Emmanuelle

In 1974, 34-year-old fashion French photographer Just Jaeckin startled the world by introducing the first erotic blockbuster, Emmanuelle, starring future late night TV favorite Sylvia Kristel and based on the scandalous autobiographical book by Emmanuelle Arsan. A runaway success in its native country, the film took America by storm courtesy of a release from Columbia Pictures with the memorable tagline, “X was never like this.” The film also featured a catchy theme song and score by the late French pop star Pierre Bachelet, who would produce several more scores with the director. Rather than participating in any of the film’s numerous sequels, Jaeckin turned to another controversial literary property, The Story of O, starring the stunning Corinne Clery and cult favorite Udo Kier. One of the most stylish erotic films ever made, it was also very successful despite its B&D subject matter and still impresses with its stunning photography and incredible atmosphere. The rest of the decade proved more erratic with Jaeckin helming two projects with Canadian-born fashion model Dayle Haddon (the star-laden Madame Claude and quirky The Last Romantic Lover) as well as 1980’s rarely-seen Girls, starring a very young Anne Parillaud of La Femme Nikita fame. Jaeckin still refused to enter the increasingly popular realm of hardcore pornography, instead continuing to focus on imaginative cinema. He reteamed with Kristel in 1981 for a poorly-received adaptation of Lady Chatterly’s Lover for Cannon Films which did find a long afterlife on cable TV. His last film to date, 1984’s comic book adaptation Gwendoline, is a giddy cross between an exotic cliffhanger serial and an outrageous bondage fantasy starring future music video goddess and TV staple Tawny Kitaen. —http://www.dvdmaniacs.net/features/interview_just_jaeckin.html