The success of Emmanuelle owed a great debt to Sylvia Kristel’s performance in the lead – although she’s not much of an actress, she’s a great erotic star (up there with Brigitte Bardot), very effective, and if you don’t believe me look at her lack of competition, despite the countless sequels to Emmanuelle made without her. Kristel never enjoyed success with her clothes on afterwards (I was surprised to learn straight after her first hit she made a couple of legitimate films with people like Depardieu and Chabrol, but they all flopped), but had some nude hits later, including two Emmanuelle sequels, Lady Chatterly’s Lover and Private Lessons. She made a pile of money, but unfortunately blew it on coke, booze and bad business decisions. The stroke of luck that brought her world wide fame later turned on her – she got cancer twice, lost her money, had a series of dud relationships and marriages, a turbulent family life, etc.
From reading this memoir Kristel comes across as a bit of a space cadet (a few actor’s autobiographies are like this – lots of philosophical musings about life the universe and everything, wafting descriptions of relatives, etc). Despite her great on screen erotic presence, Dutch Kristel says she was awkward with nudity but I’ve got to say she hid it well. She also managed to pack in a reasonably action packed love life – a long term fling with the writer Hugo Claus (who left his wife for her), a turbulent Private Lives-esque relationship with Ian McShane (both would thump each other; he comes across as a petulant idiot here), flings with – surprise – Warren Beatty and Roger Vadim, a weird voyeuristic experience with Alain Delon, a dodgy producer husband who got her into debt, a partner who died of cancer.
A really interesting book from a very damaged woman who nonetheless seems to have a great knack for survival; judging by recent documentary appearances she also doesn’t look too bad these days, quite classy, despite all the abuse she did to her body. I would have perhaps liked to know a little more about the making of films other than Emmanuelle but maybe she was too wacked out of her brain to remember.
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