Mondo Esoterica Mini-Reviews

Emanuelle Around the World: XXX European Cut (1977)


The hardcore print of Joe D'Amato's exploitation erotica starring Laura Gemser. Severin Films USA R0 DVD.

The Film in brief

The storyline is identical to the softcore version of the film, see the full review of Emanuelle Around the World for more information.

Prepared for the French market, this version of the film differs from the soft-core cut by including around three minutes of extra footage. There are some hardcore penetration and oral sex shots included in the Guru's palace orgy, an extended sequence of the rape of Cora Norman, an extended sequence of a scarred man raping a blindfolded girl, a vividly extended version of the beastiality sequence (showing a woman being pentrated by a small snake and raped by a dog) and a slightly extended version of the Hareem sequence.

The additional shots, even the hardcore sequences were filmed at the same time as the main part of the production and flow well with the rest of the film, they are not the crude inserts used in many films. Laura Gemser uses a body double for these scenes which is not too obvious, except for the fact her face is never seen. The additional shots are relatively short and do not affect the pacing and it is equally watchable in this cut as with the softcore version The extended rape scenes are rather unpleasant but not as heinous as some of the Last House on the Left (1976) rip-offs - in fact the sequence with the scarred man actually plays better here as it does not cut away as suddenly as the softcore print does. However the beastiality sequence is incredibly sleazy and being surprisingly well made, it is very hard to watch - just that there are people it is supposed to appeal to is rather worrying.

In Brief
Anyone famous in it? Laura Gemser - the very popular erotic film star who also appeared in Violence in a Women's Prison (1982)
George Eastman - best known as the star of D'Amato's video nasty Antropophagus (1980)
Directed by anyone interesting? Joe D'Amato - the Italian director who shot over 100 films, starting with Spaghetti Westerns before eventually descending into hardcore porn in the 1990s with films like Sex Penitentiary (1996) and Some Like It Hard (1995)
Any gore or violence? Some particularly violent rape scenes.
Any sex or nudity? Extensive female and some male nude scenes. Some brief penetration and oral sex scenes
Who is it for? Fans of the Black Emanuelle series who don't mind hardcore sex and some extra sleaze in their films will probably find this cut of the film as enjoyable as the softcore version.
The DVD
Visuals Original Aspect Ratio - 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colour
The print quality is generally good, with good colours and detail and only mild grain. There are a lot of light scratches and marks throughout the print which can be distracting in a few scenes but are generally ignorable.
Note: The opening and closing credit scenes are noticably lower quality, very soft like from a video source.
Note 2: The additional sequences are in the same quality as the main print.
Audio English and Italian audio. Both sound fine and the English dub is well done.
Subtitles English (optional) - these translate the Italian track which is noticably different to the English dub.
Extras None
Region Region 0 (ALL) - NTSC
Other regions? Not otherwise available.
Cuts? The print used here is the uncut hardcore version as prepared for French and export markets. The film was released in Italy and much of Europe as well as America in a softcore print also available on DVD from Severin: [Emanuelle Around the World review]. The print used here has French language credits.

Summary

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All text in this review written by Timothy Young - 29th March 2007.
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.

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