Does anyone have the VHS version of LAURE which was released under the title FOREVER EMMANUELLE? If so, I'd be extremely grateful if they could let me know who is credited as director on this transfer. Severin's new DVD of LAURE is in English, but has Italian credits, with the director identified as 'Anonimo'. Every other version I've seen also has Italian credits. Presumably, the English credits would attribute the direction to 'Anonymous'. But I've seen at least one poster for the film on which the director is credited as 'John O. Hellman', a variation on producer Ovidio Assonitis' 'Oliver Hellman'/'O. Hellman' pseudonym.

The Vestron tape indeed says "Directed by ANONYMOUS".

Many thanks, Jeff. On the Italian credits, the words "Un film ideato scritto e interpretato da Emmanuelle Arsan" appear over the title. How is this translated on the Vestron credits?

Sorry, can't help on that. I no longer have the tape to check. I still have an old synopsis/review I wrote up some years ago where I indicated the ridiculous director credit from the tape, though.

Maybe someone else can help out?

The Vestron FOREVER EMMANUELLE tape doesn't translate the opening credit; it simply replaces the 11-second clip with a new title card stating FOREVER EMMANUELLE over a blue, basket-weave background. Like the new Severin DVD edition, there are no other opening credits.

Vestron's (and presumably Columbia's) end credits present a slight anomaly of their own: assuming they correlate more or less to the Italian credits, they actually snip out the piece of credit crawl that contains the onscreen title!

While I haven't had been able to thoroughly compare the Severin disc to the Vestron tape, I did time them and found that Severin's new disc runs approximately 95m52s, while the Vestron tape clocks in at 88m55s, giving the DVD close to 7 additional minutes.

-- bruce holecheck

'A film conceived, written, and acted by Emmanuelle Arsan' is the translation of the line literally. Don't know about the Vestron credit

Some sources credit direction to Ovidio G. Assonitis and/or Arsan herself

link: The Real Story of Emmanuelle Arsan

Thanks for that! I'm a little disillusioned but also much enlightened.