Beautiful, but repressed young lass Emmanuelle (a solid and convincing portrayal by slender brunette stunner Sylvia Kristel) lives in Bangkok with her wealthy husband Jean (smoothly played by Daniel Sarky). Jean encourages Emmanuelle to let go of her morals and inhibitions, so Emmanuelle decides to have an extramarital affair with archeologist Bee (delectable blonde Marika Green).

Director Just Jaeckin relates the engrossing story at a hypnotically gradual pace, makes nice use of the exotic Bangkok locations, and adroitly crafts a dreamy erotic atmosphere. Moreover, Kristel's striking delicate pulchritude and entrancing aura of enticing wide-eyed innocence further enhance the dizzyingly sensuous mood. The alluring presences of Jeanne Colletin as Emmanuelle's more worldly friend Arianne and Christine Boisson as yummy anything-goes teen Marie-Ange provide plenty of additional heat. Moreover, the abundant female nudity and simulated sex scenes are likewise quite hot and arousing. Alas, things fall a apart in the last third with Emmanuelle being trained by some old creep (the supremely icky Alain Cury) to be more subservient to men. Richard Suzuki's sumptuous cinematography provides an attractive lush look. Pierre Bachelet's alternately funky or soothing score hits the groovy spot. Lives up to its steamy reputation.

Emmanuelle (Sylvia Kristel) travels from Paris to Bangkok to be with her French diplomat husband Jean. The older Jean is her sex mentor and wants her to have other men. There are several diplomat wives including Ariane and the younger Marie-Ange. Both get closer sexually to Emmanuelle with Jean's approval. Marie-Ange introduces her to Mario but she falls for female archaeologist B.

This is one third sexploitation porn, one third Euro art-house wannabe, and one third exotic travelogue. It's notable for its existence at a point in time. The sex is often softcore but there is some hardcore smoking going on here also. While Kristel is compelling, her character is problematic with a meandering sexcapade story. She is often portrayed as a student of sex but she can only do a faux-innocent. It's the writing more than the acting. In one moment, she's being pushed to learn while in other moments, she's jumping into sexual situations. It comes off as bad faking.

I guess you might call EMMANUELLE one of the most influential films of all time, based purely on the amount of sequels and rip-offs that followed. Seen today, it's a rather slight and dated French erotic movie with lots of softcore sex scenes. Definitely a case of stylish over substance, although not without merit for fans of the genre.

The amusingly-monikered Just Jaeckin is a dab hand at creating carefully set up establishing shots and making the most of some location shooting in Bangkok. Unusually for the genre, lead actress Sylvia Kristel seems to have been chosen for her acting performance rather than her looks, because she's quite convincing as the woman undergoing an odyssey of self-discovery.

I didn't think that the sex scenes were particularly erotic, but nonetheless there's fun to be had from the globetrotting antics and the other plot elements, including an unexpected round of Thai boxing! Even some tension and creepy moments towards the climax. The likes of EMMANUELLE will never be favourites of mine because this isn't my one of my preferred genres of film, but as visually artistic films go you could do a lot worse.