Emmanuelle (1974)

Emmanuelle is a 1974 French softcore erotic film, directed by Just Jaeckin, and starring Sylvia Kristel. The screenplay was written by Jean-Louis Richard, based on the novel Emmanuelle: The Joys of a Woman by Emmanuelle Arsan. The music score is by Pierre Bachelet. The film was highly successful in France and around the world. In Japan the film coined a new phrase, "emanieru suru" literally, "to do Emmanuelle", meaning "to have a casual and extravagant love affair". The film's popularity lead to softcore erotic films briefly becoming "chic". The fact that it received widespread U.S. distribution by a major Hollywood studio has seen Emmanuelle referred to as the softcore equivalent of the hugely successful hardcore porn release Deep Throat. Columbia Pictures only agreed to distribute it after noting that most of the film's audience in French cinemas were women. The studio reasoned that female interest meant Emmanuelle could not be regarded as mere pornography. It spawned several sequels and influenced many similar films. Much of the movie is filmed in soft-focus, which was a trademark of Jaekin. Robert Fripp won an out-of-court settlement over the use of music in the film based on King Crimson's "Larks' Tongues in Aspic".