Emanuelle in America

Extreme depravity, hardcore sex, and ultra violence: I'd heard that this sleazy offering from Italian trash-movie king Joe D'Amato (Aristide Massaccesi) was the epitome of exploitation, so I borrowed a copy from a friend and settled down to enjoy a prime slice of deviancy. Unfortunately, this supposedly spicy dollop of D'Amato sauce actually turned out to be rather bland.

Laura Gemser plays Emanuelle, an investigative reporter determined to get her scoop, whatever the risk. Using her womanly wiles, she digs up the dirt on an organised-crime boss and his harem, some lust-crazed Venetian aristocrats, and a sex club for lonely women where our horny heroine eventually stumbles on the story of the century when she discovers a couple enjoying a genuine snuff movie.

The first half of the movie is rather dull, packed with plentiful female nudity but hardly any of the 'rough stuff' that I had read so much about; only a brief scene involving a happy horse named Pedro is worthy of note.

Eventually D'Amato hits his stride and, during an orgy scene, he delivers the first of many hardcore moments; from here on in, the XXX action is more plentiful, but the clumsy direction and editing means that they are far from erotic.

At the end of the movie, Joe throws in a smattering of very gory pseudo-snuff footage for good measure, but this only serves to make the film feel even more disparate. The end result is neither a soft-core adventure, a hardcore porn movie or an all out gore-fest, but a disappointing (and often boring) half-assed mixture of all three.

See it so that you can talk knowledgeably about the genre to like-minded sickos, but don't expect anything too amazing.

There are basically two kinds people in this world: those who like smut and those who don't. Those who like it should revel in the work of Aristede Massaccesi, a.k.a. Joe D'Amato. Those who don't should stay as far away from it as humanly possible. However, I see myself as that rare someone who is able to walk the line that divides them. I can watch a D'Amato film from beginning to end but will have a storm of mixed feelings afterwards. The first Joe D'Amato film I saw was either "Emmanuelle Around the World," "Emmanuelle in Bangkok" or "Emmanuelle and the Last Cannibals." I saw them on Showtime and/or the Movie Channel (now called Starz) back in late '92 and early '93. I was not familiar with D'Amato at the time; I was intrigued by the star, Laura Gemser. I had seen her in another Emmanuelle film called "Emmanuelle, Queen of Sados" (not directed by D'Amato) and was struck by her exotic beauty. I had always been a fan of 70s movies and many of the Gemser and D'Amato films had the texture of kung fu movies, exploitation movies and other genres of that time. Unfortunately, the cable stations stopped showing them and the only ones I could find at the local video stores were the aforementioned "Emmanuelle, Queen of Sados" and "Black Cobra," a soft-core film directed by D'Amato, with Gemser and Jack Palance. But finally in 1995 I jumped on the information superhighway, and thanks to many cult films sites on the net, I was able to find many if not all of these films and purchase them. Upon receiving the videos, I soon realized that I wasn't as seasoned a Joe D'Amato fan as I thought. I watched "Black Emmanuelle," Gemser's first outing in the title role, and "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead I was shocked in find her in a hard core scene in the former with Angelo Infanti, the same guy who blew up Michael Corleone's wife in "The Godfather!" I'm not going to say I've never watched pornography but it wasn't what I was looking for. In fact, I would find out later, and much to my relief, that a body double was used to substitute Gemser in the scene. I was still however shocked to find these films I had seen late on Friday and Saturday nights contained graphic, often violent scenes of hardcore sex. It took some adjusting but I found that I was still curious. I tried to find "Emmanuelle in America," the unofficial grand daddy of 'em all, on the net but tracking it would prove not to be so simple. The online store that was supplying it appeared to have ran out of copies. So I went on to buy other D'Amato films like "Caligula, the Untold Story." Though I was taken aback by the graphic scenes, I wasn't surprised by them. Finally I found another site that carried it. Though I was anxious, I must admit I was eager to see it, especially the infamous "snuff" film (at this point, I feel obligated to point out that it is well documented that the snuff footage seen in the movie was staged, so please don't go awry trying to contact the FBI to confiscate the film). I finally saw `Emmanuelle in America,' and its most famous seen. I found I wasn't as jaded as I thought, as I found myself quite disturbed by the footage. Emmanuelle thought she saw it in a dream, but when her boss at the paper shows her photos of the crime, she replies (much to my shock), "Amazing." I burst out laughing at her quip, but when the film reached its anti-climactic end, I was surprised to find that Emmanuelle did not further investigate the sadistic crime, then I thought to myself, "It's a Joe D'Amato flick. What do you expect?" And I burst out in laughter again.

This is probably about as extreme as exploitation gets (even when compared to such gory masterpieces as Nekromantik and Cannibal Holocaust). What makes it so extreme are that all the images on display as used in the context of sexual fantasy.

The infamous scene of a naked girl masterbating a horse is shown for the purposes of titillation and arousal.

The snuff footage is extremely nasty and difficult to watch and again plays to an audience looking for sexual arousal.

The film also contains numerous hard-core sex scenes and various lesbian scenes.

All in all a classic in its own right, surely only D'Amato could get away with such a film - hunt it high and low and get hold of a copy now!

You might be disgusted, but you won't be disappointed!

EMANUELLE IN AMERICA is clearly a testament to the declining CineCitta film industry of this time. Exploitation film-makers were being forced to throw genres together in bizarre hybrids to try and cover as many commercial bases as possible.

This film, without doubt, is the flat out WEIRDEST example of that I've ever seen. The first 50 minutes or so play like a typically flaccid D'Amato softcore sex movie, before kicking into high octane with hardcore bestiality footage, hardcore porn, and pretty grueling "snuff" footage (shot in a verite, hand-held and shaky style that reminds me of the latter half of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST). None of it really fits together well within the narrative (particularly the XXX footage which is clearly spliced in from another film) and all the excessive stuff is quite brief. I don't really understand what the commercial motivation for the production of this film was, but that certainly interests me. The whole film has an air of not being complete, especially when you consider the bizarrely truncated ending.

An interesting and VERY sleazy watch, but don't expect the rest of the film to be anything but appalling. D'Amato's straight horror (specifically BLUE OMEGA and ABSURD) do the job way more for me, and I usually love sleaze with all my grimy heart. Before anyone yells at me, the copy I own is the "fully uncut" Venezuelan print so I really don't think I'm missing anything here.

A good film by sleaze-master Joe D'Amato? No chance. Wait a minute, this one actually isn't too bad. Emanuelle's (notice, one "m", not Emmanuelle ©) forays into the aristocratic decay lifestyle get weirder and sleazier, culminating in the snuff footage in the end (modeled after Pasolini's "Salo", how ironical). It's not all bleak however, as Joe has a sense of humor. Case in point, Emanuelle and cohort having sex in the next room to an orchestra playing, and hysterically editing the sex with close-ups of the geek musos playing Ludwig's fifth. Or what about the ending? Emanuelle getting a vacation as a reward for her investigative journalism, only it turns to be a movie decor. It is only a movie after all. Hah.