Christine Boisson, a French actress who became famous at 17 with her performance in the erotic

 

film “Emmanuelle” and who starred in dozens of other titles throughout her four-decade career, died on Monday in Paris. She was 68.

Her daughter, Juliette Kowski, confirmed the death, in a nursing home, and said the cause was lung disease.

Ms. Boisson’s breakout film, “Emmanuelle,” was based on a novel of the same name about a young Frenchwoman’s amorous adventures in Bangkok society. Ms. Boisson portrayed Marie-Ange, a girl who meets the titular character, Emmanuelle, while in Bangkok. The film, released in 1974, became a blockbuster in France, and multiple remakes have come out since, most recently in 2024.

But Ms. Boisson did not want to associate herself only with the image of an erotic actress, Ms. Kowski said: “She didn’t like that at all.”
Ms. Boisson’s big break into dramatic cinema came with Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1982 Italian-language film “Identification of a Woman,” in which she played an actress. She later played leading roles in a number of other international films.