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Starring Caroline Ducey, Sagamore Stevenin, Francois Berleand, Rocco Siffredi.
Directed by Catherine Breillat.
Marie (Ducey) is an elementary school teacher, unhappy and unfulfilled in her personal life. Her model boyfriend Paul (Stevenin) has lost interest sexually in Marie. He still claims to love her, but refuses to have sex with her. He prefers to go out with his friends at the bar, or go dancing at the local disco. She still loves him, but she craves the physical intimacy that Paul denies her. She threatens Paul that she will have an affair if he continues to refuse to have sex, but he doesn't seem to care. One night she just can't sleep, so she goes out to a bar, and meets a man (Siffredi) who just lost his girlfriend in a car accident (or so he says). They eventually begin an affair where she won't kiss him, but she'll let him do just about any other penetrating act he'd like. But soon, her interest in him dies off. A neighbour meets her in the hall of her apartment, and offers $20 for sex, and then rapes her on the carpet. Her principal Robert (Berleand) hauls her in for a meeting. Her spelling and math teaching abilities are weak, and she figures she's about to be fired. But it turns out, Robert is into S&M and claims to have bedded 10000 women, and Robert is just after Marie to make her his latest conquest. Marie claims she enjoys her many "dates" with Robert because "it ties me up without tying me down." Suddenly, she becomes pregnant by a surprising source. And she eventually will exact her revenge. Fresh off a controversial run in France, and The Toronto Film Festival, Romance contains nudity, bondage, rape, and various acts of sex. Directed by Breillat, a veteran actress who appeared in Last Tango In Paris, the film is advertised to be about "female desire, not male fantasy." Although Marie willingingly suffers through all means of degradation, it is supposed to be about women having dark and forbidden desires just like men. Right. The film is not all nudity and sex - there is much more in Last Tango for instance. There is quite a bit of talking. And pausing. And silence. And blank stares. The biggest problem is that the movie is boring. Because of Marie's neverending scowl and empty look during sex, there is not much titillation value in the sex scenes. And it's quite pretentious in that old-style European way, where characters pontificate about what women really want, while they are doing very kinky things to one another. For example, Marie thinks the best way to show your disgust and hatred towards men is to have meaningless sex with them. I'm betting this strategy would be lost on most men. We learn that women have dark fantasies, just like men, and enjoy a little bondage and rape every now and then. We also learn that a woman cannot be a woman until she has a baby. And this was written by a woman. The title "Romance" is entirely ironic - there is no romance anywhere to be found. The performances are uneven. Pornstar Siffredi should stick to the bump and grind industry. Both Ducey and Stevenin go through the film like zombies, expressing little emotion, never cracking a smile. I'm sure they were directed that way, but that style really drags down the film. Berleand fares best, both in his performance and in his character - he is the most human character in the film. The best thing about Romance is the ending. It is a satisfying and appropriate wish fulfillment for Marie. But 10 minutes of movie is obviously not enough, and it's certainly not worth your time to sit through the energyless first 90 minutes to see it.   
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