Romance (Trimark) Review

The First Word:  This mainstream (i.e. non-adult) French movie set the film world abuzz several years ago for it's explicit sex scenes that show actress Caroline Ducey doing far more than acting.

What's It About?:   It's a little unusual for me to be doing a review of Romance because I would consider it a mainstream film, not an adult film.  But it's noteworthy and of interest to the adult film viewer because of its "crossover" implications.  In other words, it is one of a handful of films in history to blur the line between legitimate filmmaking and explicit adult content -- films that include Caligula, Baise Moi, Intimacy, and In The Realm Of The Senses.

Unlike Caligula, who's producers tried to legitimize the X-rated performances by surrounding them with credible mainstream writers and actors, Romance is quite the opposite.  The explicit sex in this French production was not the reason for the film to exist, but rather it added greater emotional impact to the theme of the movie.  Actress Caroline Ducey has starred in about a dozen legitimate films, but it's her role as Marie in Romance that she will be best known for.  A lot of actresses have pretended to have sex on film, but she actually does.

The plot is fairly simple:  "Marie" is a school teacher who is in a relationship with a man who has no interest in her sexually.  She loves him deeply despite his disgust in having sex with her and his blatant interest in other women.  For his part, he treats her as a Madonna-like figure.  Inevitably, she engages in random sex encounters to fill the emptiness in her life, beginning with a stranger she picks up in a bar (who happens to be Italian porn stud Rocco Siffredi).  Later, she with her school's principal, who has bedded thousands of women and has a bondage fetish.  When she later becomes pregnant after an abortive attempt at sex with her boyfriend, she develops a strong bond between her principal/lover.  In the end, she gains her freedom through motherhood and by getting rid of her boyfriend (literally).

Since this is an adult DVD site, I'll discuss the naughty bits that you, dear reader, are probably interested in.  On a couple of occasions, Marie gives head to her very small and mostly limp boyfriend.  We see the head of his penis going into her mouth, but he's obviously not excited.  This establishes the lack of heat between them.

Next, she is shown having an affair with Rocco Siffredi in a hotel room.  To Rocco's credit, his French sounds excellent and he does a great job acting (we all know what he can do in his other career!).   In this scene, we see Rocco's erect cock, which he strokes and then applies a condom to.  Caroline Ducey then strokes him with her hands before they make love.  During the intercourse shots, it's almost completely non-explicit -- only by the angle and depth of his movements can you tell that they probably are coupled.

During her bondage encounters with the principal, we see "Marie's" hairy bush as she's tied up with ropes and gagged, and then again later when she examines herself using a mirror.  Also during the course of the movie, she is raped by a stranger she had picked up as a john (non explicit cunnilingus and doggy style intercourse).  She is also shown masturbating, being fingered while being tied up, and receiving pelvic exams by a group of medical students during her pregnancy.

Sounds pretty daring for a mainstream drama, no?   Yes, but the most explicit shots are yet to come.  "Marie" has a dream where she imagines a round room where women who want to have their nymphomania satisfied lie with their husbands/boyfriends at their sides while gangs of men on the other side of the wall line up to fuck them.  It's quite explicit, as penetration is shown from afar.  The split-second transition shot between this scene and the next is the most hardcore of all as an anonymous penis ejaculates on a woman's pubes.

But by far the most graphic depiction is not sexual in nature:  The birth of a baby (supposedly "Marie's") is shown.  Any faint of heart viewers should look away as the baby's head is shown stretching the vaginal opening and coming out completely.  I think that scene is the most memorable of the movie.

All told, there's only a few minutes out of the entire movie with explicit content, and what is explicit is very brief.  There's no mistaking this for any adult video in the conventional sense.  But despite the fact that most of the sex portrayed in Romance is supposed to be un-erotic -- shocking but not erotic -- it is strangely appealing to know that it's real sex by non-adult performers.

What I liked:  I appreciated the effective use of nudity and explicit sex in Romance.  Unlike Baise Moi and Caligula, there aren't any extended hardcore scenes.  I think that's why the crossover porno will probably never come to pass.  It's going to be next to impossible to have a seriously regarded film that has lengthy shots of hardcore sex.  At best, such a movie would be an adult mainstream-wannabe.  That's why the sex should be the means, not the end in itself, and that's impossible when the end involves six or seven 15-minute segments of explicit sex.

What I didn't like: It's a foreign film, and a French film at that.  Aside from Amelie and Brotherhood of the Wolf, I don't think that I've liked any French movie I've ever seen. I guess French cinema is all about character studies, not plots.  That makes it especially hard for me to enjoy the experience since I either like a really good story or something I can vege out with (I'd say that porn falls into the second category).  And on the porn side, I don't think I've liked any French porn that I've ever seen.

DVD Extras: Barebones.  No extras at all.

A/V Quality: As this is a mainstream release, the audio and video are on par with what I expect from a mainstream DVD.  As any foreign film enthusiast will tell you, you should skip the English language dub and stick with the native French audio track and turn on the English subtitles.  The voice acting for the English dub is not that bad, but it definitely is distracting.

The Last Word: As Lunacy says, "It's not porn -- it's French!"  That pretty much sums this movie up.  It's a French drama that has a bit of non-erotic explicit bits (your mileage may vary; it's just that it wasn't meant to be stimulating in the normal sense).  That's not to say that most adult and mainstream viewers wouldn't want to see it just for the curiosity factor -- I did, and I'm glad I did. And while I didn't really "get" the point of the movie (I seem to rarely understand foreign films), I think the explicit sex was instrumental to the plot.  Sure, it could have been done in a Rated R way and still gotten the point across, but the unrated version definitely hits your sensibility like a ton of bricks.  And that's saying a lot since most of us watch hardcore video with no redeeming qualities on a regular basis.

- Saki (saki@my.adultdvdtalk.com)