Sylvia Kristel, the actress with a tormented destiny who was haunted all her life by the role of Emmanuelle

The scandal he caused was as resounding as his success. In 1974, the sulphurous feature film Emmanuelleadapted from the eponymous novel by Emmanuelle Arsan – a pseudonym – conquered the French public. And takes its heroine, the young actress Sylvia Kristel, to the firmament of her career. Fifty years later, a new adaptation, co-written by Audrey Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski, was released in theaters on Wednesday September 25. Noémie Merlant thus succeeds Sylvia Kristel, in the role of this woman multiplying sensual experiences. With one difference: the first plays a quality controller in search of lost pleasures, working for a luxury hotel chain. The second slipped, for her part, into the skin of an idle wife, whom her husband invited to satisfy his fantasies with complete strangers. A role that was to haunt the Dutch actress throughout her life.

“I wanted to run away”

Born on September 28, 1952 in Utrecht, Sylvia Kristel seemed destined for a more conventional destiny. The eldest daughter of a couple of hoteliers, Jean-Nicholas Kristel and Pietje Hendrika Lamme, she grew up alongside her sister in this bourgeois family in the Netherlands. And remembers in his memories Nuereleased in 2007, from a childhood that was gloomy to say the least. “Strict education,” she wrote. I wanted to run away.” A period which is also marked by a first trauma. She reveals in her autobiography, of which the Daily Mail recently included some extracts, having been sexually assaulted at the age of 9, by the manager of the establishment run by her parents. Surprised by Sylvia Kristel’s aunt, the employee will be fired immediately. But will leave his victim with a painful memory.

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Three years later, the little girl, who started smoking at the age of 11, entered boarding school with the nuns. The teenager then shines with her academic results, and speaks English, French, Dutch and Italian fluently. To the point of skipping several classes. An intellectual gymnastics that allows him to escape, for a moment, from the heavy atmosphere of the Kristel household. The young girl was 14 when her parents divorced. In her memoirs, the author remembers another trauma: the departure of her father. When he returns, Jean-Nicholas Kristel finds himself on the arm of his mistress. And chases his wife and two daughters out of their hotel. “It was the saddest thing that ever happened to me,” wrote Sylvia Kristel.

Cinematic love at first sight

Two years later, she left school. And multiplies odd jobs, becoming in turn secretary, nurse or saleswoman. Soon, her porcelain complexion, fine features and translucent eyes opened the doors to modeling for her. At 21, she won the Miss TV Europe competition. Several filmings of advertising spots followed. It’s by pushing the wrong door that she lands the role of her life. At the time, Sylvia Kristel was thinking of auditioning for an advertisement dedicated to washing powder. But he quickly realizes his mistake when director Just Jaeckin asks him to strip in front of the camera.

“I did video tests for him,” the actress recalls in her memoirs. I just had to say, “I love you, I love you.” Instead, I say: “My name is Sylvia Kristel, I live in Utrecht…” giving details about my life. He loved it and thought it was fresh and sensual.” The filmmaker chose her to play Emmanuelle in his very first film. “I saw a number of very beautiful girls, then I saw this young woman pass by with short, blond hair,” he said. I immediately fell in love with it cinematically.”

Curse

But the young woman declines the role. The salary offered to him amounts to only 18,000 francs. And then, the model fears the potential reaction of her mother, upon discovering this story of sexual initiation. Sylvia Kristel nevertheless ends up giving in, under the leadership of her companion Hugo Claus, a Belgian novelist 23 years her senior, with whom she gave birth to her son Arthur in 1975. The feature film Emmanuelle arrived in Parisian theaters on June 26, 1974. The film may have been controversial, but its success was colossal. So much so that the Triomphe cinema, on the Champs-Élysées, will keep it showing for twelve years in a row. Emmanuelle will bring together, in total, 350 million spectators around the world.

Sylvia Kristel doesn’t know it yet, but the character of Emmanuelle will never cease to stick to her. To the point of becoming a burden. “I was dressed, but people preferred me to be naked,” she laments in her work. I spoke, but they preferred that I be silent or that I be overtaken. A curse that she will not be able to break. During the following decades, the Dutch woman would no longer experience such popularity. The actress certainly works for great directors. She notably officiates in A shroud has no pockets (1975), by Jean-Pierre Mocky, A faithful woman (1976), by Roger Vadim, or even Alice or the last escape (1977), by Claude Chabrol. Francis Girod even offered him the main role in his film René the cane (1977).

But nothing helps – Sylvia Kristel struggles to break away from her sulphurous image. She also sees herself obliged to honor her contract – and will star in various sequels ofEmmanuelle. She then appears in more modest productions, returning to the erotic register. And finds Just Jaeckin for Lady Chatterley’s Lover, adaptation of the novel by DH Lawrence. She also officiates in Mata Hari (1985), Dracula’s Widow (1988), or even Hot Blood (1990). Or even in American productions like Airport 80 Concorde (1979), alongside Alain Delon. Looking back, the actress recognizes that she made a series of bad choices in the 1980s – including emotionally.

Destructive passion

In 1977, the actress left Hugo Claus. Before living a brief romance with Michel Polnareff, as the singer revealed in the columns of Paris Match in 2016. “Our story lasted a year, which for me at the time was a record,” relates the artist. She was a wonderful person, overwhelmed by what was happening to her. She was not an easy girl, on the contrary, she was rather intellectual, she was also a very great painter. Sylvia Kristel subsequently met British actor Ian McShane, on the set of The Fifth Musketeer (1979). She maintains a destructive passion with him, which lasts until the early 1980s.

During this period, the couple fell apart. Episodes of violence are increasing. In an interview given to The Standard the actress evokes the crises of her companion, irritated by the fact that his acting career is not taking off. “This reality frustrated him and sometimes made him explode with rage,” she analyzes. Before continuing: “After being brutal, he treated me with feminine gentleness. He sometimes cried and regretted his excesses. Then, without any provocation, we found ourselves fighting again.” At the time, Sylvia Kristel began taking cocaine. “I was sniffing, running, falling, sniffing more and more,” she says. A vicious spiral from which she struggles to escape, despite her breakup with Ian McShane.

Health problems

In 1982, the actress sealed her union with American businessman Alan Turner. A marriage that will last five months. She subsequently married the Belgian producer Philippe Blot. The actress invested at a loss in her films, then their relationship ended in 1991 with a stormy divorce. A legal battle during which Sylvia Kristel loses her properties in Los Angeles, Paris, the south of France and Holland, acquired with her fees linked to the saga Emmanuelle. This time, it’s decided: Sylvia Kristel returns to the Netherlands. There she underwent rehab – but soon found herself plagued by new health problems.

In 2001, doctors diagnosed him with throat cancer. Little by little, the disease spreads to the lungs. Sylvia Kristel can, however, count on her latest companion, the Belgian radio producer Fred de Vree, to support her in this ordeal. When it died out in 2004, the actress continued the fight alone. At the same time, she continues to play in small European productions. But in June 2012, fate struck again: Sylvia Kristel suffered a stroke. Four months later, she died in her sleep from lung and esophageal cancer at the age of 60. The actress will be buried in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The very place where she was born – and which she had, for a time, longed to escape.