Emmanuelle became a hit all over the world thanks to her sensual scenes
In 1974, the French director Just Jaeckin attracted international attention with his film debut Emmanuelle, which, thanks to its erotic setting and sensual scenes, received huge audience interest. The story of a young and bored European woman set in Bangkok, Thailand, soon became a box office hit in France. The film celebrated the same success in other countries and was seen by around 350 million viewers in cinemas. Another millions of curious people watched the daring film full of sexual adventures of the beautiful wife of an elderly diplomat thanks to videotapes, just as it was necessary in Czechoslovakia at the time, where almost everyone wanted to see the famous Emmanuelle in the second half of the 1980s.
After studying at a convent school, she became a successful model
The first erotic film distributed by a major film company made the representative of the lead role of the seductive Emmanuelle, who was the Dutch actress Sylvia Kristel, famous throughout her life. A native of picturesque Utrecht, which is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, she was born in 1952. Sylvia’s parents ran a hotel and divorced when their daughter was fourteen. The girl’s father left for another woman, but returned following a while and threw Sylvia, her mother and sister out of the house. After studying at a convent school, thanks to her interesting appearance, Sylvia threw herself into the career of a photo model, and it was her unusual beauty, along with her willingness to strip in front of the film camera, that landed her the role of Emmanuelle.
The author of Emmanuelle’s book model may have been a man
When a film is successful, a sequel often follows, as in the case of the high-grossing Emmanuelle, which became the first of several consecutive films based on a novel that initially circulated in France without crediting its author. Later, the book appeared under the pseudonym Emmanuelle Arsan, under which Marayat Bibidh, a woman born into an aristocratic and high-ranking family from Bangkok, hid. At the age of sixteen, she met her future husband, a French diplomat many years older than her, who is often referred to as the real author of Emmanuelle.
The audience preferred to see Sylvia in erotic films
Sylvia Kristel remained connected to her fateful figure throughout her life. In addition to the popular series, the iconic Emmanuelle also appeared in other films. Although she tried to act in other films than those with erotic subtext, she eventually returned to the roles in which the audience expected her. In 1981, Sylvia once more appeared on the silver screen under the direction of Just Jaeckin in the film adaptation of the novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which was enthusiastically anticipated for its promised titillating content, but received poor reviews and little audience success. However, another film from the same year was appreciated by the audience, and the American comedy Private Lessons, in which Sylvia sexually initiates an inexperienced young man in the role of a maid, became a commercial hit.
She battled drugs, debt and cancer
Former model Sylvia Kristel turned star whose fame led her to problems with drugs and alcohol. Due to her exuberant life, she got into financial difficulties, but the hardest blow for her was a cruel diagnosis, which announced a serious illness to the once admired actress. The representative of the legendary Emmanuella, whose bed was passed by crowds of famous lovers, fell ill with cancer of the esophagus and lungs. Sylvia bravely fought the deadly disease for ten years. In 2006, she published a book of her memoirs, and in the same year she won an award at the American Tribeca Film Festival for directing the short animated film Topor and me, in which she captured the Parisian art scene at the beginning of her career in France. The woman who was longed for by millions of viewers around the world succumbed to her serious illness in 2012. Sylvia Kristel died at only sixty years old.
https://www.csfd.cz/film/89747-emmanuelle/prehled/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/oct/18/sylvia-kristel
https://www.lidovky.cz/relax/lide/filmova-emmanuella-herecka-kristelova-je-pry-v-komatu.A120702_173501_lide_glu
https://www.novinky.cz/clanek/kultura-eroticky-symbol-70-let-predstavitelka-emmanuelle-podlehla-rakovine-169797
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuelle_Arsan
https://www.idnes.cz/kultura/film-televize/zemrela-emmanuelle-herecka-sylvia-kristelova.A121018_120122_filmvideo_jaz
https://cs.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Kristel
