Romance

Before I comment on this film two introductory remarks are necessary. (1) I recommend anyone who is aware of the way in which it was panned by the critics ("puerile self conscious euro-trash", etc) to forget these reviews. I believe it is an unusually rewarding work to see. (2) The title is very misleading, just reading it one cannot be aware of the irony with which it must have been chosen, and anyone expecting to see the film equivalent of a Harlequin novel needs to be warned in advance.

The story is of a young women who loves her very unresponsive husband, but finds the dissatisfaction she feels from her rare and unfulfilling copulation with him drives her into a series of increasingly destructive extra-marital relationships. These are very graphically portrayed, although she struggles to keep her marriage intact. To me this is perhaps the most unsatisfying aspect of the film - today I would have expected that such a marriage would have broken up very quickly and the woman involved would have felt free to look for a more fulfilling relationship. However many films and novels are based on the theme of women who accept either indifference or a great deal of both physical and mental abuse from partners that they love, and I must accept that this is an important theme for a film.

Although the story is far from new, it is handled here with unusual sensitivity and understanding. Some of the sex scenes would normally only be seen in a hardcore porn film and this appears to be what has upset most of the critics, but I cannot go along with this as a valid criticism. Why should films exploiting torture, death and destruction be accepted as mainstream, whilst those dealing with the personal relationships so vital to living a fulfilling life become subject to censorship? However it is important to warn anyone considering viewing this film that although it contains a great deal of graphic sexual activity it is never erotic.These scenes (even those between the young woman and her husband with whom she is certainly in love) uniformly show cold mechanical and meaningless relationships which are ultimately self destructive. They concentrate on the emotions of the woman concerned and, since she is largely passive in most of them, and can often only convey the story through her facial expressions, such scenes require both a very fine actress and a very sensitive director in order to succeed. In my opinion this film provides both. It could probably only have been directed by a woman, and one can sense the determination of both the director and the lead actress to draw viewers of both sex into the story so that they are not merely voyeurs, but are forced to consider its relevance both to their own lives and to those of their friends.

Ultimately the ending of a film of this type can make or mar it. Both a happy and a totally tragic ending for what is intended to be a look at the lives of quiet desperation lived by many women would be inappropriate. Instead the director has taken our understanding of her main character further forward by showing us that for many such women their ultimate satisfaction comes from their children rather than from their life partner.

It is a mark of a successful film when graphic images from it keep coming back to mind long afterwards, particularly when these images force one to consider whether there are lessons in it applicable to ones own life. I believe this would be the experience of most of those who see this film Although I would NOT recommended it as either a skin flick or an erotic film for a couple to watch together in the bedroom, I have no hesitation in recommending it strongly to all those who adequately appreciate what they can expect from it.

Though I have a comprehensive review below I wanted to add that some comments here are from people who saw a severely edited version of the film (the sex scenes removed or cropped off). This would be similar to removing the battle scenes from Star Wars.

I was very confused at the end of 'Romance' as to whether I liked it or not, and whether I thought it was a good film or not. The best bit for me was probably the Q&A with director Catherine Breillat at the end. She was (especially with the help of a translator) very interesting and articulate - whether one agreed with her or not - and I found the film a valuable commentary on her thoughts rather than the other way round.

The film is confusing; as we are aware, this is not pornography - but what *is* it about? Gender issues? Masochism? The female central character goes through a number of extreme sexual encounters and eventually finds some sense of identity unrelated to her sense of being part of a sexual partnership - although the struggle to find that identity has necessitated exploring her sexual desire. The other issue is censorship, as Breillat has something of a mission to push back censorship; this is related to her philosophical take on sexuality however rather than abolishing censorship for the sake of doing so alone. That which (sexually) disgusts us is twinned to that which (sexually) uplifts - the difference is not in the type of act but in the context - all of which is an extended metaphor on censorship itself. Breillat claims that the acts we find offensive in real life are also the acts we find offensive in images, an idea which in itself can lead to some self-awareness. But to Breillat, sexuality has become stereotyped in films. Show she wants to explore the boundaries and show that those boundaries, in themselves, are not good or bad, just as many acts, stereotyped as disgusting or wonderful, are not so in themselves but only in how we make them.

The degree to which she achieves this in 'Romance' may be the subject of debate for a long time to come. I hope I get the chance to see and study some of her other films. I hope the film is not cut by the censors. As to whether it is a great movie, I am less sure (after a lot of discussion and thought I'm slightly more inclined to say it is than it isn't though!) As I am gradually convinced of the director's unshaking artistic integrity I am more willing to put in the effort to understand her rather complex thought. As her film is her principle expression of this thought I have ranked it quite highly - largely for what she attempts, with whatever success, than what she achieves. As Sartre pointed out, success is more in the journey than the achievement.

