Emmanuelle II

"Emmanuelle 2" is an interesting relic of its era. That's not to say it's not explicit enough (it is, for a soft-core porn film), just that it has that decidedly pre-AIDS attitude about casual sexual encounters with multiple partners. The sex scenes deliver the goods, but the lack of a discernible plot may prove tiresome for some. This is a movie best enjoyed by using your fast-forward button to get to the scenes for which you rented the film in the first place (but you probably could have figured that out by yourself). (**1/2)

Like "Emmanuelle, "Joys of a woman" wallows in pseudo-philosophy while displaying a lot of aroused women seeking satisfaction… The setting is Hong Kong, where Emmanuelle is taken through the high-life of the aristocrat…

In Jack Jaeckin's first film, Emmanuelle was sexually reserved, and came out as she discovered her hidden sexuality… In the sequel, she explores further into the erotic domain—especially other women—in trying to find the perfect lover…

The characters are not real, but ethereal, dream-like creatures floating through life… This quality actually works quite well as Sylvia Kristel encounters other women… The eroticism is soft and sensual… When she confronts a man, however, there is a feeling only of performance… It's much more sharply refreshing and keen… The male lovers never seem to be as compassionate or as feeling as the women, nor are their characters as developed…

The photography is quite rich and luxuriant, and has captured a postcard view of modern Hong Kong

The second Emmanuelle movie is set in Hong Kong instead of Thailand, it is less provocative than the first and looks rather like a travel company's advertising clip. The story seems to be a random collection of impressions, it doesn't really have a beginning or a conclusive end. This may sound a bit negative so far, but despite the lack of dramatic action, it still is a movie I love to watch again and again. It's the only movie Francis Giacobetti ever directed, so maybe he didn't have much experience with actors, but he sure knew how to make pictures look great. Part 2 may well have the best musical score (by Francis Lai). One of the three masseuses in the steaming hot bath scene is the stunning Laura Gemser who'd become "Black Emanuelle" for a whole bunch of pictures. I voted 7/8/6/4/6/7 for the six cinema films of the series.

I was first introduced to this and other 'Emmanuelle' films in the early days of Cinemax (or 'Skin-emax', as we used to call it) and other pay-cable channels that started featuring soft-core porn after midnight on the weekends. In the early 80s--when the government was cracking down on pornography and the market for direct-to-video softcore porn had yet to be plumbed--cable outlets like Cinemax had few options for 'dirty movies' that didn't cross the hardcore threshold other than the small brace of adult films passing themselves off as 'European art-house' cinema to American audiences during the mid-to-late 70s. Other examples include Lady Chatterley's Lover (also starring Kristel, in an adaptation that would surely have humiliated poor D. H. Lawrence), Felicity, and Melody in Love, but the Emmannuelle franchise opened the proverbial floodgates (the title character in 'Felicity'--another story about a young woman on an adventure of sexual self-discovery in the far east--is seen reading the novel on which 'Emmannuelle' is based while traveling by plane to Bangcok).

As has been amply examined, the 'Emmannuelle' films are burdened with ponderous, annoying pretentiousness, and the audience must sit through way too much boring down-time between sex scenes that tend to tease more than satisfy. In this sense, 'Emmanuelle 2' and its ilk aren't bad for 'getting in the mood,' but compared to even the soft-core porn of today, these films are quaint. But they are fascinating as period pieces, and they are very sensual and erotic when compared to the rather mechanical and listless banging together of surgically enhanced bodies that dominates the adult film market today. Sylvia Kristel is no actress (apparently, she was so bad that her dialogue was overdubbed by another actress in the first 'Emmannuelle' film), and she is not the most beautiful woman ever to get naked in front of a camera, but this is part of her appeal: she has the face and body of a real woman, and she seems genuinely turned on (in that vaguely-detached, dreamy European way) by what she's doing.

But what a nostalgia trip! Sylvia Kristel introduced so many horny young boys with pay cable to the joys of sex in foreign locales and strange places. The concept of two women making love to each other was completely unknown to me before I met Emmanuelle! I can't help but laugh thinking back to how much of my sexual education I owe to the Emmanuelle films and the other naughty Euro-trash skin-flicks Cinemax kept in heavy rotation throughout the 80s. Mom and Dad were way too uptight and repressed to fill me in--thank goodness cable television was there to explain everything.

As a soft core feature, Emmanuelle 2 stands out as one of the very best of it's kind. Artfully rendered, beautifully photographed love/sex scenes, that really pushed the limits on just how far a film could go. This is a sequel to one of the most successful erotic movies of all time. I can report, in all honesty that is is a rare instance where a sequel is better than the original. While the first "Emmanuelle", filmed by Just Jaeckin, is somehow dark, and murky, Emmanuelle 2 is bright, and filled with life, and with genuine eroticism. Obviously this feature had a much larger budget than it's predecessor, and it shows. The viewer was introduced to the infamous "Emmanuelle" character in 1974. She was a shy, quiet girl of 19, married to an older man, who had very different views of sex. In that film we witnessed the beginning of her sexual awakening. In this sequel we see Emmanuelle developed into an incredibly strong, liberated woman, who goes about her sexual conquests like a drunken sailor! Sylvia Kristel sets the screen on fire with her unique brand of sexuality, which i can't quite describe. The many erotic scenes feature the most sumptuously filmed situations imaginable, and always set in the most exotic of locales. And as explicit as it is, it never crosses the line between good taste and sleaze for a second. What constantly surprised me about Emmanuelle 2 is just how well made it is. Every second of it looks like a very polished, big budget film. It was not expected, because the first Emmanuelle simply did not possess this level of quality. Best of all, while Emmanuelle 1 seems horribly dated today, thanks mostly to the 1970's philosophizing of the Mario character, along with the tacky theme song, the second one has dated beautifully, thanks to the truly elegant and timeless fashion choices for Kristel and the rest of the cast, and also to the gorgeous soundtrack by celebrated composer Francis Lai. If you have an interest in erotic films, i recommend you hunt this one down. I have the DVD from the Netherlands, which I believe is the most uncut version available. I also recommend seeing the original first; it is not as good as this one, however it is still a very good, and important film, as that is the one that started it all. Plus it is nice to see a character of erotic films actually develop, and change throughout a series. I cannot however recommend most of the others in the series, (with the exception of the very rare "Yellow Emanuelle" and a couple Laura Gemser films) as they range from bad to ridiculous. This stuff is worlds better than much of the ugly, corporate crap that comes out of Hollywood these days.