Romance (1999)
Directed by Catherine Breillat

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.

Film Synopsis

Marie is a young schoolteacher who is in a stable and loving relationship with her boyfriend Paul, a male model who is often away from home.  Paul is devoted to Marie and whilst they live together in harmony he cannot bring himself to make love to her, as the idea of physical intimacy with such a perfect companion appals him.  Marie is far from pleased with the stubbornly platonic nature of her relationship with Paul.  How easily she is lured into bed by a handsome Italian, Paolo, who both visibly desires physical contact with her and is more than willing to provide her with the experiences that have so far been denied her in her barren liaison with Paul.  From safe, conventional sex with Paolo Marie then graduates to more risky sadomasochistic intercourse with Robert, an older man with much more intense carnal needs.  As the physical side of Marie's love life flourishes, enriched by Robert's insatiable sex drive and penchant for invention, the emotional side begins to wither, and in the end Paul becomes completely surplus to requirements...