Romance

Rating:
Summary: La stupidite et rien d'autre !
Review: What is this for heaven's sake ? It is so annoying that it suffocates you! Catherine Breillat should have spent more attention to character development than the "fashionable" costumes of her protagonist(or whatever the heck she was). Reviews said that it was the most erotic film ever. But in fact it's the most neurotic! This is pretentiousness at its tops! Avoid it at the cost of your life!

Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time
Review: This movie is all talk and no action. The protagonist, Marie, is an unsympathetic person. you never care what happens to her. The film promises eroticism but never delivers. If you want to see a movie about sexual decadence and obsession, then rent or buy In The Realm of the Senses.

Rating:
Summary: A Huge Waste of Time
Review: The only thing disturbing about this movie is how bad it is. This is a story about a clingy school teacher who has a obvious case of low self esteem and her male model boyfriend. He won't have sex with her, so she goes on this "dark journey" to explore her sexuality and ultimately finds herself. As absurd as the plot may be, the whole movie would have been palatable if the character were at least sympathetic, Unfortunately they are not. Throughout the movie, you find the heroine whine on about how much she loves her boyfriend, who is an obvious prick, and have sex with highly unattractive males because she loves her boyfriend. Why? What's her motivation? Do I really care? No! In fact, I wouldn't have cared less if all the character in this movie committed suicide within first ten minutes of this movie. The characters have nothing to say. They are two dimensional and flat. There is nothing shocking here, it's just boring. If it's sex you are after, go watch a porn flick, If it's art house sex you want, 'My Night at Maud's' is a far more interesting film. If it's art house sex and cinematography then check out 'last tango in paris'

Rating:
Summary: Merde
Review: If I were feeling cruel I'd call this a pretentious film about middle class angst with about as much artistic merit as the drawings of Batman and Superman I did when I was four years old. And I am feeling cruel, so I will. Sitting through this film has this effect on me.

This movie is almost a parody of European art movies. Faux-meaningful narration, antiseptic sets and long pauses are not in themselves enough to provide an insight into the human condition. None of the characters are fleshed out and, apart from a couple of scenes where she's allowed to act, Caroline Trousselard sleepwalks through the film. As everyone else does the same, I'm guessing the director is to blame, rather than the actors.

What really makes the film stand out as truly awful is the ending. It's one of the biggest clichés ever. In fact, it's so clichéd it's almost archetypal.

There's entertainment value, sure. As with any truly bad film - Hello, 'Boxing Helena'! - it's worth watching. If you're a connoisseur of appalling films then you should probably change my score to five stars. (Incidentally, it's one of the few films where it's even worse in the original language than dubbed.)

Romance is, quite simply, the 'Plan Nine Form Outer Space' of the European art film world.

Rating:
Summary: An everyday story of a model and a teacher - not!
Review: Explicit but not exploitative. Sex but not pornography. At lot has been said about the ground breaking aspects of this film (but they said the same about Basic Instinct) but I found the most disturbing scene to be the internal examinations by the doctor and the medical students when she becomes pregnant.

The story is total allegory and covers themes as diverse as rape-fantasy and intimacy, our general attitudes to sex and our specific nuances when it comes to fulfilling our partner's needs.

I have not felt as uncomfortable watching a film since Blue Velvet, nor have I felt as intrigued. Is this aimed at women audiences? Perhaps, but I cannot imagine anyone empathizing with the main character. And if you are expecting a pornfest, you are going to be really disppointed.

Is there a point to this movie? Maybe an ethereal one about what women really need from men in relationships (and perhaps the message that the Black Widow spider and the Preying Mantis may have got it right in killing their partner after mating).

Is this worth buying? Well if you collect continental art films (such as Man Bites Dog, Manon des Sources and The Hairdressers Husband) you will be used to the feel of such movies and this will make a welcome addition. Otherwise hire it and make your own mind up.

Rating:
Summary: Poor Excuse For Romance
Review: Regrettably, Romance is a disappointment. If you are looking for an "adult" film that is both titillating and thought provoking, this movie will fall short on both. There is nothing romantic about the movie, the sex scenes may be explicit when compared to an "R" rated movie, but many PG-13 movies are "sexier" than Romance.

Rating:
Summary: Pass
Review: The only possible use for this movie would be to use it as a litmus test for potential lovers. If they like it, run.

The central character needs to punish herself for the sexual ambiguity of her partner. After wandering through "relationships" with a total stranger, a sadist, then a rapist, she murders her partner and gives birth to his son.

This is NOT a "chick flick."

Rating:
Summary: For women.
Review: This movie has excellent cinematography in the first half. (the beach, the apartment) Other than that the script is really bad. The main female character's ponderings on how men treat women are misguided. She is basically troubled and needs to get help. Her boyfriend is causing her great emotional pain, by refusing any sexual contact, but that is also her problem, she should leave him, he provides nothing for her. The sex is amazingly BORING, there is no passion, no atmosphere, no intensity, and no love. Its not a terrible movie or a classified B-movie, but it is not written well. It could have been better if the script provided deeper insights on the main character and allowed her more freedom to break out of her misery and just get a new life. She is only falling down a dark spiral trying to find out if sex can give her the love her boyfriend can not give to her. This movie really kills your libido.

Rating:
Summary: Romance, it's not!
Review: This movie takes me back to college in the sixties when we'd watch foreign movies, based in philosophy (the meaning of life, etc.) like The Seventh Seal. Somehow my attitude toward life has softened over the years, and I've gained a lot of insight. However, this movie is a throwback for me. It's definitely not sexy - in the sense of playfulness or of eroticism. It's not about romance or love, in fact it's totally devoid of both. It's about some twisted souls who are lost in the land of the living. If you want to explore some of the emotional issues centering on misguided sex and sexual attitudes, then yes it's a good movie (I say 'good', not 'great'). However, if you want a movie on romance, or "good sex", or love - then I don't recommend it. If you want to explore the darker side of sex - then you may well like. For the somewhat squeamish, the movie isn't that bad. There are a few bondage scenes, but they're relatively tame. A semi-rape scene also falls short of cruel (but this is all relative - I only compare this to some really horrid movies). Finally - for those who want a typical XXX sex movie, I'm not sure this is want you want. It's purely a mind-play, psychological, dark exploration of sex. Psych majors should love it! As for direction and acting - the script can be a bit slow at times, the dialog trite (at times), and the acting varies from above-average (and interesting) to boring.

Rating:
Summary: and the point was?
Review: I watched the "edited" version on video. Perhaps the unedited would have made it more interesting. Needless to say, this was one screwed up, insecure woman who played her own games as much as the boyfriend she so wanted. I could NOT relate to her. There really was no plot. Her whinning soul-searching and her "intuition" about men and their dastardly wants started to drive me buggy. She should've dumped the SOB a long time ago. The end of the movie sideblinding me like a drunk driver - it came out of nowhere. I didn't get the artsy part of the flick and I didn't see what ANY of it had to do with female sexuality. Guys, if you decide to watch Romance, please don't think this movie is a model to all womens inner thoughts. I'd stay away from this self-destructive chick, and this movie.