RIP Emmanuelle

You start feeling older when.........the icons of your youth die around you.

Today I saw the announcement that Sylvia Kristel has died after a ten-year fight with throat cancer. As the star of the 1970's iconic soft porn film Emmanuelle (and others) she was part of my teenage years. I didn't realise that what I saw then was a cut version and that only in 2007 was an uncut version licensed for the UK. Is it wrong to be curious about the uncut version?

My lasting memory associated with Sylvia Kristel comes from an all-night cinema show in Oxford in 1979/80. The bill that started at around 10pm and went on 'til dawn included Deliverance, Dark Star, Blazing Saddles and Emmanuelle. I am not sure about the running order, but sadly I suspect I recall it correctly.

I went with my two flatmates, a northern chemist and a Welsh engineer and in those days, well at least for that sort of showing, one was able to take in cans of beer. You can imagine how the night progressed.

The episode I recall most vividly was sometime in the early hours when, in Emmanuelle, the "older man" was advising Emmanuelle and her lover that "for true love between two people there has to be a third party." Now I am sure this is not what "he" - the older man - had in mind, but my Welsh friend stood up at this point, beer in his hand and went "BAAAAAAAAAAA". The audience fell about laughing at his impression of a (Welsh?) sheep and its stereotyping implications.

As commented on in The Times today, Emmanuelle was the 50 Shades of Grey of of its day and for a boy born in 1959, the 70's were a formative period for me. While I am saddened by the news of her death, it has brought back some good memories today.