Black Emanuelle

Laura Gemser plays a magazine photographer who is sent to Africa for a photo shoot. There she is met by a couple and other swinging couples. They all stay at this huge, very touristy hotel with a gigantic swimming pool. One night they have a pool party complete with "real live" native dancers. It's very un-politically correct and very kitschy. Later, Emanuelle finally has her photo shoot, which turns out to be in one of those drive-through, stay-in-your-car safaris (albeit the photography is gorgeous). Throughout the film, Emanuelle is going after every man she meets. The photography is very well done in this film. There are scenes with cascading waterfalls, galloping giraffes and ancient ruins. The film is worth seeing for the soundtrack by Nico Fidenco alone.

Some folks say this is the best Emmanuelle movie while others say it sucks. Well, I think they're both right. All the Emmanuelle (French)and Emanuelle (Italian) movies have laughable dubbed dialogue, idiotic libertine philosophizing, a heavy dose of European art houses pretensions, and of course mildly erotic if increasingly tedious omni sexual sex scenes. The Italian movies added a borderline-racist fascination with interracial coupling, and Joe D'Amato took the series into some irredeemably sleazy territory involving cannibals and snuff films. Still all these movies were shot on film, they all had some breath-takingly beautiful natural scenery (and I don't just mean the women), and they were, if only by default, interesting exotic travelogues. "Black Emanuelle" typifies both the best and worst aspects of the series.

Unfortunately, after once talented director Walerian Borozyx for some reason cast America b-Movie bimbo Monique Gabrielle (who makes Laura Gemser look like Meryl Streep)in "Emmanuelle 5", and "Emmanuelle 6" with Natalie Uher (actually the best of the legitimate French movies) and a French TV series hosted by original Emmanuelle, Sylvia Kristel, didn't take, Emmanuelle would go Hollywood. Film became porno-gloss video. Exotic African and Asian locations became left over "Star Trek" sets. And the most beautiful naked women God could create (Laura Gemser, Natalie Uher, Nieves Navarro) were replaced by the most beautiful naked women Beverly Hills plastic surgeons could create (Krista Allen, Holly Sampson). Stupid but exotic became stupid and boring. There is only one reason to watch a modern Emmanuelle movie, but that only takes your average dateless wonder about ten minutes. The original "Black Emanuelle" is awful, but it will at least hold your interest until the end, making it--by default--the best of the bunch. (However, when I can get a cheap copy or learn to speak Italian, I'd like to see the very first Emmanuelle--"Io, Emmanuelle" with Erika Blanc)

The first of many Emanuelle (spelt with only one 'm') films, this Italian rip-off of the famous French sex classic Emmanuelle (two 'm's) sees its sultry star Laura Gemser as journalist/photographer Mae Jordan (known professionally as—you guessed it—Emanuelle), who is in Africa for her latest assignment. Her employers are married couple Ann and Gianni Danieli (Karin Schubert and Angelo Infanti), who supposedly want our sexy snapper to capture shots of African ruins, but seem more interested in getting her into bed (and who can really blame them? The lovely lens-woman is gorgeous and gagging for it!).

What follows is a string of silly soft-core couplings with Gemser and her free-loving associates getting busy with each other at every available opportunity; these are interspersed by some really dull exposition about Ann and Gianni's marital troubles (which serves as the basis for the weak plot), some non-sexual nudity including a hilarious photographic session with Ann going back to nature (pretending to be a gazelle!), plus a little bit of 'padding' in the form of National Geographic style wild-life footage.

Director Bitto Albertini's handling of his material is, for the most part, fairly routine, although he does excel when it comes to delivering very unsubtle suggestive imagery: in particular, Ann's sex scene with a garage mechanic is made all the more entertaining by the juxtaposition of shots of a petrol nozzle filling up a car, whilst Emanuelle's naughty encounter with a hockey team whilst on a train is inter-cut with the locomotive's piston pumping rapidly in and out. Hardly a stroke of genius, but very funny!

Later entries in the series, helmed by sleaze-king Joe D'amato, combined Genser's soft-core romping with other exploitation sub-genres, making for more satisfying films as a whole. This one, however, is content to simply show as much naked flesh as possible without ever crossing the line into hard-core territory. It's just about worth catching if you're a big fan of Ms. Gemser and/or very trashy films in general, but probably of little interest to anyone else.

This "Black Emmanuelle" is a typical Italian cinema product of the 70's. Whenever there was a new & popular trend at the movies, whether it was in horror, Sci-Fi or drama, Italian cinema would immediately cash in on it by rapidly creating their own equivalent. The story basics would be pretty much identical to the original product, but the Italian version would distinguish itself with either more gore, more violence or (much) more sleaze. Following the immense success of the French film "Emmanuelle" starring Sylvia Kristel (bearing in mind that, for once, that film already is a rip-off itself), Italy came up with its own insatiable sex nymph who ends every line she says by taking her top of. The gorgeously stunning Laura Gemser plays a photographer called Emanuelle (notice how there's only one "m" in her name to avoid legal difficulties) who travels to Africa for...no particular reason, actually! No reason other than to have random sex with a bunch of rich males and females that do nothing all day but throw parties and lay down by the pool. The film itself is quite dull, with the exception of several beautiful shots of the African wildlife, but Gemser is pure candy to look at and the original music by Nico Fidenco is among the best I've ever heard. This first film in a series of 8 starring Gemser strangely also is the least eccentric and most common one! The directing would later be taken over by the infamous Joe D'Amato who transformed Black Emanuelle into a trashy sex-guru that shows her sexual skills in all the corners of the world, from Asia to America and even among cannibal tribes and inside female prisons! In this first film, Emanuelle still is a sensitive and emotional girl whereas she's be a dominating shrew in the later films. No extreme sleaze-stuff happening here, like horse-masturbating for example (check "Emanuelle in America") which is probably why my national TV-station programmed it on Saturday night. However, if you happen to have an original copy, you should treasure it, as this is an extremely rare and hard to find movie!

Laura Gemser is one of the best actresses in the Emmanuelle movies. She has a sure, sexy, friendly, erotic, girl that you could meet & not be snubbed by attitude that puts her over the line in my opinion. She gets in these situations with ease & is not only good to look at, but makes her role believable. Her sex scenes are enough to melt the heart of a statue. The story line is ok, the soundtrack is good, the acting is fair, but Laura makes the movie what it is, kind of like how Jack Nicholson can steal the movies he acts in.