Romance (1999)

Note: This review was originally posted on a message board forum. I am reposting it here for archival purposes. It has been backdated to the date of its original posting.

I've been trying to remember what it was that made this movie seem interesting enough for me to watch it, but whatever it was, it has escaped me. Romance is sort of a feminist-ish French chick flick about sex. I don't mind a good chick flick, and I certainly have no problem with French cinema, and feminism - well, it can be good or bad depending on interpretation. I think one of the main strikes against this film, for me, is that all of the fairly explicit sex is some of the least erotic cinema sex I've ever seen. And I think that may be part of the point, but still...

Caroline Ducey in the lead role is nice to look at - she has a sweet and subtle beauty that's undeniable but not overbearing, plus the various expressions and mannerisms she employs are very seductive in an innocent kind of way. She plays a young woman in a sexless relationship with a man she loves, but is - from what I can tell - either completely impotent, or completely asexual. Naturally, the woman has to search elsewhere for the impersonal connections she needs to satisfy her lustful desires.

Much of the film consists of these sorts of encounters, though as I've said before, the sex is very un-erotic. However, the more important focus seems to be on the philosophies and the emotions of the lead as she recounts them in narration. And there are certainly some interesting philosophical ruminations on love and sex and romance and all that. Without going into specifics, there are some pretty interesting ideas in there, but at the end, I can't help feeling maybe it would have been better as a book rather than a film? Then again, maybe I'm just bitter about the live childbirth scenes...in closeup... There's nothing less sexy than childbirth...

Actually, I think that irony's also part of whatever point the director Catherine Breillat is trying to put across. Interesting, sure, but the film itself leaves me feeling somewhat unsatisfied after watching it...