Une liaison pornographique (1999)
Directed by Frédéric Fonteyne

Film Review

In Une liaison pornographique, Belgian director Frédéric Fonteyne set out to demonstrate how difficult it is for a couple to have a passionate sexual relationship without falling in love along the way.  Stylish and original in its minimalist cinematography and sparse dialogue, the film has that bleak existentialist perspective which is often a feature of unconventional French romantic dramas.  Compelling performances from Nathalie Baye and Sergi López somehow give the film a sense of humanity and touching realism which appears to be lacking in the script.  Generally, however, the film feels cold and not particularly engaging, so that, whilst it is a comparatively short film, it places great demands on the spectator.

Film Synopsis

She is a woman in her mid-forties who wants a man to enact her sexual fantasies with her.  She has in no interest in finding love.  He is the man who sees her strange personal ad and feels he can provide what the woman is looking for.  After corresponding via Minitel for a while, these two people realise that they can each satisfy the other's needs, so they agree to meet up at an anonymous café in Paris.  She is keen to get down to business straight away.  He is more hesitant but agrees.

Without knowing each other's names or anything about the other they are soon making love in a hotel bedroom that has been especially reserved by the woman for this purpose.  They meet up again, three or four times a month, but as they do so they come to realise that they both want something more than sex from the relationship.  They have begun to develop feelings for one another which they had wanted to avoid.  Now they have to accept that what they really needed all along was love, but is this something the other is willing to offer...?