Romance (1999 film)
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Romance (Romance X) is a 1999 French movie written and directed by Catherine Breillat. It stars Caroline Ducey, erotic actor Rocco Siffredi, Sagamore Stévenin and François Berléand. The film contains several sex scenes that appear to have been unsimulated, especially the famous scene showing Caroline Ducey's coitus from behind with an erect Rocco Siffredi (who is not brought to completion, though). The film premiered in Belgium and France on April 14 1999 and in the United States on September 17 of that same year.
Romance (Romance X) is a 1999 French art house film written and directed by Catherine Breillat. It stars Caroline Ducey, pornographic actor Rocco Siffredi, Sagamore Stévenin and François Berléand. The film features explicit copulation scenes,<ref>Anne Gillain, "Profile of a Filmmaker: Catherine Breillat" Beyond French Feminisms: debates on women, Politics and Culture in France, 1981 – 2001, edited by Roger Célestin et al. New York: Macmillan (2003): 202. Catherine Breillat's "film Romance had received much praise—and criticism—the previous year for using a porn-film actor and a scene showing a nonsimulated sexual act, including a shot of an erection in the foreground."</ref> especially one showing Caroline Ducey's coitus with Rocco Siffredi. Romance is one of several arthouse films featuring explicit, unsimulated sex, such as The Brown Bunny (2003), 9 Songs (2004), All About Anna (2005), and Shortbus (2006).
Plot synopsis
Marie is a schoolteacher who is deeply in love with her boyfriend, a model, who does not have sex with her. She explores increasingly risky sexual encounters with other men, including a BDSM relationship with a member of staff who works at the same school. Though she is pregnant with the child of her boyfriend, in the end she kills him and goes to her coworker for help in raising her child.
Controversy
Romance was shown in mainstream cinemas in Europe. In the U.S., the original version is unrated, and an edited version received an R rating. In March 2004, the unedited film was broadcast late at night on German public TV, leading to some protests. The film has also been shown on the Australian cable TV network "World Movies" in its uncut form.
See also
- Women's cinema
- Sadism and masochism in fiction
- List of mainstream movies with unsimulated sex
- 1990s in film
- Sex in film
- Censorship in France