Month: October 2022

Categories
CFP

Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and Emmanuelle Derivatives: Essays on the Emmanuelle Legacy

Overview

In 1974 Just Jaeckin’s film, Emmanuelle, was released to commercial success. The movie propelled its starlet, Sylvia Kristel, into the limelight, spurred a wave of similar erotic fare, and concurrently with the Golden Age of Porn, helped usher in mainstream acceptance of erotic content in cinema. Black Emanuelle, one of the many films that came in the wake of Emmanuelle, would go on to have its own impact, specifically in the realm of Italian cult cinema with its plethora of sequels starring Laura Gemser. The Emmanuelle, Black Emanuelle, and derivative Emmanuelle film phenomena lasted from the mid-70s to the early 80s before interest tapered off, though the Emmanuelle name continued to be used by producer Alain Siritzky for direct to cable softcore content.

Four decades later, the Emmanuelle movies have faded in pop culture memory, but are being kept alive with blu-ray releases from specialty and boutique labels such as Severin Films and Kino Lorber. While most of the Kristel and Gemser films are readily obtainable, scholarship on the Emmanuelle legacy is not. The majority of references to both Emmanuelleand Black Emmanuelle are found in film guides and books that focus on cult and exploitation films in a general sense (see the bibliography section at the end of this CFP) with a journal article here and there. Alex Cox’s 2000 documentary,Emmanuelle: A Hard Look, remains largely inaccessible, though companies like the aforementioned Severin Films release supplementary material on their Black Emanuelle and Emmanuelle derivative DVDs and Blu-rays. There is no singular, consolidated resource focused on the Emmanuelle film canon.

This proposed collection of essays will strive to rectify this scholarship gap. This CFP seeks abstracts that analyze the films that make up the Emmanuelle legacy (see filmography below), with the aim to illustrate the various ways these movies are important, how they impacted both pop and film culture, and to illuminate subtexts and commentaries they impart.

Framework/Topics

Frameworks, essay ideas, and topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Adaptations
  • Anti/Reverse Emmanuelle roles/films
  • Auteur theory (specific films and their directors)
  • Class and wealth depictions
  • Close textual analysis
  • Comparative textual analysis
  • Cosmopolitanism
  • Cultural and racial representations
  • Feminism studies
  • Ethical/Philosophical issues
  • Genre studies (porn-chic, softcore, exploitation, grindhouse, travelog, cannibal film, women in prison, etc.)
  • LBGT+ discourse and ideology
  • Interviews with/perspectives from crew/filmmakers 
  • Literature studies (Emmanuelle Arsan books)
  • Monster Studies (Emmanuelle vs. Dracula, Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals)
  • Multiplicities (see Cycles, Sequels, Spin-offs, Remakes, and Reboots eds. Klein & Palmer)
  • Music studies (soundtracks, songs, sampling)
  • Parody and/or homage (Carry on Emmanuelle, SNL’s “Danielle” skit, Seinfeld’s “Rochelle, Rochelle”)
  • Proto-Emmanuelle films (what came before, what inspired)
  • (Post) Colonialism
  • Schreiber theory (specific screenwriters)
  • Semiotics and metaphors
  • Sequential Art Studies (Crepax Emmanuelle comics)
  • Sexuality (fetishism, voyeurism, exhibitionism, desires, romance, etc.)
  • Vampire studies (Dracula’s Widow x Emmanuelle vs Dracula)
  • Vernacular film (see Mikel Koven)
  • World Cinema studies (France, Italy)
  • And other interdisciplinary approaches

Filmography

Films that fall under the Emmanuelle/Black Emanuelle/Et al. canon include the following:

Emmanuelle Series

  • Emmanuelle (1974)
  • Emmanuelle II (1975)
  • Goodbye Emmanuelle (1977)
  • Emmanuelle IV (1984)
  • Emmanuelle 5 (1987)
  • Emmanuelle 6 (1988)
  • Emmanuelle 7 (1993)
  • Emmanuelle in Space Series (1994)
  • Young/Old Emmanuelle Series (1993)
  • Emmanuelle 2000 series (2000)
  • Emmanuelle in Rio (2003)
  • Emmanuelle: The Private Collection series (2003)
  • Emmanuelle Tango (2006)
  • Emmanuelle Through Time Series (2011)

