THE INCONFESSABLE ORGIES OF EMMANUELLE

While the critical establishment often lambastes him and the mainstream ignores him, devotees of exploitation and emotionally subversive cinema watch his erratic if influential career with interest. While it may be stretching it to say that his is a career and style that evokes either love or hate, this generalization isn't far from the truth. Rare is the viewer that walks away from screening one of his highly personal films without strong reaction. Repulsion, frustration, incredulity, or obsession: many are the emotions that his work instils. And while he is often accused of indulging in sensation for sensations sake, it should be remembered that his cinema is primarily devoted to emotion and spectacle, not realistic storytelling or narrative coherence. Franco focuses on sensationalism, be it sexual, violent, or rooted in terror. And while it cannot be denied that this devotion to the senses is responsible for derailing several of his films, just as many of his visually intensive physical and/or esoteric experiments succeed precisely because they barrage us with such outlandish excesses. This is particularly true in his treatment of sexual freedom in The Inconfessable Orgies of Emmanuelle, a bold new release from Severin. Rightfully called the 'Criterion' of smut, this company has already brought us such obscure pieces as Private Collections and Perversion Story. Now they wow us with this uneven if salacious work of fetishistic sexuality, uncut and uncensored for the first time in America.

The history of Emmanuelle as a series is itself a noteworthy process of exploitation evolution. Beginning life as Io, Emmanuelle (1969), starring Erika Blanc, the 1974 version of Emmanuelle, starring Sylvia Kristel, provoked moral shock and outrage by embracing its X rating and scandalous nature. Directed by Just Jaeckin, the story revolved around a sexy young model encouraged by her photographer husband to indulge her desires. The evolving series would come to embrace such controversial acts as rape, incest, lesbianism, free love, orgies, and animal sex (thanks to Joe D' Amato, sleaze king). These would star Laura Gemser, who first enacted the role in Black Emmanuelle (1975), directed by Albert Thomas. After several sequels with Kristel, the Italian Black Emanuelle films found dominance among exploitation fans. These offered raunchier sex and varying degrees of sadism, taking the franchise to grittier and more graphic depths. Franco's version of the nymph's erotic excesses is closer to D'Amato's vision than Jaeckin, and while lacking much of the formers violence, the Spanish director clearly enjoys treating the character as a sexual object to be used hard and with undeniable zeal.

French TV star Muriel Montossé (billed as Vicky Adams) makes her steamy, feline mark alongside the legendary status of Sylvia Kristel and Laura Gemser as the one and only Emmanuelle. Exploring carnal joys in various 'unlikely' places (and positions!) this Franco feast of flesh, semen, and dream-like atmosphere features amongst its fetishistic highlights a 'live' lesbian exhibition that, along with Emmanuelle's other wild ways, makes her friends think that her sexual desires are out of control. As she becomes entangled with predatory lesbians, and her escapades increase in number and deviancy, pleasure soon leads to brutality in expected Franco style. Also known as EMMANUELLE EXPOSED, this erotic assault may lack something of the director's customary violence but preserves his voyeuristic love of flesh and emotionally intensive atmosphere. While Franco reveals that the Emmanuelle title/relationship was tacked on his work as a commercial afterthought, with distributors attempting to cash in on the success of that series, the director is clearly suited for the material. Parodying the 'narrated' structure and soft-core fluff so often evoked in the Emmanuelle series, Franco reveals with class and sarcastic wit the 'fake' sentiment inherent in so-called sophisticated erotica. He also weaves a story that engages despite its rather unlikable characters. But these characters are believable precisely because they are depicted without false sentiment and strained likeability, bringing them closer to people one would encounter in everyday life.

The first thing apparent in this film is Franco's decision to use his characters as unapologetic sexual objects, objectifying them without remorse. Better yet, he does this while making them enjoy their treatment. This is woman wanting to be a sexual object even though she may not know it, and while this film -- and that statement -- is sure to evoke anger amongst politically correct critics who believe government regulation somehow possesses the power to repress ancient animalistic tendencies in human beings -- Franco's work understands that these tendencies are rooted far deeper than our current hypocritical niceties allow. Tendencies, finally, that art allows us to indulge -- and in some cases exorcize -- by experiencing them vicariously, in the safety of storytelling. That is precisely what is so engaging about this movie. Franco encourages us to indulge in our animalistic desires to see women subdues, subverted, used, and in some cases, abused. Yet he also shows woman as a vibrant, healthy, sexually hungry animal herself, giving as good as she gets through the ultimate power that she wields through her sexual mystique.

The barrage of erotic and filthy images here are as powerful and erratic as a tidal wave of emotion. While Franco is often dismissed as a fetishistic hack by those hypnotized by mainstream 'logic' and traditional narrative sequence, in The Inexcusable Orgies of Emanuelle he not only indulges in sex for the simple joy of it its physical pleasures but strives to explore with varying success its degrees of emotional and spiritual union -- albeit without ever losing its exploitative sheen. A sure fire treasure for Franco fans who primarily know him for the noir imagery of Dr. Orloff, the slapdash gore of Bloody Moon, or the pulp-crime shlock of Kiss Me Monster, this raunchy, erotically charged peep show reveals yet another side of Franco.

Orgies is featured for the first time on DVD in the Unites States, completely uncut and complete, and re-mastered from original vault materials. One of the many features that Franco completed in a less restrictive Spain, this tale of honeymooners torn apart by sexually deviant stalkers is featured in its original 2.35 aspect ratio, enhanced for anamorphic televisions. Visual quality is very good, especially considering the rarity and age of the film. Colors are sharp and bright, and the copious nudity and carnage captured in surprisingly clear imagery. Audio is presented in both English and Spanish tracks. The English version is less cohesive, with dialogue that sounds fragmentary and background interference. The Spanish track is clean and concise, without muffling, and the English Subs well written.

There is only one Extra feature for this film. Thankfully it's a great one. "The Inconfessable Orgies of Jess," is A 17 minute interview with the man himself, featuring the rowdy, opinionated director in all of his enthusiastic wit and fury. Among the highlights are his verbal assaults against Just Jaeckin and Sylvia Kristel and obvious love for his cast. His unpredictability and occasionally absurd opinions are undeniably evocative.

Review by William P. Simmons