'Emmanuelle' star Sylvia Kristel dies aged 60

DUTCH ACTOR Sylvia Kristel, who starred in the 1974 erotic French film Emmanuelle, has died of oesophageal cancer at the age of 60.

The actor and former model, who suffered a stroke in June, died in her sleep on Wednesday night in a hospital in Amsterdam, said her long-time agent, Marieke Verharen of Features Creative Management.

Emmanuelle, directed by French director Just Jaeckin, described the erotic adventures of a young woman in Asia. It was followed by several sequels and became a worldwide hit, seen by more than 300 million viewers. It was shown in one cinema on the Champs-Élysées in Paris for an unbroken 13 years.

Yesterday, Jaeckin said that although he and Kristel called each other several times a year, he hadn’t spoken to her since February. When he was casting for the film, he knew immediately she was destined for the leading role. “When I saw her face I was thunderstruck,” he recalled.

“I am very sad . . . she was like a little sister to me. Even though it was a success, Emmanuelle brought us big problems . . . and now it is a cult film,” he added.

Kristel attributed the success of the movie – one of the first soft-porn films to be shown in mainstream cinemas – to the changing censorship laws of the era.

“In a lot of countries the light of acceptance went on – and that contributed very much to its success,” she said later.

She went on to make more than 50 other movies, including Lady Chatterly’s Lover and Private Lessons, and worked with directors Claude Chabrol, Roger Vadim and Alain Robbe-Grillet.

Kristel is survived by her partner, Peter Brul, and by her son, Arthur, whom she had in 1975 with her then husband, the late Belgian novelist, playwright and poet Hugo Claus.

The funeral will be private.