Rather Sylvia Kristel we have Noemie Merlant, and Audrey Diwan (a woman, hallelujah!) occupies the position of the hottie Just Jaeckin behind the camera. But the source material remains the same: just like the Emmanuelle of 1974, the Emmanuelle which is being released now brings to the screen the classic of erotic literature signed (arguably) by Emmanuelle Arsan in 1967.
And, no matter how many differences in substance and form there are between both films, this release takes us back to the golden years of the ‘softcore’. Or what is the same as that erotic cinema without explicit sex which triumphed in Europe (and, to a lesser extent, also in the United States) during the 70s.
We are talking about films that took advantage of the alleged sexual liberation of the 60s, and the period of copulatory bonanza prior to the first AIDS diagnoses, to revel in the pleasures of the flesh… with a look that, for a change, was always or almost always male and heterosexual. Is there anything redeemable in that cinema? Judge it from these selected titles.
‘Story of O’ (Just Jaeckin, 1975)
After the blockbuster Emmanuelle, Jaeckin repeats the move by adapting the BDSM novel by Pauline Reage (pseudonym of the intellectual Anne Desclos)a book that filmmakers as diverse as Clouzot, Jodorowsky and Kenneth Anger they had wanted to take to the cinema. The future ‘Bond girl’ Corinne Clery (Moonraker) receives the lashes.
‘Last Tango in Paris’ (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)
The most entry arty of this canon, and also the darkest if we remember the treatment that Bertolucci and Marlon Brando the actress was discharged Maria Schneider (19 years old at the time). At the time, the film encouraged hundreds of Spaniards to visit the Perpignan movie theaters, in order to avoid censorship.
‘Private club’ (Max Pécas, 1974)
A hard-working veteran of French cinema, Pécas was one of the flagship directors of a softcore whose lack of intellectual alibi (and budget) has ended up being endearing. Here, for example, he addresses a then-new topic: the swinger atmosphere and couples exchange venues.
‘Caligula’ (Tinto Brass, 1979)
The first (and only) blockbuster of the genre, with stars of the caliber of Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole and Helen Mirren in its cast, ended up becoming a battlefield where the director, the producer Bob Guccione (determined to include explicit sex no matter what) and the scriptwriter Gore Vidal They faced each other with a virulence worthy of Julio-Claudian Rome.
‘Ilsa, the SS wolf’ (Don Edmonds, 1975)
One of the most fascinating aspects of softcore was its following of ‘prestige’ cinema. Without going any further, The Fall of the Gods (Luchino Visconti, 1969) filled theaters with low-budget films about the depravities of the Third Reich, culminating in this saga exploitation (three films in total) with Dyanne Thorne of protagonist.
‘Bilitis’ (David Hamilton, 1977)
Photographer before filmmaker, like Just Jaeckin, and a specialist in filling his lenses with Vaseline to obtain vaporous images, the British Hamilton represents another constant of the genre: the fixation on lesbianism, always understood as a spectacle for the male gaze.
‘The Cat and the Canary’ (Radley Metzger, 1978)
Within the cinema wave awakened in the US by the success of deep Throat (1972), Metzger stood out for his efforts to offer films with plots, staging and all those things beyond the unique. A desire that the director maintained in films without explicit sex like this thriller.
‘Supervixens’ (Russ Meyer, 1975)
Say goodbye to refinements: Meyer, seasoned in exploitation most pustular of the 60s and already responsible for titles such as Beyond the valley of the dolls, rode the wave of softcore without dimming his taste for violence, absurdity and actresses with disproportionate anatomy. Elements that turned him, over time, into a cult filmmaker for modern people.
‘Immoral tales’ (Walerian Borowczyk, 1973)
Like the Hungarian Miklós Jancsó (Private vices, public virtues), Borowczyk found a lifeline in eroticism after leaving his native Poland, where he had signed notable stop motion experiments. Only he took a liking to those films with period settings and an affinity for the morbid.
‘Stella’s erotic vacation’ (Zacarías Urbiola, 1978)
As expected, post-Franco Spain took advantage of the end of censorship to throw itself headlong into softcore, offering films with unspeakable titles that sometimes (like this film, with Teresa Gimpera) -The spirit of the hive- and the unfortunate Azucena Hernandez in the cast) were a hit at the box office.
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