A brilliant film that helped define a genre

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

After the titillatingly groovy sexy title song "Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle goodbye" sung by a husky-voiced Jane Birkin, along with Serge Gainsbourg it simply stays in your head long after the credits have rolled. Oh it's a hard one to shake off. The third feature of the official French "Emmanuelle" series is a step-down from the previous two entries starring Sylvia Kristel as Emmanuelle, mainly on its concentration for the story dramatics than the sexual context. That's not a bad thing, because is a perfectly realized story. Much more grounded, but quite reflective and still adventurous in more ways than one. The erotica is tastefully done, as the sex scenes are watered-down and briskly concluded, but it still has Emmanuelle with her swinging husband openly experimenting with their sexual desires. However how this one changes, is now Emmanuelle begins to question/or have second thoughts about this free-spirited lifestyle her husband encouraged when the arrival of a film director gains her interest. What starts off as a curiosity with the stranger becomes a lot more, where Emmanuelle and her husband rock-solid relationship of keeping no secrets begins to show cracks --- and jealously rears its ugly head.Director Francois Letterier beautifully scenic direction of a pristine Seychelle is elegantly captured and presents a strikingly lush local flavour. The exotic music score is melodic, fitting the mellow tone. The performances are perfectly etched as the enticingly stunning Sylvia Kristel (a true goddess) shows not only she has a seductress pull, but can carry a film with a strong liberated performance. Umberto Orsini and Jean-Pierre Bouvier are solid too.

Erotic and exotic film set in the Seychelles starring gorgeous Sylvia Kristel as 'Emmanuelle', the sexual adventuress.When Emmanuelle's open marriage allows her to meet and fall in love with island visitor 'Peter' (Jean-Pierre Bouvier), she begins drifting away from her husband and into her new lover's arms. Things get complicated when Emmanuelle's husband objects and tries to separate the two causing them to fall deeper in love. Very pretty film with breath-taking scenery and nice tropical music is one of the better 'Emmanuelle' offerings.Beautifully directed by Francois Letterier.

This is a surprisingly moving last edition of the original Emmanuelle trilogy, with the title character becoming tired of her complaisant husband and the endless rounds of meaningless swinger sex she is expected to engage in whilst living in their paradise home in the Seychelles. A hunky young film director comes to the Island to scout locations, and one look into his eyes (whilst she is being schtupped by some random shag) reminds Emmanuelle what it is really like to be desired by and to desire an individual. Much to the chagrin of her husband, Emmanuelle embarks on a sexual romance with the director and finds that he stirs emotional feelings and needs which she thought her years of swinging had deadened. By the end of the film, she is ready to put all of that behind her and head for the new pastures of a monogamous, committed relationship.Compared to the low smut and tasteless hardcore of much erotic cinema, Goodbye, Emmanuelle is undoubtedly high-class product. The film, shot in luscious 'scope and finely showing the travelogue beauty of the Seychelles, is gorgeous to look at and beautifully composed. Moreover, the performances of Kristel and Umberto Orsini as Emmanuelle and her husband have real depth and emotional truth. He especially well conveys the dumb incomprehension of a complaisant roué whose free love slogans are a mask for old fashioned chauvinism and ownership values and who feels the tug of jealousy for the last time, too late in fact as his smug indifference catches up with him and he loses the person he shares his life with. His final gambit - lying to Emmanuelle about phone calls and letters from her lover - is the nearest the Emmanuelle series gets to gripping drama, and it's satisfying to see the ropey old swinger get dumped as he fully deserves.This is an odd, resigned, bitter-sweet end to the original Kristel trilogy. It could be said that the series makers are rather having their cake and eating it - that, having made a fortune from promoting lubricious excess and preaching sexual freedom, to have their heroine reject these values and plump for monogamy is rather rich coming from them. But the seventies were an age in which people realised that the sexual revolution got people high but had its come-down; that endless freedom to shag whoever you want is a prison cell not a freedom road. Even more intriguing are the subtle glimpses of the colonialism which allows the wealthy Emmanuelle and partner to indulge their jaded desires - a native caddie revealed at the far side of the frame, a garage with a Shell sign, a mention of the spice trade and pirates with black slaves. The characters live in a paradise which a snake had long ago poisoned. This is poignant social history, and feels the right kind of end to a dream in silk sheets.

This movie is probably the most unpopular of 1970's French "Emmanuelle" series because it is definitely the least erotic. The sex scenes are all pretty brief and tame (especially compared to its immediate predecessor "Emmanuelle 2"). After actually looking attractive in the first sequel, Sylvia Kristel is back to her tomboy, uber-European look. The supporting female cast meanwhile doesn't begin to compare to the likes of Laura Gemser and Catherine Rivet (the voluptuous Charlotte Alexandra from "Immoral Tales" is featured but is pretty much wasted in a few throwaway scenes). Frankly, the sexiest thing about this movie is actress/singer Jane Birkin's voice in the catchy theme song (dueting with husband Serg Gainsbourg), but she is not actually in the movie.On the other hand, this is the only "Emmanuelle" movie ever to approach what some might call reality. In this movie the Emmanuelle character actually tires of her boorish, jaded husband and all the menage a trois and swinging affairs with other men that he pushes her into, more for his pleasure than hers. She is taken aback when she sees a young black girl, who they earlier had a threesome with, after she has been beaten by her clueless but jealous husband, and she finds her own husband's latest would-be blonde conquest vapid and unappealing. She begins an affair with a young film director and actually falls in love. Jealously then rears its ugly head, as her husband finds out and tries to sabotage the relationship. I won't give away the ending, but you could probably guess it from the title.It's rare (and some would say foolhardy)to make a sex film that realistically deals with real-life, and potentially depressing, issues like this. In a way this film kind of marked the end of the "free love" era of the 60's and 70's. That is not to say that this is a good or serious film compared to say "Last Tango in Paris", but for this series. . .well, it's worth seeing if you don't mind trading some of sex for a little bit of reality.