Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol

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My publisher, Cult Epics’ Nico B., is Dutch as well and he was able to offer up some vital suggestions and tips for the chapters in the book that cover her Dutch films. Nico was extremely helpful and supportive in general so I will always be heavily grateful and in debt. Emmanuelle 4 (1984), starring Kristel and new Emmanuelle Mia Nygren, had hardcore scenes shot, but they were never used. These scenes, which did not involve the main actors, were included in television versions and turned up as extras on European DVD editions of Emmanuelle 4 and in a version called "Emmanuelle 4X" on a VHS in France in the 1980s. Kristel was married and divorced twice. She is survived by her partner, Peter Brul, and a son by the Belgian author Hugo Claus, a partner from the mid-1970s.

Richey has now written his first book, Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol, published this week by Cult Epics. It is a generous (and beautifully designed) book, filled with reproduced posters, lobby cards, publicity photos, showing this young untrained (and yet instinctive and extremely well-read) actress thrust into the international European spotlight for her featured roles in the emerging Dutch cinema of the 1970s. She made a splash almost instantly, with her small role in Frank and Eva. Other roles followed, and more and more directors took an interest. Her fame was no longer just local, it began to spread. When Kristel died in 2012, the obituaries led with Emmanuelle in the headlines. Richey’s book delves into why that is simplistic at best, unfair at worst. He makes the case, painstakingly, meticulously, that her work was unique, that she wasn’t a, say, B-movie Brigitte Bardot. Francois Truffaut was a fan, as was Claude Chabrol and Roger Vadim. People jostled to work with her. She turned down some very famous roles, roles that may have been game-changers in terms of perception of her, particularly in America where many of her films remained (to this day) un-seeable. Richey’s contextual inclusion of a quotation from Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Julietmay strike some as a connective overreach in regard to something like Julia, but the famed play’s central melancholy-escalation is nevertheless apropos.As long as one doesn’t expect Kristel front and center, nor a film that resembles Emmanuellein any way beyond the general opulent lives of its characters, Juliais a fully satisfactory experience.One of the shared notions that films such as these promote (intentionally or not), that sexual pleasure is really for the super-rich, was not at all coined by them so much as they simply rendered it overtly.It can easily be argued that depictions of such wealthy trappings of the international leisure set is as big of a draw towards these films as the promise of raw sensuality.In any case, it can’t be denied that the breakout commonality of Emmanuelleand Juliais indeed Sylvia Kristel, without whom we would be far less likely to be considering the latter today. She rejected the main female roles in The Story of Adele H. (1975), King Kong (1976), Logan's Run (1976), Caligula(1979), Body Heat (1981), Blade Runner (1982), Scarface (1983), Dune (1984), Body Double (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986).Plus, I could access material on many of the great Dutch artists that she worked with throughout the early and then late seventies. This really helped flesh out the book, and it was amazing getting to read long-lost interviews with not only Sylvia but people like Rutger Hauer, Renée Soutendijk, Laura Gemser and so many of these great film figures that Sylvia worked with.

Richey makes no bones of the fact that 1974’s Julia( Es war nicht die nachigall) made a point of riding the pronounced coattails of Emmanuelle.This despite the reality that this somewhat jumbled entry in the “Bavarian Sex Cycle” of the time was actually filmed before the latter phenomenon.It’s tempting to claim that that accounts for Kristel’s limited screen time, as the actress had yet to explode in popularity at the time of Julia’s production.A more certain claim would be the obviousness in naming the movie after Kristel’s character- her first name only, at that.Her character Julia, however brief her cumulative presence, isa vital and unforgettable part of director Sigi Rothemund’s eighty-eight minute sexually charged coming-of-age vacation film. It was necessary to not shy away from the substance abuse issues that plagued her, though, especially in the late seventies and early eighties, as it clearly affected her work and was something she never shied away from discussing. That said, her addiction issues in no way defined her and are very relatable. Who amongst us hasn’t had our own personal issues (I certainly have) with addiction or at the very least hasn’t had a friend or family that has faced similar struggles? The way some people demonize those in the spotlight for issues like this really offends me, and I tried to treat these passages in the book with great care.
SOM: Kristel’s journey was so woven into the rise of Dutch film in the 1970s. I so appreciated how in-depth you got with what was going on at the time, all of the social and cultural and artistic revolutions and how it was impacting this very small local film industry. Kirstel seems to have been very much “of her era” – and in a small film culture where everyone knows everyone – word could get around. She seems to have made a splash almost right away. Was this a kind of “right place right time” thing? Could it have happened in, say, the 80s?

JULIA (Germany, 1974) Sigi Rothemund. Bonus features: 2K Transfer, Audio Commentary by Jeremy Richey, Theatrical HD Trailer and more tba. My worst is all out in the open. It makes it necessary for people to tell you about themselves.” — Katherine Dunn Kein Einband. Condition: Sehr gut. kA (illustrator). kA. Auflage. Anzahl Bände: 1 - Bd.Nr.: kA - Sprache: it - Einband: nicht zugeordnet - Gewicht: 100 - Illust.: kA - Zustand: Sehr gut - kaum Gebrauchsspuren, 2 DVDs.