The Museum of Wicked Delights  FOR ADULTS ONLY

For purposes of this study of the first Emanuelle film, BLACK EMANUELLE, we will be using two elements: the Polish DVD, which is the hardcore version, and an earlier American video element that presents the R-rated version released theatrically in the United States. The hardcore version was assembled through inserts in which the film's main actors and actresses did not participate. These inserts appear to be part of the filming plan from the start of production, however. In an interview for Nocturno Cinema's IO EMANUELLE, a 1997 booklet dedicated to Laura Gemser, the Indonesian beauty admits, "Of course, EMANUELLE wasn't so clean. I remember in fact, they added in some scenes that I refused to star in, and they used a body double. To tell the truth, I don't know if they used those scenes, but I remember that they filmed them."

By the time BLACK EMANUELLE was made, both mid to upper echelon softcore and hardcore pornography had been minted and were becoming popular genres. BLACK EMANUELLE was constructed to take advantage of both genres. Because it did not have a regular extended dosage of graphic sex scenes, the hardcore version could not expect to play in "triple X" theaters, but it could land playdates in theaters around the world where its brief hardcore scenes would create appropriate interest among potential audiences eager to see taboos broken under the guise of a soft-porn or sex adventure film. Many countries still frowned upon the exhibition of hardcore films or outright banned them from securing any playdates. The hardcore version of BLACK EMANUELLE could secure a playdate, however, without being labeled a genuine hardcore film, but still gain the sellable notoriety of showing forbidden material.

Such a plan to maximize profits by crafting two versions of a film was nothing new in the 1970s, and as we see more of these type of films released on DVD, we also see at times the joint presentation of both variants--hard and soft, as well as the discarding of the soft version at other times for the more potent and profit-making hard, and usually rarer, version.

Posted by The Museum on 04-04-2008 17:02:00 | Permalink | Comments

The prelude to BLACK EMANUELLE for Laura Gemser was a credited appearance in the second Emmanuelle film, EMMANUELLE 2 (that's the French series, chiefly with Sylvia Kristel). In this 1975 Francis Giacobetti film, Gemser plays an Asian masseuse who gives a full body massage to a European female (played by Catherine Rivet) using her own naked body as the instrument of touch and rubbing. Who would not want such a massage from Laura Gemser! Giacobetti had already known Gemser through Gemser's fashion and nude photo shoots and asked her if she'd like a small part in the film. Gemser agreed, and her decision probably led to her being cast as "Black Emanuelle" later on. Gemser's first film was not EMMANUELLE 2, however, but rather FREE LOVE, a Pier Ludovico Pavoni film made in 1974 in which she had a far more substantial role.

Posted by The Museum on 02-04-2008 16:38:00 | Permalink | Comments

As stated in a previous post, the first Gemser-Emanuelle film, BLACK EMANUELLE, is not available in an authorized version as a NTSC DVD in the United States. While a DVD of BLACK EMANUELLE is available from Televista (at a high-price of about $25), this edition is unauthorized and taken from an earlier video element released in 1997 by Maxima Entertainment. The entity behind Televista may even be the same entity that was behind Maxima. The Maxima video, as well as the Televista DVD, are in widescreen, surprisingly, but the presentation is of the non-hardcore version. This version is the one that probably played in most, if not all, theaters in the United States. Obviously the audio is in English.

Gemser and Emanuelle fans had cause to rejoice, with limitations, when an authorized DVD of BLACK EMANUELLE was released in 2006. Presented in its proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and anamorphic, the hardcore version of the film was able to be properly appreciated and appraised for the first time in the video era. Two problems for the fan in the United States, however: The DVD was of Polish origin, which meant that it could only be seen on a PAL/NTSC player and it offered no English language option. You could, if you ordered the DVD through the mail, choose to watch the film in its original Italian language (with Polish subtitles, if you wanted) or in the "lektor" Polish audio, which in this case was an overdub of a single male reading all the lines in Polish. As non-Italian or Polish speaking Americans wait for the film to be officially released here, licensed through the rights owner Studio Canal, this Polish DVD will have to do, with assistance from whatever bootlegs are available of the English language version.

Posted by The Museum on 01-04-2008 21:51:00 | Permalink | Comments