Emmanuelle 4 Reviews

In the cheapest fashion possible, the producers of the EMMANUELLE series decided with this entry to inject some new blood into their ailing franchise. The result was the use of a gimmick that springs directly from the world of soap-operas: cosmetic surgery that effectively "explains" the recasting of a particular role. At a party in Beverly Hills, Sylvia (Sylvia Kristel) runs into Marc (Patrick Bauchau), an ex-lover who mistreated her. He renews his fixation with her, making her decide not only to flee the country but also to change her identity. In Rio, she undergoes radical plastic surgery that transforms her into a much younger, and very different-looking woman (Mia Nygren). Sylvia changes her name to Emmanuelle, and sets about breaking in her "new" body by carousing around various locations in Brazil. Once sated, Emmanuelle rethinks her relationship with Marc and flies to Paris to see whether she can strike any sparks with him in her new persona. The ludicrousness of Sylvia/Emmanuelle's decision to return to a man who petrified her earlier seems almost logical when taken in the context of a movie that dares an audacious (and truly laughable) twist like the full-body switch that occurs here. Nygren makes a very attractive sexual adventuress, but one can t help but feel sorry for Kristel, who consented to appear in the film simply to pass the soft-core torch to her younger counterpart (although Kristel did reprise the character of Emmanuelle in an erotic cable series). Rarely has it been so explicitly illustrated that erotic filmmakers feel compelled to toss women "of a certain age" onto the celluloid scrap heap. The picture itself has the requisite number of picturesque sexual interludes, but its visual delights are a side benefit: EMMANUELLE 4 has to qualify as one of the silliest and most forced sequels in movie history. Thus making it a ripe candidate for camp-hungry video addicts, and those who require not a shred of logic when it comes to watching their favorite brand of unclothed antics. (Extensive nudity, sexual situations.)