"Emmmanuelle" tells the story of a young French diplomats wife in Thailand, getting introduced into alternative sexual lifestyles and thereby questioning the classic model of relationship and marriage she once had known.You can't say that there is no story at all. Of course you can see kind of a development from the beginning of the movie towards the end. Nevertheless most of the characters just remain too flat to impress and all in all the plot can be summarized in two or three sentences.I don't know in how far the idea of open relationships and marriages can be called revolutionary in that time, but I do think that the aura of the forbidden helped making this movie big. As for the message, everyone has his own idea of sexuality and erotic and for some, as we know, open models serve well. Still, rape and lacking consent are surely not a part of them and just show that some of the characters here are rather depicted as sociopaths than as people with differing sexual preferences.

"Emmanuelle" is an elegant, excellently photographed movie, but too often rolls in a syrupy pretension… It is about a young, French woman who joins her husband in Bangkok… There much of Emmanuelle's allure is that she isn't shy about her body, or even afraid to engage in sexual activity in semipublic places… There are a number of rousing, lesbian meetings very typical of French cinema, coupled with encounters with handsome, sensitive men who enjoy superficial lovemaking… The film really deals in sensual images and an over-blown, continuous repeating of its erotic philosophy… There is sensual intimacy between Emmanuelle and the other women that is rare in the cinema…My favorite moment when teen-ager Christine Boisson comes upon the nude Sylvia Kristel asleep… Without embarrassment, she leans forward and unusually caresses gently and affectionately Emmanuelle's breast with her finger

a film encompassing an edgy kind of exquisite sensuality one of sensual exploration into the world of female sensuality and sexual pleasure and it brings one to a new understanding of many modern young women who are becoming increasingly bisexual. This film moves through this exploration without giving offence and in a careful manner. A lovely location where all is believable. The older husbands attitude is perhaps not unique as many older men respond to their wives or partners in a similar way and would be aroused and want to allow their younger partners to explore with their help and assistance. At the time the film was released however attitudes were not nearly as liberal as they are in the 2000s it was not so much the films content but what it silently inferred that was to shake people up and to raise questions their own minds.So that we focused on was it right for her "Emannuelle" to be touched by another woman, to have multiple hetro sex, or to be anally penetrated? these were serious issues in the 1997s some even illegal. But we have to judge this film in todays climate and many issues like those above no longer provoke amazement or distaste, as the moral climate has relaxed

I can't imagine anyone finding this film erotic. The two rape scenes are heinous. And the idea that Emmanuelle's husband entrusts her to some self-centered, egotistical idiot spouting pseudo-philosophical BS about love and such, only to have her humiliated by being sexually taken by the winner of a boxing match in front of others is absolutely disgusting. I couldn't feel empathy for any of the characters in this sleazy film. The husband is an absolute fool. Mario, the old man to whom Emmanuelle is entrusted, is disgusting. Emmanuelle herself is far too confused to know what she wants and so is at the whim of everyone around her. She doesn't become "a woman" by film's end, as she declares, but a soulless sex machine who engages in sex purely to satisfy animalistic passions. Nothing loving, sensual, or enticing about this film. If couples watched this, I could imagine the women beating the crap out of their male partners if they imagined they got off to the rape, abuse, powerlessness, and humiliation of women. Stay away from this one.