Review: Emmanuelle 4

Sylvia Kristel stars as Sylvia, a woman sick of her relationship with Marc (a young Patrick Bauchau, yes, that Patrick Bauchau), but knowing how likely it is that she’ll end up falling under his spell again, she undertakes some very extreme measures. Flying from Hollywood to Brazil, she undergoes a complete plastic surgery procedure, which somehow winds back her biological clock ten years, but also somehow makes her a virgin again (!). Going from brunette to blonde and now calling herself Emmanuelle (played by Mia Nygren) she is encouraged by sexy psychiatrist Donna (Deborah Power) to explore her new self, if ‘ya know what I mean.

 

This 1984 sequel from dual writer-directors Francis Leroi and Iris Letans is a long way from the heights of “Emmanuelle II”, but is a massive improvement over the dismal “Goodbye, Emmanuelle”. Oh it’s one helluva stupid film, don’t get me wrong, but at least it’s under no illusions as to what genre of filmmaking it belongs to.

 

This time out, either a dissatisfied Ms. Sylvia Kristel or producers looking to cash Kristel in for a younger model, sees the title character undergoing radical and extensive plastic surgery to emerge as an entirely different actress, Mia Nygren. The change is for the better in my opinion, as I was just never that much of a fan of Kristel. Nygren is much more beautiful, if a tad thin, and has a truly spankable arse. Emmanuelle spends a lot of the film masturbating it seems, and frankly, I don’t blame her. Meanwhile, the film doesn’t want to let go of Kristel entirely, and has her appear throughout in…um…dream sequences, maybe? Non-sequitur? Buggered if I know, her scenes here just confuse things.

 

As for the sex? It’s actually pretty good. It’s the most explicit of the four films, absolutely, and the highlight is definitely the climactic scene between Emmanuelle and her female shrink, played by a sultry Deborah Power. It’s not the most explicit scene in the film, don’t get me wrong, but you want to see these two get together from the very beginning, and that investment in their relationship makes it resonate. Another earlier lesbian scene between two minor characters is poorly established, has one participant fully-clothed, and only seen from behind, and yet still manages to be surprisingly explicit for the early 80s. There’s a couple of scenes that seem to stop short, and that appears to be because they featured hardcore material cut out of every version of the film except in some corners of Europe. I don’t think the film loses too much without the material, except that the material has been unartfully cut out so as to be very noticeable. The film also has more shots of vaginas than any of the previous films by far. So there’s that.

 

So why does the film get the same grade as the first film, you ask? Because it’s frigging idiotic (and a feminist’s nightmare), that’s why. The film starts in Hollywood, but everyone speaks French…like the natives do, of course. And then there’s the matter of the plastic surgery. Sylvia/Emmanuelle is told ‘it’ll change your whole life’. Really? That’s a bit ridiculous. And of course the plastic surgery covers her entire body…and her voice box, apparently. All done in one go. It’s the most overblown and ridiculous way to write an actress out of a film series I’ve ever seen, and the surgery scene itself is hilarious. And that’s before we get to the idea that Emmanuelle/Sylvia’s mind has apparently been made ten years younger, and since she has a new body, it also means she’s a virgin. Uh-huh. It’s pretty foul on a women’s lib level, but let’s face it, it’s a softcore film made by a man (and a woman, admittedly) for the consumption of horny men. Feminist concerns are counter to this film’s sole purpose. Still, it’s pretty outrageous that the only message one can really ascertain from this film is ‘Chicks, man…’

 

So yes, this is indeed a decent recovery from the awful “Goodbye, Emmanuelle” but with ghastly sexual/gender politics, and quite possibly one of the dumbest plots in cinematic history, this can hardly be considered a good film. It sure isn’t boring, though. 

 

Rating: C+