Romance (1999)
Directed by Catherine Breillat
Frustrated by the lack of intimacy in her relationship, a young schoolteacher goes through a series of intimidating and often violent sexual partners.
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Initially, Marie's hollowness is a virtue she'd like to hold on to as if her passivity is as complicated and deceptive as the women in "The Story of O," or "Last Tango in Paris," in which Breillat appeared.
Because of its sexual content, Romance is being compared to Last Tango in Paris and In the Realm of the Senses , but its microscopic focus on a single characters psychological state ties it to films such as Cleo From 5 To 7 and Repulsion .
Because of its sexual content, Romance is being compared to Last Tango in Paris and In the Realm of the Senses , but its microscopic focus on a single characters psychological state ties it to films such as Cleo From 5 To 7 and Repulsion .
Romance isn't quite as hardcore as all that, but it is significantly more explicit than the more recent Italian sexual cause celebre, Devil in the Flesh (1987) -- which notoriously featured a brief, dark scene where Maruchka Detmers gave Federico Pitzalis a half-hearted blow job on camera.
(Maruschka Detmers is the only other candidate who comes to mind, but Romance makes even Devil in the Flesh look tame.)
The very sexual scenes that make up the bulk of Romance's running time are more explicit by far than anything to come from mainstream world cinema since Japanese director Nagisa Oshima unleashed his In the Realm of the Senses on the world back in 1976.
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It's almost a parody of a foreign film like Pedro Almodovar's excellent Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990), which is all about sex on the surface, but also explores love and trust issues around its sex story and does so with wisdom and humor.
Sort of like Emily Watson in "Breaking the Waves."
In a pale mimicry of Breaking the Waves (1996) she begins to take other lovers and explore more twisted avenues of sexuality, such as being tied up, or being raped in a stairwell.
"Pretty Woman" hooker: Without love, kissing is forbidden, but sex with a stranger is greeted with the mildly fretful matter-of-factness of getting a prescription refilled.
Director Catherine Breillat, who made the repulsive "36 Fillette" a few years ago, launches her heroine on a ludicrous I-can't-get-no-satisfaction sexual odyssey that's as pointless as it is pretentious (though she does seem to have more fun than Tom Cruise in " Eyes Wide Shut ").
With her new feature, Romance, Catherine Breillat (best known in the U.S. for 36 Fillette ) comes closer than any director that I know of to finding a means of expressing the most basic human emotions -- love, longing, fear, insecurity -- in the language of sexuality.
The seriousness of Breillat ("36 Fillette") is never in question, at least as far as the taint of exploitation is concerned.
Director Catherine Breillat (36 Fillette) tries to bridge the gap between mainstream films and porno films with Romance but this sex story doesn't have the depth to complete the trip.
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It's quite different from "Basic Instinct," "Eyes Wide Shut" or "Nine 1/2 Weeks."