First and foremost, there has been some comment regarding the final explicit scene regarding oral sex whereas the man's penis is shown to be in the woman's hand not in her mouth. This is a framing device that matches a scene at the beginning of the film whereas we quite clearly and unquestionably see the penis in her mouth (the first so-called "shocker" of the film). Since we can guess that both scenes were shot at the same time we can easily deduce that there was no attempt to fool the audience, what the director wanted us to see is quite literally what we see, and what the actors and director chose to show us. We have determined from the first scene that neither the actor nor the actress mind performing this scene in front of the camera (be mindful, even though her mouth is on the man's penis, there is no actual sex). Quite clearly the FINAL scene was NOT an oral sex scene but merely an erotic stroking of her chin upon the man's penis (a common technique in sensual massage, which tells us that those commenting have had much less experience during their lives than the actors did while filming this movie!). This is an important detail however because it tells us much which happens between these two scenes...and literally the moral of the story. At the beginning of the film we meet Marie, she wants sex, lusts for it, and her mate is unable to match her desire. Her mate seems quite satisfied with the sensual contact, but for one reason or another (never quite clear) sex is something that is not on his agenda. The shock of the audience seeing her pull his penis out and provide oral massage is merely because we have not seen this type of explicit scene in mainstream cinema. In comparison to other scenes in the film it is really quite nothing, and a similar scene at the end would have proven anticlimactic. She spends the rest of the film searching to quench her sexual desires, yet sensuality is something that is not on HER agenda. So she has meaningless sex considering herself just a "hole" until by the end of the film she has experienced all that she is going to experience for a while, returns to her mate, and meets him on his terms, for a night of sensual pleasure...namely the final scene as described above (with penis seen in her hand--yes you were suppose to see it there!)

Do we need to see all the graphic sex scenes that appear throughout the film...including the actors literally having sex (loose definition here...more correctly, penetration)? Maybe the point here is like what Lenny Bruce said about racist and swear words...the more they are used, the less meaning they have. Sex has nothing to do with love and is often violent. I've always thought it strange that in cinema a man can put his mouth on a woman's nipple, but a woman cannot put her mouth on a man's penis. Given the nature and frankness of films during the past thirty years this does not seem such a big deal. I would think if the actors were prepared to do nude love scenes this would not be that much of a stretch. Also, I should make it quite clear this is not a porn film. While the actors are going through the motions there is no indication that any male actor ejaculates into any actress (mouth or otherwise). One of the men Marie meets on her journey is in real life a porn star. He is quite good as an actor and I would not have known he was a porn star based on this film. One of the reasons he was used apparently was because he could hold an erection during a particular scene where Marie helps him put on a condom. Given all the efforts over the past decade to educate about safe sex it is curious this type of scene has not been more popular in other films. It certainly would be an acceptable excuse for directors wishing to add a little sizzle to their film. In this particular case the scene is quite straight forward (no pun intended). Naked man sitting in bed next to naked woman, puts on a condom. They talk a little about condoms and she helps him to smooth out the latex with her hand in a way that is not sensual or lewd, but obviously caring. It is a very nice scene and works quite well. By this time we are not shocked at a woman touching a man's penis (let alone with latex separating skin from skin). Yes, you will see penetrating going on but not much sex. The version I rented had a split second scene of an extra pleasuring himself onto what appeared to be another person and that's about it. There is a scene after the condom scene where the two actors seem to be doing it...but we don't see anything, so I doubt they would go through all that trouble and not show it. Even if they had, it would merely be penetration. Perhaps another reason to hire a porn star is that he could control himself during penetration...and if the actress playing Marie could not, what partner would mind? The question I had was how the actor playing Marie's mate was able NOT to get excited. The actress looking quite lovely in the nude, it would be difficult for most men to control themselves laying so close to her in bed, let alone being pleasured by her (I wish there were out-takes of this film, I'm sure a lot more happened then what was shown on screen). There are some disturbing scenes of violent and experimental sex that make this unsuitable for children, but I would suggest the condom scene be used in sex education classes in high school. Hopefully this will open the door for other films to show sex in healthy and realistic ways.

I watched "Romance" for the wrong reason. I expected an entertaining brainless soft core sex movie. Instead, I got a drama with the necessary sex scenes and a clever plot.

Caroline Ducey is great in her starring role. She's sweet, tender, but very sexy. Her sex scenes are not very pleasant to watch mainly because of her identity problem (specially the infamous doggy style sex scene) but still accomplishes the movie's objective.

"Romance" could fit into the art category. Watch it if you like these kind of movies and for the beautiful and sexy Caroline Ducey. This woman is like no other because of her petite structure, thin, but with a hot body. Not to mention her angel face.