Emmanuelle Arsan

Literary career

The novel Emmanuelle was initially published and distributed clandestinely in France in 1959, without an author's name. Successive editions were ascribed to Emmanuelle Arsan, who was subsequently revealed to be Marayat Rollet-Andriane. Though the novel was sometimes hinted to be quasi-autobiographical, it was later revealed that the actual author was her husband Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane. Several more novels were published under the Emmanuelle Arsan pseudonym.

Between 1974 and 1976, Arsan and her husband, in association with Just Jaeckin, published the erotic magazine Emmanuelle, le magazine du plaisir (Emmanuelle, the pleasure magazine) in France, contributing photographs and text.

Film and TV career

Following the success of the eponymous 1974 film adaptation of her novel, directed by Just Jaeckin, Arsan was the titular director and scriptwriter of the film Laure (1976) about the sexual discoveries of a younger "Emmanuelle" named Laure, again in an exotic setting. The film was in fact directed by Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane and Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli, though Rollet-Andriane, reportedly frustrated by problems related to his collaboration with the producer, Ovidio G. Assonitis, asked that Emmanuelle Arsan's name not be associated with the project, resulting in the film being credited to an anonymous director.

Using the screen name "Marayat Andriane", Arsan appeared in the film The Sand Pebbles (1966), and in an episode of the American series The Big Valley ("Turn of a Card", 1967). Although she signed a contract with 20th Century Fox, she never worked as an actress for that company again. Her only other film appearance, credited as Emmanuelle Arsan, was in Laure, which was also released under the alternative title Forever Emmanuelle.

Personal life

Marayat spoke fluent Thai, French, and English. Her hobbies and passions included writing, reading, photography, cinema, and antiques, among others. Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane and she had two daughters, Sophie and Danièle. She is known to have had relationships with the French beatnik writer, mime, and photographer Théo Lesouac'h, and allegedly with the American actor Steve McQueen, during the shooting of The Sand Pebbles, although what really went on between them remains a mystery.

Later life

At the beginning of the 1980s, Louis-Jacques and Marayat decided to settle down in France for a much quieter life. An Iranian friend offered the couple a plot of land in the south of the country, near the commune of Callas, in the Var. It was in this woodland domain they constructed their retirement place, "Chantelouve d'Emmanuelle", an isolated single-storey house built around a vast patio. Louis-Jacques continued with his writing, happy to correspond with Emmanuelle's fans under his pen name Emmanuelle Arsan, with the occasional visit to Bangkok. It was at this point that Nitya Phenkun entered their lives. She was an old acquaintance of Louis-Jacques, having been his secretary (and mistress) during his diplomatic posting in Bangkok, and on moving to Chantelouve, she took up her former functions, reportedly forming a threesome with the Rollet-Andriane couple.

Illness and death

In 2001, Marayat suddenly fell ill. She was diagnosed with systemic scleroderma, a rare and incurable autoimmune disease, which had first given her trouble at the age of 20. After a period of remission that had lasted for 49 years, the disease returned and attacked her legs, causing her acute suffering and rapidly affecting her mobility. Her health further deteriorated when gangrene rapidly ensued, and both of her legs had to be amputated above the knee. She was, therefore, forced to spend the remaining four years of her life bedridden, being treated at home by a private nurse. Marayat died on 12 June 2005 at Chantelouve, aged 73. Her husband died three years later, in April 2008.

Nitya Phenkun, the sole beneficiary of the copyright of Emmanuelle, returned to Thailand soon after Louis-Jacques' death, and put the Chantelouve estate up for sale.