"Emmanuelle"

Watched "Emmanuelle" yesterday (Netflix, what else...).

The actors are superd, especially Emmanuelle and Mario (he reminded me of anotrher actor playing Satan in Russian "Master and Margarita" movie). I wonder, however, if the effect of their perfect work on me is the result th edirector/writer aimed for.

In my eyes, the film is about the lost meaning of sex. The triumph of the Pill in the 70s robbed sex of its connection with family and children, of its moral meaning - of its soul. What I see in the movie is the people wandering around with huge pieces of their souls torn out. They sort of feel that something is missing, but don't even know what it is - they have no vocabulary to express the absence. Emmanuelle is convulsively trying to fill the void with more of what she knows - more freedom, more abandon, more experimentation. More bisexual love, more disgusting strangers groping your body, more whoring, more rape. Anything to fill the void.

I suspect that the authors of the movie tried to create a tribute to Freedom. What they actually created, as seen by me in 2008, is beyond self-parody, beyond satire, beyond condemnation. The movie is damning the whole 70-s decade. The English word "damnation" does not sound harsh enough to my Russian ear. I prefer Russian "Prokliat'ie". Их мир проклят Богом.

AIDS ended that world. I pity and regret the people who died not knowing what kills them, but when we understood AIDS, it was no longer possible, even for the most depraved, to keep thinking that sex has no meaning. Sex got back its terrible meaning when the consequence of your choice can be death. May God forgive me if I feel anything but hate for AIDS - it's a terrible disease and we must do our best to cure it. But it certainly ended 70s like a thunderbolt from Heaven.