Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol

by Jeremy Richey, Sylvia Kristel, Nico B (Editor)

Overview

A trailblazing figure in film and popular culture, Netherlands native Sylvia Kristel became one of the biggest stars in the world as Emmanuelle in 1974. Alongside her most famous role, directed by Just Jaeckin, a little-known fact is that Sylvia Kristel also appeared in over 20 films between 1973 and 1981 featuring exceptional work with some of the greatest directors in film history including Walerian Borowczyk, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Roger Vadim and Claude Chabrol. Now the story of Sylvia's astonishing career in the '70s is told in Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol, written by Jeremy Richey. Featured are new interviews with Just Jaeckin, Pim de la Parra, Robert Fraisse, Joe Dallesandro and Francis Lai among others. Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol is a film-by-film guide to one of the most distinctive and uncompromising careers in modern cinema, and a celebration of a most remarkable woman in a fully illustrated coffee-table book written by author Jeremy Richey.

A recollection of Sylvia Kristel's most exciting period as an actress. Beginning with her early Dutch film roles in Frank & Eva, Because of the Cats, and Naked over the Fence, this book covers all 22 movies Sylvia starred in between 1973 and 1981 including the European films Emmanuelle, Julia, No Pockets in a Shroud, Playing with Fire, Emmanuelle II, Une Femme fidele, La Marge, Alice, Rene the Cane, Goodbye Emmanuelle, Pastorale 1943, Mysteries, Tigers in Lipstick, The Fifth Musketeer, Love in First Class, Lady Chatterley's Lover, and the American films The Concorde…. Airport '79, The Nude Bomb, Private Lessons, plus a chapter on the unmade films, dozens of iconic roles that she was offered but declined written with in-depth detail by Jeremy Richey. Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol also contains many vintage reviews and interviews with Sylvia Kristel never before translated into English, and takes a look at Sylvia's brief music recording career as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780999862759
Publisher:	Cult Epics
Publication date:	06/08/2022
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	12.20(w) x 10.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Jeremy R. Richey is a film and music historian and writer originally from Kentucky. The creator of the long-running blogs Moon in the Gutter and Fascination: The Jean Rollin Experience, Richey was also the publisher of the print-only journals Art Decades and Soledad. His work has appeared in a variety of books and magazines as well as on various home video supplements, including audio commentaries for Cult epics releases Madame Claude and the upcoming Julia and Mysteries. Richey currently resides in Bremerton, WA with his beloved dog Ziggy.

Actress and artist Sylvia Kristel was born in Utrecht, Netherlands on September 28th, 1952. Her film career began in 1973 with small but memorable roles in three important Dutch productions. Sylvia became one of the biggest stars of the '70s after her role in Emmanuelle (1974), and she would spend the rest of the decade working with some of the finest filmmakers of the period. Sylvia's starring roles in films like Borowczyk's La Marge (1976), Vadim's Une Femme fidele (1976), Robbe-Grillet's Playing with Fire and Chabrol's Alice (1977) are among the most memorable performances of the period.

Nico B is the founder of the legendary Amsterdam video store Cult Videoheek, and started Cult Epics in 1991. Moving to the US in 1998, he continued to release arthouse, horror and erotica films in North America, specializing in the works of directors such as Walerian Borowczyk, Tinto Brass, Fernando Arrabal, Radley Metzger, Jorg Buttgereit, Agusti Villaronga, Pim de la Parra & Wim Verstappen. As of recently Cult Epics has started publishing illustrated hardcover books including Cult Epics: Comprehensive Guide to Cult Cinema and Women of the Sun: Bunny Yeager in Mexico, among others.

Read an Excerpt

A significant figure in the second half of twentieth-century film, Just Jaeckin, was born in Vichy, Allier, France, in the early part of August 1940. Much of Jaeckin's childhood would be spent in England after his parents were exiled there during the war. Returning to France after the war, an already passionate art lover, Jaeckin would study photography before being drafted at the age of eighteen to serve in Algeria, where he would become an official military photographer.

After his stint in the military, Jaeckin would leverage his photography experience into a successful career back in France for publications like Elle and Vogue and as an art director at Paris Match. Jaeckin quickly became known as one of the world's finest photographers, and he spent the sixties taking some of the greatest pictures of many trendsetting figures of the day. Not content with just photography, by the mid-sixties, Jaeckin was already proving to be a successful sculptor as well as a passionate sports enthusiast.

Jaeckin's acclaimed early photography would lead him to work on the successful French music and variety showcase Dim Dam Dom, which had premiered on French television in 1965. Jaeckin's work on the influential show would introduce him to many great artists, filmmakers, singers, and writers of the day. It would give him his first taste of film work, the first step towards fulfilling a dream of becoming a feature film director.

With his director and funding secured, Rousset-Rouard and Jaeckin began assembling the cast and crew that would soon be making the essential film of any of their careers. Considering one of the main reasons Jaeckin was hired was due to the tremendous photography skills he was responsible for the film's unforgettable look. However, novice Richard Suzuki was given the cinematographer credit. Jaeckin would later recall in Talking about Emmanuelle that "We used natural lighting" and that he "worked very quickly," a necessary attribute for Emmanuelle's tight shooting schedule.

Nothing could move forward without the critical casting choice for Emmanuelle. Perhaps not surprisingly, several figures have claimed credit for finding Sylvia. Jaeckin would share his version of the story in our exclusive interview:

"Don't forget at that time, erotic films didn't exist, only pornographic films. When I started calling agents, I was told no French actress will be able or want to shoot this film. All of the actresses said no way.

Editorial Reviews

"We had a beautiful feeling together but people don't know it's very hard to shoot a film, mentally and physically. Sylvia was like a sister to me." —Just Jaeckin

"What struck me most with Sylvia was that she had what photographers & sculptors call 'perfect bone structure'. Her profiles are especially breathtaking." —Pim de la Parra

"Sylvia was a beautiful, charming woman that I had the pleasure of meeting and becoming a good friend of hers. I still count myself honored to have met and worked with her." —Joe Dallesandro

"Richey’s tome is a beauty unto itself... The Blu-ray set is an ideal companion to the book, making four previously very rare Kristel films available in stunning versions." —Jim Tudor, ZekeFilm

"Sylvia Kristel was amongst the greatest and final figures of the much-missed European Art House of the sixties and seventies." — Review and Interview with Jeremy Richey, author of Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol, from
The Sheila Variations

"It’s a book that’s as practical as it is informative and one that belongs in every genre film fan’s collection who might be curious about the films and legacy of one of the most underrated actors who worked in French and Dutch cinema." —Dan Tabor

"The Rosetta Stone of Sylvia Kristel career." -UNBOXING VIDEO

"Actress Sylvia Kristel played in nearly 60 films, but her name has always been connected to the software film Emmanuelle. A new film box set and a coffee table book would change that." —DUTCH REVIEW

"A striking beauty radiant with sensuality, as well as an uncompromising artist projecting a touching vulnerability...She’s not just Emmanuelle and she’s not just a sex symbol: she’s the one and only Sylvia Kristel." —The Metrograph

From the Publisher