Emmanuelle is a 1974 French erotic film by Just Jaekin
Emmanuelle is scheduled for its first [uncut] Blu-ray release on 1st March 2010.
The Story of Emmanuelle
See cuts details from sbbfc.co.uk:
- The BBFC cut the 1974 cinema release by at least 2:44s for an X certificate
Cuts were made to the film, principally to reduce the sexual detail. As well as reducing the amount of implied thrusting, oral sex and masturbation in a number of sequences, the Board deleted an entire scene showing a night club act in which a woman ‘smokes’ a cigarette with her vagina.
Perhaps surprisingly given the later treatment of the film, a sequence in which Emmanuelle is raped in an opium den as part of her ‘sexual education’ was left largely intact, with only minimal cuts to reduce the amount of thrusting seen.
- In 1979 the BBFC now under James Ferman went on a crusade against the depiction of sexual violence. They revoked the X certificate and asked for a further 1:01s of cuts to delete the rape scene.
The sex cuts required on film in 1974 were no longer necessary by contemporary standards and only two cuts were insisted upon for 1990 video release, namely:
- to remove the woman smoking a cigarette through her vagina and
- to remove the entire rape in the opium den, as cut on film in the late 70s.
Unfortunately, a duplication error led to the uncut version being released on video in 1991, leading to a major and costly product recall.
- Some cuts waived when Momentum DVD submitted in 2001
The cut to the smoking of the cigarette was waived as tasteless but not harmful or illegal
- the rape scene was still reduced to establishment
- All cuts were finally waived when the uncut Optimum DVD was submitted in 2007. From the 2007 BBFC Annual Report:
It was given much consideration before it was judged that in the full context of an uncut classification it was clearer that there was no endorsement of the ‘rape myth’. It was consequently passed ‘18’ without cuts.