Black Emanuelle and Laura Gesmer Films

  • Black Emanuelle (1975)
  • Black Emanuelle 2 (1976)
  • Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976)
  • Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle (1976)
  • Emanuelle on Taboo Island (1976)
  • Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra (1976)
  • Emanuelle in America (1977)
  • Sister Emanuelle (1977)
  • Emanuelle Around the World (1977)
  • Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977)
  • Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade (1978)
  • Emanuelle, Queen of the Sados (1980)
  • Divine Emanuelle: Love Cult (1981)
  • Violence in a Woman’s Prison (1982)
  • Emanuelle: Queen of the Desert (1982)
  • Women’s Prison Massacre (1983)
  • Scandalous Emanuelle (1986)

Misc. Films / Derivatives / Parodies / Related Films

  • Emanuelle and Francoise (1975)
  • Laure (1976)
  • Emmanuelle Tropical (1977)
  • Carry on Emmanuelle (1978)
  • Felicity (1979)
  • Emmanuelle in Soho (1981)

There is an IMDB list that has a plethora of Emmanuelle derivatives: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls069765874/ .

Non-Emmanuelle films that star Sylvia Kristel or Laura Gemser (such as Julia [1974], Alice ou la dernière fugue [1977], etc.), Alain Siritzky produced films, and other Just Jaeckin movies will be considered if they can be strongly tied to the Emmanuelle/Black Emanuelle legacy. 

Other related texts, such as the Emmanuelle Arsan novels, the Emmanuelle erotic comics by Guido Crepax, and the like, are also of interest. 

Submission

Abstracts (no word limit), preliminary bibliographies, and CVs should be submitted to Nicholas Diak at vnvdiak@gmail.com.

There is no publisher chosen for this project yet. Due to the subject matter and the speciality, niche interest of this proposed book, the goal is to amass a collection of abstracts first for the purposes of having a solid proposal and preliminary table of contents, and then procure a publisher. A proper timetable for first draft submissions will be drawn up after a publisher is obtained. 

Please feel free to share this CFP with other scholars. Any proliferation is much appreciated. 

This CFP will be open initially for six months.

About the Editor

Nicholas Diak is a pop culture scholar with a range of interests: sword and sandal films, industrial music, synthwave music and aesthetics, horror studies, and other idiosyncratic topics. He edited the collection The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs Since the 1990s (2018) and co-edited Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays (2020). More information, including academic CV, can be found at nickdiak.com.

Emmanuelle Studies Bibliography

  • 100 Cult Films by Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik
  • Alternative Europe: Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945 edited by Mathijs and Mendik
  • “Black is Beautiful” in DarkSide issue 211
  • Bodies of Desire and Bodies in Distress: The Golden Age of Italian Cult Cinema 1970-1985 by Mendik
  • Deadlier Than the Male: Femme Fatales in 1960s and 1970s Cinema by Douglas Brode
  • “Forever Emmanuelle: Sylvia Kristel and Soft-Core Cult” by Leila Wimmer in Cult Film Stardom
  • The History of French Literature on Film by Kate Griffiths and Andrew Watts
  • Immoral Tales: Sex and Horror Cinema in Europe 1956-1984 by Tohill and Tombs
  • Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema” by Simon Sheridan
  • “The Legacy of Emmanuelle: Oriental Desire and Interracial Encounters 562 in European Films Set in Thailand 1974-1980” by Alexander J. Klemm
  • “Mondo Realism, the Sensual Body, and Genre Hybridity in Joe D’Amato’s Emanuelle Films” by Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare
  • Offbeat Attractions and Processes of Cultification edited by Egan and Thomas
  • “Orientalism, Star Power and Cinethetic Racism in Seventies Italian Exploitation Cinema” by Calum Waddell
  • Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol by Jeremy Richey
  • “Thailand in the European Cinematic Imagination: The Phenomenon and Legacy of Emmanuelle (Fr 1974)” by Alexander J. Klemm
  • Undressing Emmanuelle: A memoir by Sylvia Kristel
Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2022-10-23

Personal / Website News

Good day everyone! Final update for October. I hope everyone has a great upcoming Halloween!

