Thai or expat, seem willing for sex at any time throughout the movie, as Emmanuelle fulfils her sexual desires with both men and women across a series of locations.

The teen joins the mile-high club on her flight over and enjoys her erotic awakening and journey to sexual liberation.

Emmanuelle also explores her sexuality after her squash partner, Ariane, who constantly tries to seduce her, finally succeeds. 

But she finds out she is more attracted to Bee, an archeologist who is shunned by the other women for being different and for ignoring them.

Emmanuelle pursues Bee and eventually the pair make love and she becomes content in the new lesbian relationship.

Bee finally reveals that she does not love Emmanuelle in 'that' way and their brief affair comes to a quick end.

Jean, who was very jealous when his wife was with Bee, is happy to see his wife return to him - even though he has been partaking in extra-marital affairs with other women - including Ariane.

He then sends his wife to receive sexual instruction from the elderly Mario - who many of the women say is the best sex they have ever had.

Saddened by her failed affair with Bee, Emmanuelle is open to Mario's sexual philosophy, which includes 'destroy all values, conformity, and morals'.




The movie follows the sexual encounters of a 19-year-old French woman named Emmanuelle 





Scene from 1974's 'Emmanuelle', starring Sylvia Kristel where she has sex with a stranger on a flight to Thailand





Emmanuelle also explores her sexuality after her squash partner, Ariane, constantly tries to seduce her

He further tells her to 'throw away the pleasure of love, and realise the dream of eroticism'. 

And while young Emmanuelle continues the exploration of her sexual fantasy, not all of her encounters are consensual.

During one night, Mario tells a drunk stranger to remove her underwear and escort her to an opium den where she is raped by local men as part of her 'sexual education' while Mario watches.

Mario then offers her as the prize of a fight, in an effort to prove to her that sex is best when a third person is involved.

Later, Emmanuelle is awakened by Mario, who tells her to change into a dress with a zipper down the back, allowing Mario to strip her instantly for her next sexual encounter. 

Emmanuelle protests that she is tired and asks Mario if he himself will ever have sex with her. 

Mario replies that he is waiting for the 'next Emmanuelle', rejecting her offer of sex by telling her that 'true love is erection, not orgasm'.

The film ends with Emmanuelle sitting at a mirror and applying makeup, hoping that by following Mario's instructions, she will reach the higher levels of pleasure that he has promised. 

Global outrage

Although the movie was watched by 50 million people around the world and played on the Champs-Elysees for a decade after its release, Emmanuelle had an overall negative reception.

The censors, and critics of the time, were left fairly appalled by what some of the scenes entailed - from implied thrusting to an entire sequence showing a night club act in which a woman 'smokes' a cigarette with her vagina, which the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) later deleted, and which, incidentally, Jaeckin says the producers added without his knowledge.

Mainstream French audiences, however, lapped up the movie and its steamy contents, but the BBFC was left unconvinced that sex films were of great significance or importance to viewers. 

As Stephen Murphy, Secretary of the BBFC, said in a letter addressed to several local councils: 'With the best will in the world, we were unable to see it in these terms. 

'It struck us as a sex film quite outstandingly well photographed and edited but still containing material which, to our minds, would be unacceptable to British taste'.

The film was initially banned in France until a new government was elected in 1974 - despite it being a major hit in the US, much of Europe, and https://huconglobal.com/blog/ even Japan.

It earned £8.5million at the United States box office and £13.5million at Japan's.

But critics were still left unimpressed with the extreme visual scenes depicting masturbation, lesbian sex, and rape. 

Surprisingly, however, a sequence showing Emmanuelle being raped in an opium den as part of her 'sexual education' was left intact, with only minimal cuts to reduce the amount of thrusting seen. 




A scene from the 1974 version of 'Emmanuelle'. The film was the first installment in a series of French softcore pornography





In France, the film sold 8.9 million admissions at the box office. It also became widely popular in the rest of Europe, the US and Asia





The 1974 French erotic drama was directed by Just Jaeckin. The plotline tells the story of a woman who travels to Bangkok to enhance her sexuality

When James Ferman took over from Stephen Murphy as Secretary of the BBFC in 1975, by which time the film had already been seen by millions of cinema-goers, he made it clear that he was very concerned about what he saw as the increasingly 'irresponsible' portrayal of sexual violence in films.

In Ferman's view, rape was a subject to be approached with caution and the portrayal of sexual violence in an entertaining or erotic manner was unacceptable. 

As Ferman stated at the time in a letter to the distributor: 'It has been put to me that the rape scene in Emmanuelle is at least as depraving and corrupting as anything in The Story of O [another film directed by Just Jaeckin, which the BBFC had rejected], since rape is presented in Emmanuelle as if it is beneficial to the victim, a view of sexual liberation which is emphasised by the attitude of her elderly mentor both during the rape and after it. 

'I have been asked whether in a court of law I could consistently say that this scene is not depraving or corrupting, and I have had to say that, in all conscience, I could not. 

'For that reason, I must now ask you to delete that sequence from the film for all future British distribution'. 

But in 1990, Emmanuelle was submitted to the BBFC for a formal video classification, and on this occasion the organisation accepted that the sex cuts required on film in 1974 were no longer necessary by contemporary standards.

The film was then resubmitted uncut for DVD release in 2007.

