Sylvia Kristel R.I.P.

For every boy of a certain age, especially those not quite old enough (and in a country where laws on erotica or ‘pornography’ were far far stricter than the rest of Europe or the US), an overriding fantasy was to creep into a cinema to see Sylvia Kristel in the iconic 70s French movie Emanuelle – or, as I recall, to watch some scratchy pirate copy on a clunky Betamax video player.

However, for a good few years in the seventies, Kristel was an icon sans parallel.

The model, who turned to acting in the 1970s was actually the star of more than 50 films, and had been fighting cancer for several years.

Her breakthrough came in Emmanuelle, a 1974 erotic tale directed by Frenchman Just Jaeckin, about the sexual adventures of a man and his beautiful young wife, played by Kristel, in Thailand.

She went on to star in several sequels, as well as in Hollywood movies including Private Lessons in 1981.

Kristel also admitted her early success had been down to chance. “Love dictated what I did,” she revealed, saying her former partner, Belgian author Hugo Claus, had persuaded her to star in Emmanuelle.

“He said: ‘Thailand, that’s nice, we’ve never been there and anyway the film will never come out in the Netherlands so you won’t put your mother to shame,’” Kristel said. “In the end, 350 million people saw it worldwide.”

Jaeckin, the director, who is also a sculptor and has a gallery in Paris, said of her death: “I am very sad … She was like a little sister. We started together … Emmanuelle brought us big problems. We were a bit marked. It was a highly contested film then and now it is a cult film.”

He said that he knew immediately that Kristel was destined for the leading role. “When I saw her face, I was thunderstruck,” he said.

In an interview with the French Le Nouvel Observateur magazine Jaeckin explained that he went to the Netherlands to cast the role and, “I saw a quantity of very beautiful girls.”

Then by chance he saw Kristel, who worked at the agency and was not in the casting call, and immediately knew ,”This is Emmanuelle.”

Kristel is survived by her partner Peter Brul and a son with Claus, Arthur Kristel.

Via: Sky News and, for more images, The Red List