The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone

The academic collection, The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone, edited by Kevin Wetmore and Ron Riekki has been published by McFarland and is now out in the wild!

Me!

My contributor’s copy arrived and it looks awesome. The TOC sports some great academics.

My essay is titled “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown” and is probably the most in-depth article out there on the movie. Note: this essay is eligible for various 2022 short non-fiction awards out there, so if it is a piece you enjoy, consider recommending it!

The collection is available to purchase at McFarland.

Galliano Mai Tai

I’ve got quite a handful of cocktail books from the 70s and 80s, most of them filled with recipes of a dubious nature. However, it’s fun to play cocktail archeology and try out some of the recipes in these books.

I have a new old school recipe exploration written up. It is on the Galliano Mai Tai. It can be read here.

H. P. Lovecast Transmissions

This month’s Transmissions episode for HP Lovecast will feature interviews with Erika T. Wurth and Chris Philbrook. This episode will publish on the last day of this month – Halloween!

Galactic Terrors Vidcast

Galactic Terrors is a monthly YouTube midcast from the Horror Writer Association’s New York Chapter. Each episode features three authors doing readings followed by Q/A. I’ve been invited to appear on the program, which will stream November 10th.

If you want to know more about Galactic Terrors, check out their Facebook group or have a look at their episode archive on their YouTube channel. Michele was a guest last month, so check that episode out for sure!

Miscellaneous Tidbits

New Edge Sword and Sorcery

Issue 0 of the new magazine, New Age Sword and Sorcery, it out.

Personal copy of the hardback edition.

The magazine looks like a great endeavor to make the S&S genre more inclusive. The digital copy is free (link here), while the paperback and hardback iterations are available at cost (Amazon link here). Consider plucking up a copy, show interest, so the magazine can get a great start.

Amon Amarth Album Review

Hal C. F. Astell has a new review up at his Apocalypse Later website.

It is on the Viking metal outfit Amon Amarth’s new album, The Great Heathen Army. Check it out here.

Categories
Cocktails

Banging Against the Wall: The Galliano Mai Tai

Galliano. 

What can be said about it? It comes in a tall bottle that refuses to fit in a liquor cabinet. It is vibrant yellow, blindingly so. Like licorice, Galliano has an “either you love it or loathe it” taste profile of anise and vanilla. It is definitely an acquired taste.

The liquor gained prominence during the Dark Ages of Cocktails in the 70s when executives at McKesson Liquor Co. concocted the Harvey Wallbanger, a cocktail made of Galliano, vodka, and orange juice. The Harvey Wallbanger was a hit and McKesson sought other ways to market Galliano. 

Read the rest of this article to discover gold!

One of those efforts was an early 70s cocktail booklet published by McKesson that featured Galliano front and center in all of the recipes. Some of the recipes were new and unique to the booklet while others were riffs on established cocktails (Galliano Margarita, Galliano Manhattan, Galliano Daiquiri, etc.).

A variation that appeared in the booklet was a Galliano take on the tiki vanguard cocktail, the Mai Tai. 

Galliano Mai Tai Recipe.

The Galliano Mai Tai calls for:

  • 1 oz Galliano
  • 1 oz White Rum
  • 0.5 oz Lime Juice
  • 0.5 oz Orgeat
  • 0.5 oz Orange Curaçao

Put all ingredients into an ice-filled rocks glass, stir, and garnish.

The end result should look akin to this:

Galliano Mai Tai from the Galliano Recipe Booklet.

The Galliano Mai Tai is quite similar to the classic ‘44 Trader Vic’s Mai Tai save an ounce of rum has been replaced by an ounce of Galliano.

This drink is 29% Galliano.

That’s a lot of Galliano. 