At this time, the BBFC agreed that the rape scene, although 'tasteless' in its message, was sufficiently dated and ridiculous to be accepted at the adult level as an example of the kind of historical attitude towards sexual violence that was prevalent in the early 70s, according to the BBFC.

The scene itself also does not depict the woman to be enjoying the sexual experience and the level of nudity, in comparison to other moments of the film, is minimal.

Given the dated nature of the film it was eventually decided that the scene lacked sufficient detail or credibility to cause offence to a more modern audience and the DVD was therefore released uncut.




Critics were left unimpressed with the extreme visual scenes depicting masturbation, lesbian sex, and rape





The lead actress, Sylvia Kristel, was paid around £4,400 to star as the main character in Emmanuelle





In the film, an older man called Mario tells a drunk stranger to remove Emmanuelle's underwear and escort her to an opium den where she is raped by local men as part of her 'sexual education' while Mario watches

The Queen of Erotic Movies 

Emmanuelle's starring actress Sylvia Kristel became an international icon through the soft focus eroticism of Emmanuelle.

But her career began as a 17-year-old model after brief stints as a secretary and a waitress, and she began to make a name for herself in 1973 when, aged 21, she won the Miss TV Europe contest. 

It opened the door to acting and, after appearing naked in one film, she accidentally went for an audition for Emmanuelle, having intended to try out for a television commercial next door.

She was asked to remove her dress and, after slipping it off and letting it fall to the floor, was told she had the part. 

Kristal went on to be known as The Queen of Erotic Movies for her steamy nude scenes in another 40 films following Emmanuelle, as she starred in the lead roles in X-rated versions of Lady Chatterly's Lover and World War One spy drama Mata Hari.

While playing Emmanuelle, aged just 22, it was later revealed Kristel had attempted to argue with director Jaeckin that rape was no way to present the heroine's liberation, and that there was no way it could be pleasurable. 

'It was very hard to explain that to a male director,' she later explained. 

'He said, 'Yes, but it's in the book.' It was a very humiliating scene, and very difficult for me.' 

In a separate interview she remarked that the Thai men 'were not actors' and 'I really had to fight for my life there'. 

And speaking to the Telegraph in 2007, she said 'I can't say it's a brilliant film, really'.

'The film,' she said, 'became like a monument in Paris. 

'The Japanese [tourists] were stuffed in the bus and then they were taken to the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and Emmanuelle.' 

One cinema, the Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, would show the film continuously until 1986.




Kristal went on to be known for her steamy nude scenes in another 40 films following Emmanuelle





Kristal was known as the Queen of Erotic Movies 





Kristal died in October 2012 after a ten year battle with cancer, aged 60

Kristel was paid around £4,400 to star as the main character in Emmanuelle. 

Not a lot, she admitted, 'although I'd never been to Thailand, and we stayed there for three months. It was very nice.' 

She had signed a contract for three films and when it became apparent that Emmanuelle would be a huge success, the most she could do was ask for a raise.

For the sequel, Emmanuelle: The Joys of a Woman, the following year, she received around £74,000.

In her book, Undressing Emmanuelle, she writes of a telling moment when she was about to simulate oral sex on the actor playing her husband, and confesses that she has forgotten her lines. 

'Say whatever you like,' Jaeckin told her. 'You'll be dubbed anyway.'

'This role I had imagined as a springboard shrank me for good,' she noted later in her book. 

'My body was more interesting than my words.'

Kristal died in October 2012 after a ten year battle with cancer, aged 60.  

The 2024 remake 

Fifty years on from the original's release the reprise of the French picture that was notable for its X-rated storyline is just one big anticlimax, critics have said.

The newest version, released this year is directed by Audrey Diwan and stars French actress Noemie Merlant.

But in a MeToo age, Diwan's version, which premiered at the San Sebastian International Festival in Spain in September, seems to have steered from its raunchy sex scenes amid its aim to steer female sexuality and pleasure away from the male gaze.

Speaking to The Times, Diwan said the film is 'about how we treat pleasure in our society, not just sexual pleasure', when discussing the film's surprising lack of graphic sex scenes.









Screen grab from new version of Emmanuelle, which is said to lack in raunchy scenes its predecessor became renowned for 





Poster for 2024 adaptation of 'Emmanuelle', starring French actress Noemi Merlant

'If people want to see sex scenes they have the internet', she said.

But as reviews for the film have trickled in, the overall consensus is that the highly-anticipated remake of the French erotic drama 'can only be regarded as a disappointment from Diwan', according to Variety, who called the film 'one big anticlimax'.

The American magazine said that 'the most surprising departure here from the 1974 film is a significant lowering of sexual content', adding that 'saying something freshly substantive about female desire while honouring the film's defining spirit of vapid, diaphanous horniness is a tricky, potentially unworkable brief.'

Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter has said that the 'erotic drama Emmanuelle is more or less the embarrassing exercise in pointless revisionist filmmaking most were expecting it to be.'

French newspaper Le Figaro said it doesn't expect the film to be shown on the Champs-Elysees for ten years.

Speaking to the BBC on the remake of Emmanuelle, Eve Jackson, culture editor and presenter of Arts 24 , said sexual consent is an especially hot topic in France right now with the ongoing Gisele Pelicot rape trial.

'So Emmanuelle seems wrong on so many levels,' she said.

'Back in 1974, she may have been seen as a trailblazer for an era of free love and sexual adventure, and given France a reputation for it, but the film wasn't feminist. 

'It was written and directed by men.'


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