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Overview
Romance is a French romantic film drama first released in 1999,
directed by Catherine Breillat.
The film stars Caroline Ducey, Sagamore Stévenin, François Berléand, Rocco Siffredi and Reza Habouhossein.
Our overall rating for this film is: good.
Synopsis
A young schoolteacher, Marie, is deeply in love with her boyfriend, Paul, a male model
who is often away from home. However, whilst Paul also loves her, he shows her no
intimacy and has little interest in making love to her. Frustrated, Marie has a
one-night stand with an Italian she meets in a bar and then starts to have sad-masochistic
sex sessions with her headmaster. As she is driven further to extremes of sexual
behaviour, Marie undergoes a dramatic transformation, and Paul soon becomes expendable...
Film Review
Romance is a daring attempt by provocative novelist-director Catherine Breillat
to portray the need for sexual fulfilment from the perspective of a young woman locked
in a passionless relationship. There are obvious parallels with Luis Buñuel’s
1967 film Belle du Jour,
and the film certainly has its share of surrealist fantasy. However, Romance
is a much darker film, focussed entirely on the thoughts and experiences of the central
character, who is pushed, by forces she cannot control, to increasingly dangerous sexual
practices.
Catherine Breillat’s previous films (notably the controversial 36 fillette) have a noticeable preoccupation with female sexuality, but Romance is far more explicit, and apparently has no qualms about crossing the line into hardcore pornography. The film’s commercial success probably had more to do with its graphic images of masturbation, oral sex and sadomasochism than to its artistic content. (The film certainly makes good use of Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi.) If anything, these explicitly pornographic excesses weaken the film’s very powerful underlying message and will probably alienate those cinema-goers who are likely to appreciate Breillat’s point of view. © James Travers 2001 Write a review for this film... User Comments
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Related links
More French DramaMore French Romance Recent DVD releases |
Credits
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If you like this film you may also like the following: Après l’amour (1992) Éloge de l’amour (2001) Embrassez qui vous voudrez (2002) Entre adultes (2007) Le Fils de l’épicier (2007) Fin août, début septembre (1998) Le Grand bleu (1988) Les Herbes folles (2009) Mon père, ce héros (1991) Olivier, Olivier (1992) La Reine Margot (1994) Ridicule (1996) Selon Matthieu (2000) Un monde sans pitié (1989) |
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