The spirits for this cocktail are fairly easy to obtain; nothing discontinued since the 70s. Galliano is Galliano and there is no substituting that in a Galliano Mai Tai. For the Orange Curaçao, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao is a nice go to for Mai Tais. 

Dangerously low on the White ‘Stache.

The Galliano Mai Tai calls for a white rum. Based on the recipe this poses the question: use a higher quality rum and increase the probability of making a good tasting drink, or error on the side of caution and use an inexpensive rum and build from there. For this cocktail, caution will be heeded and Bacardi Superior will be used over a higher quality rum, which would entail El Dorado 3, Plantation Three Star, or, as pictured above, Hamilton White ‘Stache. 

The first step is to fill a rocks glass with ice.

Next, pour in one full ounce of Galliano. Bask in its yellow glow. 

Add one ounce of Bacardi Superior.

Then half an ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice.

Pour in a half an ounce of orgeat. Liber & Co. is a great one to use.

Finally, add the half an ounce of the Dry Curaçao

Despite containing citrus, the recipe calls for the drink to be lightly stirred once or twice. This, of course, isn’t going mix the cocktail very well as it will keep the ingredients in layers.

The end cocktail is horrible. In an attempt to salvage it, it was dumped into a shaker, shaken, and repoured with additional ice. It failed.

Galliano is the dominate flavor, which is probably to be expected as this is the Galliano Mai Tai after all. The Bacardi doesn’t have much character to it, which allows the Galliano to dominate the drink. Using a rum with more character, such as a funky Jamaican rum or a Rhum Agricole, would clash with the Galliano. Using a higher quality white rum also would have been a bad idea as any uniqueness it would have brought would’ve been overpowered by the Galliano.

The taste is akin to absinthe-vanilla; it is sickly sweet and not a pleasant sweet that is found in other tiki cocktails. Adding simple syrup, which many Mai Tais call for, would have made this worse. The cocktail also leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. 

A possible remedy for the Galliano Mai Tai would be to re-balance it. Cutting back the Galliano by at least half and also reducing the orgeat would help bring down the sweetness. Perhaps a better option would be to prepare a Mai Tai according to spec of preference and then add a splash of Galliano to it at the end. 

The Mai Tai is not the best cocktail to have a Galliano riff done to it, but it might work in other tiki drinks that use absinthe or Pernod. 

If you enjoyed this write up about a cocktail from a vintage cocktail book, check out other write ups I’ve done:

Categories
News

Biweekly News Roundup 2022-10-09

Personal / Website News

Three weeks in a row of articles at my website. I hope I can keep up the momentum.

Two New Book Reviews

I’ve published not one but two book reviews at my website in the past two weeks.

First up, stepping in the realm of middle grade, I’ve done a review on Lora Senf’s debut novel, The Clackity. It can be read right here.

Book Template

Monster mayhem continues in my second book review which is on Robert P. Ottone’s newest novel, Nocturnal Creatures. This one can be read right here.

New Episodes of H. P. Lovecast

More double trouble, two episodes of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast have also been published in the last two weeks.

First is our monthly Transmissions program. For September we interviewed Brenda S. Tolian and Ian Welke. That episode can be listened to at our Buzzspout page, the embedded link below, or via your podcast app of preference.

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 15 – Brenda S. Tolian and Ian Welke – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Next, roughly a year after we discussed Mimic on our podcast, we return to the franchise by discussing Mimic 2.

This episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded link below, or via your podcast app of preference.

Ep 55 – Jean de Segonzac's Mimic 2 – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Horror Book Sale at McFarland

McFarland is doing a sale on horror books during the month of October. During checkout, use the code “HORROR22” to get 25% of books in their horror category.

There’s three books included in the sale I have involvement in (The Twilight Zone book is tagged as horror, but it isn’t out yet, so I’m not sure if the sale applies to it or not):

This is a great opportunity to pluck these books up and be supportive to what Michele and I do.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Footage Fiends Zine

Evan Jordan of the Void Video Podcast and Madeleine of the Unnamed Footage Festival are launching a brand new zine called Footage Fiends that is devoted to all aspects of the found footage genre of films. Tweet embedded below:

I’ve completed and submitted a short-form essay about Mario Bava’s film Caltiki: The Immortal Monster. The submission window for issue 01 is still open, so send them a pitch! Email address is footagefiends at gmail dot com.

