Emilienne

Even by its name, you can tell that Emilienne is just a knock-off of Emmanuelle. Following in Emmanuelle’s footsteps, Emilienne is erotica about a married woman engaging in sexual exploits. These exploits happen with the approval of her husband, of course. Crucially though, Emilienne as a film and character is a lot more interested in female bisexuality and lesbianism. That’s obviously a huge plus for me.

The film follows the three-way relationship between Emilienne, her husband, Claude and Claude’s young mistress, Nouky. Claude refuses to leave Emilienne for Nouky. So, Nouky decides the best course of action is to seduce Emilienne as well. Eventually, Nouky convinces Emilienne to let her move in. Soon after, the three begin a triad relationship. But Claude and Nouky conceal that they were lovers before Emilienne met Nouky. This causes the relationship to break down. Claude and Emilienne’s marriage suffers without Nouky. Emilienne in particular spirals and tries to recapture the feelings she felt with Nouky. This sends her into the arms of various female sex workers.

As far as erotica goes, I like the look of Emilienne. This is a French film from the era where even softcore stuff was shot on film and released theatrically. Emilienne pays more attention to tone, mood and look than anything you’d get from the home video era. I really appreciate it when erotic films hire a good costume designer. Sure, nudity is sexy. But so is a woman in a fancy dress with a nice hat. There’s a level of glamour and luxury that I really appreciate. This isn’t a piece of erotica that could be described as “seedy.” There’s a polish to the film. Attention was paid to scenes and elements that go beyond the sex scenes. There’s some attempt at actual story and filmmaking here.

In the second half of the film, the sexual content gets rougher. Emilienne moves putting the soft in softcore to having an element of at least implied extremity. Personally, this cut into my ability to call it good erotica. These rougher elements were the exact opposite of sexy. There’s a scene where Emilienne is have sex with several sex workers. Should be hot. But there’s a random old woman watching from the next bed over. There’s another scene where Emilienne visits some sort of brothel. Sex workers and customers pair off. But there’s also a dog in the scene and there’s some… implications. There’s also a scene between Emilienne and Claude that crosses the line from rough sex into rape.

Also, the last act of the film deals heavily with Nouky having a baby. That’s another thing that shouldn’t be in a softcore porn! An infant! And the sex scenes basically do stop once the baby is born. Realistic? Maybe. But erotic? not so much. It’s probably best in any sort of erotica to not remind the viewer of the direct consequences sex can have. Namely: a screaming infant that your wife and mistress pay more attention to than you.

As representation of queer female sexuality, Emilienne isn’t great. Not a surprise, this is vintage erotica. It’s not going to be a deep exploration on sexuality. Any female sexuality depicted here is meant for titillation, primarily for a male audience. When Emilienne ventures into the “lesbian underworld,” it’s immediately extreme. The other queer women Emilienne interacts with are either sex workers or women hiring sex workers for overly perverse acts. Nouky is more problematic, still. She absolutely will and does kiss another woman for male attention. Almost all of Nouky’s interest in Emilienne is because of her obsession for Claude. Nouky unfortunately falls heavily into the trope of an immoral, oversexed and manipulative bisexual.

On the more positive side, there’s a very open and celebratory attitude towards sex. This attitude extends to homosexuality. Claude and Emilienne actually bond over their shared love of affairs with women. Emilienne is allowed to explore her sexuality without many repercussions. Her husband actually supports her in this. The film ends with Nouky, Clauade and Emilienne rekindling their relationship. It’s a toxic, unhealthy relationship to be sure. But that actually gives it a level of depth. I appreciate that the film doesn’t end with a return to heterosexual monogamy where Emilienne’s learned a lesson about straying.

As a piece of softcore erotica, Emilienne is fine. I like its style. It’s also far from the most misogynist piece of vintage softcore I’ve seen. There’s at least an attempt at character work as well. But this is still pretty weak when looked at as a “film”. Four decades on, lots of the sexual titillation has also worn off. Nothing here is more extreme than you could see on HBO. Overall, this just isn’t a memorable film. Emilienne doesn’t have a strong enough story nor notable enough erotica. It’s very much a film meant to ride the coattails of an earlier, more successful movie.

Overall rating: 3.6/10

Other WLW films in similar genres