Comparison between the Director's Cut (included on the 4K UHD as well as the bonus Blu-ray of the German collector's box from Koch Films) and the Theatrical Version (included on the single Blu-ray of the German collector's box from Koch Films).

- One removed scene
- Runtime difference: 53.4 sec

 

The 1974 book adaptation Emmanuelle was a huge success, and Sylvia Kristel reprised her iconic role in three official sequels. After two more sequels without her and a guest appearance in Part 7, she returned in the '90s as "old Emmanuelle" in the frame story for a series of spin-off films. As early as the '70s, however, other erotic productions with or without Kristel were marketed as Emmanuelle parts. Unforgotten, of course, is the Black Emanuelle series with Laura Gemser, basically an unauthorized plagiarism from Italy.

Since May 27, 2021, not only the German Blu-ray premiere is now available. Emmanuelle is being released in parallel worldwide for the first time in 4K UHD, even with HDR treatment. The thick box from Koch Films again includes parts 1-4 with Sylvia Kristel together, including an extensive Din A4 booklet and other goodies.

It is also noticeable that the 4K Blu-ray is advertised as a Director's Cut. The same version can also be found on the bonus Blu-ray in the set, while the regular Blu-ray contains the well-known Theatrical Version of Part 1. The present comparison reveals: Director Just Jaeckin took the opportunity of the new 4K restoration to cut out a scene. The DC is thus simply a bit shortened and you have to do without the scene here, probably purely for exploitation entertainment value, where a Thai woman smokes a cigarette with her vagina. According to preliminary inquiries with Koch, this was material added later by the producer, with which director Jaeckin was probably never satisfied. The accompanying booklet also mentions that this scene was most likely filmed without his participation.

Back in January 2021, the film was first released in the Director's Cut version on the French Blu-ray. This is misleadingly still often listed with an incorrect runtime of 105 minutes, but this is misinformation. In any case, there is just as little new material to discover here, it is the same shortened version. Either way, the familiar Theatrical Version is fortunately also on board as its own HD scan, at least in the German set. The French, on the other hand, only got the DC on Blu-ray.

Runtimes are ordered as follows: Director's Cut Blu-ray / Theatrical Version Blu-ray

00:21-00:33 / 00:21

After the StudioCanal logo, the DC has an additional reference to the restoration work for the DC.

+ 12 sec

03:14 / 03:02

In the DC, Emmanuelle holds the photos a moment earlier.

+ 0.6 sec

54:28 / 54:16-55:09

A first scene in the bar: a Thai woman is dancing around on the stage. She kneels down and sticks a cigarette in her vagina. She lights it there and blows out some smoke.

The following tracking shot through the bar also starts much earlier. The DC starts again in the middle.

53.4 sec

68:43 / 69:24

In the HD master of the Theatrical Version, there is a small jump cut in the last few frames of a shot. For the DC, the shot was simply stopped a moment earlier immediately before this jump cut.

0.3 sec

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Finally, a little picture comparison. The old HD scan of the Theatrical Version was a bit more colorful. However, the 4K Blu-ray comes with HDR and thus the additional color gradations cannot be duly represented here. The UHD release of the Director's Cut clearly has the best overall picture quality.

It's also interesting that the DC's picture often shows a bit less detail in black areas at the beginning (see first image), but towards the end it looks the other way around (see last image).

Director's Cut Blu-ray	Theatrical Version Blu-ray