Artist Gilead Kickstarter Campaign

Sword and sorcery artist Gilead has started a Kickstarter campaign for his Sketch book and print art.

Check out the campaign on Kickstarter and consider supporting.

Categories
Essays

Invasive Species: Cryptid Horror in Robert P. Ottone’s Nocturnal Creatures

It’s the summer of ‘92 and you’re off for a long break. You and your family live in the woods outside a small, rural town. Life consists of exploring the forest by day and staying up late playing Sega Genesis by night. It is the perfect time to be a kid before Eternal September. One night you catch an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, one where they are recreating encounters with Bigfoot. The iconic ominous music and real-world reenactments give you the heebie jeebies. You go to bed, turn off the lights, and look out your window to the dark, starlit forest outside. Eyelids heavy, you almost fall asleep –crash! What was that? You peer out the window. Was that movement just at the treeline? You think back to the show earlier that night. Could it be – a Bigfoot right outside your house?

Nocturnal Creatures cover.

If the above scenario ushers in a sense of nostalgia, then Robert P. Ottone’s short novel, Nocturnal Creatures, is a perfect flashback story for you. Set during the tail end of the Gulf War in rural New York, Nocturnal Species is a cryptid story with elements of the siege genre.

The story is told through the perspective of Cassie Albero, a middle schooler whose family owns an orchard. Hard times have fallen on the Albero family as an unseasonably cold late spring/early summer threatens their apple harvest. Their problems are compounded when their home is besieged by a family of Sasquatch-like monsters, who have been driven from their home in the nearby caves and woodlands. 

Nocturnal Creatures is similar to the animals run amok narratives of the 70s: as civilization pushes into nature, nature fights back to survive. This puts Cassie and her family and the cryptids in the same moral boat as both groups are trying to survive each other, thrust into a situation that is neither’s fault. The Albero family, coming from a generation of immigrants, contrasted to the mysterious cryptids adds another level of complexity – strangers in strange lands trying to eek by in a rapidly globalizing world. Readers will certainly identify with the humans, and yet, while the cryptids are portrayed as menacing and near unstoppable, there’s a sympathy for them as well. 

Taking place in the early 90s, Nocturnal Creatures has many callbacks to the era: a ChatBoy (a stand in for the TalkBoy from Home Alone 2), discontinued soda, listening to grunge bands on cassette, the Gulf War in the background, and no internet. These sentiments cater to the Oregon Trail generation, a refreshing break from the 80s nostalgia that has been enjoying a wave of popularity for the past decade. 

The characters of Nocturnal Creatures are incredibly fleshed out with backstories, motivations, and worries. If anything, the Albero family embodies the idyllic nuclear family found in 80s and early 90s sitcoms. This is contrasted to Azura and her son, Darwin, immigrants from El Salvador, also chasing the American dream. Azura is a total James Cameron character, a cross between Sarah Connor from Terminator 2 and Vasquez from Aliens. She acts as a mentor to the Albero family, teaching them how to use firearms and survive the cryptid siege, but also as a role model to Darwin and Cassie. Everyone looks up to her. 

The stars of a Bigfoot-style story are, of course, the cryptids themselves. In terms of placement on the Sasquatch spectrum, they are a little folky like the Fouke Monster from The Legend of Boggy, but much more cunning and violent like the Sasquatch in the 2006 film Abominable. They are completely believable humanoids that are also frighteningly strong, able to tactically plan their attacks, and near invulnerable due to their super thick skin. They are also presented as a family, functioning no different than the Alberos.

This is the heart of Nocturnal Creatures: different types of families, all looking to survive and make their way in the world, wrapped up in a cryptid horror story with a dollop of early 90s nostalgia and coming of age. The formula works, no doubt to its relatable and fleshed out characters along with menacing, multifaceted monsters. 

Nocturnal Creatures can be purchased at:

Robert P. Ottone can be found at:

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