Goodbye Emmanuelle, sometimes called Emmanuelle 3, is a 1977 French erotic film directed by Francois Leterrier. It is the third film in the Emmanuelle film series.
Emmanuelle (Sylvia Kristel) and her husband Jean have relocated to a luxurious beach villa in the Seychelles. Emmanuelle and Jean continue to practice their open marriage, not only inviting third parties into their bed, but each having guilt-free sex with other people. They live with a tight-knit group of friends who also practice the polyamorous lifestyle, enjoying sun, surf, and sex.
Yet there are cracks in this sexual idyll. Emmanuelle's friend Clara tells her that she, Clara, has grown tired of her husband's endless affairs, and in fact she never really enjoyed the lifestyle. Eventually Clara and her husband break up. Meanwhile, Emmanuelle catches the eye of Gregory, a film director who is location-scouting in the Seychelles. She has casual sex with him, Emmanuelle-style—until Gregory forcefully rejects her whole deal, and demands that she be only with him. Will Emmanuelle leave her life of hedonistic pleasure behind?
The last film in the original Emmanuelle trilogy. When the series was rebooted in the 1980s it was with an In Name Only sequel in which Kristel was recast with a younger actress and Negative Continuity became the rule. None other than Serge Gainsbourg did the soundtrack; the theme song is a duet between Gainsbourg and his wife Jane Birkin, who doesn't appear in the movie. This was the first film distributed by Miramax, which handled the 1981 American release.
Tropes:
- Bathtub Scene: Because this is an Emmanuelle movie, she is introduced taking a bath, after which she stands up fully nude to towel off and put on the dress Angelique brought her.
- Binocular Shot: The usual, completely wrong hourglass shot as Jean watches a boat carry Gregory and Emmanuelle into shore.
- Cast Full of Rich People: In theory, these people have jobs (Jean is an architect, Chloe is a painter), but seemingly all they do is lounge around on the beach, relax, and have sex with each other.
- Erotic Film: The third film in a series in which a French woman named Emmanuelle explores the pleasures of the flesh.
- Establishing Character Moment: If one went into this film without seeing the first two, one would learn about Emmanuelle pretty quickly in the opening scene. She tells Angelique that Jean likes her and invites Angelique to join them in bed.
- Exotic Backdrop Setting: The Seychelles, where a bunch of French people enjoy sun and surf and group sex. The one native character with more than a couple of lines, Angelique the seamstress, shows up later with a black eye courtesy of her husband. It seems polyamory and open marriages are only for the white folks.
- Open Relationship Failure: The Central Theme and a rather surprising one for a film series that was all about this in the first two installments.
- Clara, who was never really onboard with the open marriage thing but gritted her teeth for a while, eventually has enough and breaks up with her husband Guillaume. They get back together, but apparently only after he agreed to stop bonking other women.
- Gregory's backstory. It seems that he and his wife decided to try an open relationship, but his wife couldn't deal with it and jumped out a window. She survived...only to dump Gregory in favor of her doctor.
- Then Emmanuelle's feelings of love for Gregory, combined with her husband Jean's feeling jealousy for the first time, and his inability to deal with her having an emotional as well as sexual attachment, all lead to the end of the Emmanuelle-Jean marriage. She leaves polyamory behind for life with Gregory.
- Averted with Michel and Florence Cordier, who are still poly at the end and have even switched out one hot blonde (Chloe) for another (Cecile) without missing a beat. Florence is a little melancholic but generally at peace, reflecting that she knows that she'll always have Michel even as they grow old, even if he dies in the arms of another woman.
- Pair the Spares: Chloe, herself dumped by the Cordiers who replaced her in their throuple with another blonde, drops by Jean's house to tell him that Emmanuelle has left him for good. Jean's servant Seraphin asks how many places for dinner and Jean says two as usual. He looks at Chloe, she smiles back at him, and the strong implication is that they'll be getting together. (Whether or not Jean will keep the whole polyamory thing going with a new partner obviously remains unanswered.)
- Polyamory: The life of open relationships that Emmanuelle, Jean, and their circle of friends practice, with varying degrees of commitment or success. For an Emmanuelle film, this one takes a surprisingly dim view of polyamory. The idea is that polyamory and open marriages are actually ways for men to sleep around while keeping their wives under their control. Clara can't deal with it and pressures her husband into abandoning the life. Emmanuelle finds that the life no longer appeals to her, and leaves Jean and swinging to chase after Gregory. Even Florence, the one woman in the poly life at the beginning of the movie who's still in it at the end, admits that it's her way of making sure her husband never leaves her for a younger woman.
- Repeat Cut: The last shot, of Emmanuelle waving goodbye to her friend Clara at the airport before getting on the plane, is repeated four times before the credits roll.
- Scenery Porn: Not actual porn, but certainly scenery porn, as the beauty of the Seychelles is shown throughout the film.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Sort of goes along with polyamory and group sex.
- Chloe strides out into the dining room totally naked, after some group sex with Emmanuelle, Jean, and the Cordiers. She greets them cheerfully but is startled to see Gregory, a stranger who wasn't part of their five-way. Michel tells her that there's no need to be embarrassed because she has such beautiful eyes, and that is it for Chloe's embarrassment, as she stays and chats for bit with the gang, still totally nude. At the end when she visits Emmanuelle and Jean she's wearing a Vapor Wear see-through top.
- Cecile, who has replaced Chloe in the ensemble, takes her top off while dancing in front of the others. Unfortunately Gregory and Jean get in a fight, which ruins the mood.
- Skinnydipping: Why not? Gregory and Emmanuelle do this, which leads to sex on the beach.
- Spoiler Title: The title is a pretty broad hint that something will go wrong in Emmanuelle and Jean's relationship. Sure enough, she leaves both him and polyamory behind for life with Gregory.
- A Threesome Is Hot: It certainly is when two of the participants are gorgeous Emmanuelle and Angelique. Discussed Trope, as Angelique says afterwards that "I didn't know it was so nice with three."
- Vapor Wear: When Chloe the Shameless Fanservice Girl drops by Jean and Emmanuelle's place near the end she's wearing a see-through top and no bra, apparently because that's just how she likes to go out.