Critics reviews

Emmanuelle was Jaeckin’s first film and remains his best known—and while it may not be great cinema, its aesthetic impact, defining the Me Decade as a time of exposed flesh presented under the guise of liberation, is undeniable.

Emmanuelle goes through its motions, replays the conventions of its designated history as an up-market, semi-arty sex-film – all the while assuring us of the total meaninglessness of every one of its gestures.

A silly, classy, enjoyable erotic film... lushly photographed on location in Thailand, filled with attractive and intriguing people, and scored with brittle, teasing music... It’s a relief, during a time of cynicism in which sex is supposed to sell anything, to find a skin flick that’s a lot better than it probably had to be.

As a study of a young wife's amours in high and low Bangkok society, “Emmanuelle” is a fluffy consignment of romantic, slick, soft‐core, sexual simulations that is largely uninspired and hardly a revelation to enthusiasts long exposed to the genre.