It is said that when God created woman, a French movie director was on the scene to offer her an exclusive contract. Let's face it--if it had not been for our Continental kissing cousins, Playboy's yearly Sex in Cinema feature might have been showing pictures of John Wayne's horse. The string of provocative superstars is impressive--Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Maria Schneider. Of course, a few years ago, it seemed that the French had fallen on soft times: The only thing they could offer us was snapshots of the original sex kitten on her 40th birthday. (Not that we're complaining--those were some snapshots.) Still, we were beginning to worry that someone was doctoring their wine with saltpeter. Fortunately, the trend took an upswing in 1974, when Emmanuelle opened on the Champs Elysées, starring the then-unknown Sylvia Kristel. Later, the ad campaign for American theaters said it all: "X was never like this." Miss Kristel, possessed of the kind of beauty that makes you want to be in three places at once, was an instant sensation. Producer Yves Rousset-Rouard and director Just Jaeckin had managed to suffuse each scene with the soft, sensuous light of a fashion spread--whether the scene was a gang rape at an opium den or a one-on-one encounter on the courts of a racquet club. Audiences cried "Encore!" and it was inevitable that we would be seeing more of Miss Kristel. Rousset-Rouard bought the film rights to Emmanuelle: the Anti-Virgin--the sequel to the book--written under an alias by Maryat Rollet-Andriane, the wife of a representative of the French delegation to UNESCO. The heroine of the two novels is supposedly the wife of a hydraulic engineer stationed in Thailand. Frenchmen knew better: Obviously, the career was a pose for undercover work in the foreign service. Whatever, the novel and the film still created quite a controversy as Parisians speculated on what members of the foreign service really did to pass the time at hardship outposts. This time out, Emmanuelle's erotic quest leads her from Bangkok to Hong Kong to Bali. No holds are barred as she turns innocence inside out in search of the perfect hedonistic life. Replacing Jaeckin behind the lens is Francis Giacobetti, one of the Continent's leading fashion photographers. (You have viewed his work in Oui.) As you can see from the stills included in this pictorial, the French have a slightly different approach to erotic film making. They believe that a work does not have to be explicit to be exciting, that less is more. It's enough for us, but even then, we may have to wait. French censors studied the original Emmanuelle for three months before allowing the public to see the film. While you're standing in line, you might look up one of Miss Kristel's other films. She's been very busy. Keep your eyes open and your raincoat on in case The Sleeping-Car Madonna, Julia, No Pockets in a Shroud or Playing with Fire comes to a theater near you.
