Rating: Summary: Confronting Review: Emotionally lacerating, existential view of love and sex which has unfortunately been overshadowed by the film's reputation for graphic sex scenes.Certainly this film should not be seen by the prudish or squeamish, but I feel the message is only enhanced by the unblinking honesty of Caroline Ducey's confronting and courageous performance as a self-hating misanthrope in a loveless relationship. If you don't believe this type of person exists, you should get out more. There is much that is insightful and thought-provoking in this film, although a star is taken off for the disappointing ending, which is too pat by half. Definitely worth seeing if you are open-minded and questioning of the mainstream candy-floss depiction of relationships between men and women.
Rating: Summary: Better than Last Tango in Paris Review: This picture breaks many boundries with Catherine Breillat's very realistic performance. Truly a great film.
Rating: Summary: You either really hate it, or really love it. Review: The only bad thing I couldn't stand about the movie was that it was in french. I spent a lot of time reading the subtitles and missing some of the cinema. The story is very sexually oriented so if you are easily offended then don't watch this movie. When I saw this at the theatre a few people actually left during the movie. While I wouldn't actually classify this as 'porn' , it does get quite a bit sexual at times. What was interesting in this move is that I found it to be extremely intellectually stimulating. I find human behavior/ psychology fims extremely interesting so this film was a real find for me. So basically if you are mature enough to get over the sexual bluntness then you can really experience a good story and maybe understand the charachters a little better.
Rating: Summary: Terrble Review: This movie is so bad that it does not even warrant 1 star. It is nothing short of a very bad porn movie, not even the porn scenes, of which there are many, have any realism. The acting is atrocious and the dialogue on the english dubbed version I viewed was spoken in a mono tone. The voices of the people doing the dubbing sounded as bored with their job as I was with the movie. This movie is a waste of money and more importantly a waste of time in watching.
Rating: Summary: An psychological study of the female sexual animal Review: As a fairly conservative heterosexual male, I was really curious to read the reviews about this movie. So erotic at times it took my breath away, then disturbing...unnerving, frustrating even. It made me uncomfortable, and this is a good thing, right? What is wrong with him, I often asked? And her? Urbane and sophisticated. Shouldn't some movies disturb us and make us view the world differently and not just entertain us? This one does it. I suspect the deepest female sexual animal seperate from her public facade, forced by our society (our "heroine" is a schoolteacher, after all) to stay hidden nearly always, disturbs many of us and perhaps makes this movie too strong for the mainstream. I found it very intriguing and in the vein of the French Emmanuelle series and perhaps 9 1/2 weeks (Rourke/Basinger). Colorful, hot. Makes you look at all women, and yourself, a little differently. What is really ticking inside there? What would she do if she stopped holding back? I agree with the other reviewers that it may become a classic and I for one, would love to see more from the writer/director.
Rating: Summary: A Realistic Adult Journey of Womanhood Review: This is a strong film with brilliant performances from each actors. It may be disturbing and explicit in many ways but it's strong plot makes this one of the most watchable controversial foreign film ever. A MUST-SEE for the open minded.
Rating: Summary: Romance Review: This is a well made, thoughtful presentation of sexual relationships viewed from a particular woman's stance. It is very explicit for a "mainline film" but with its good plot, outstanding acting and directing it avoids being classified as a "soft porno". With its combination of daring and sensitivity this film may be a pathbreaker.
Rating: Summary: Almost a parody, but without the humor. Review: If this film did not have explicit sex, I suspect it would have gathered almost no attention. It was truly awful--boring, painfully pretentious, and absolutely ridiculous. It was almost a parody of an existential French art film--but not at all funny. The only reason I didn't turn it off after the first few minutes was because I kept thinking this must get better--but it didn't. Not only was Marie a totally unlikeable character-as was just about everyone else in the film-but she was completely boring as well. The movie would had nothing at all to talk about if she had just done the obvious thing she needed to do--dump the loser boyfriend and get some therapy! I mean really--if your partner asks if you like his body, you say yes, and he says--with obvious contempt--"you're disgusting" as her boyfriend did--wouldn't you leave? And do you want to watch a whole movie about someone who doesn't even flinch at this, let alone leave? Frankly, I was surprised that a woman was responsible for such a mysogynistic view of a woman's sexuality. Nothing interesting here--don't waste your time.
Rating: Summary: Don't rent this movie from Blockbuster. R rating BAD Review: Here's an idea! Take a boring French movie about a woman looking for sex or love or something like that (she never shuts up so you get kind of confused as to what she's talking about) that is advertised as the explicit sex movie and then take out all the scenes where she's doing it. I was told that there was penetration. I didn't see any penetration. I fast forwarded through most of this thing, but the 15 minutes that I did see in real time were excrutiating. Actually the fast forwarded no-dialogue scenes were fairly dull as well. It's the USA station of art flicks to watch the R rated version. Many reviewers chide American movies for not making movies like this. We do, they are called pornos and if you want a movie like the R rated version you watch Spice Pay-Per-View. THere is one difference, the bad dialogue between sex scenes is entertaining in places. I don't care if French people have a "mature" attitude towards nudity and sexuality. Since it leads to utterly dull movies like this one, "maturity" is vastly overrated. I prefer Groucho Marx's answer to the question "Is sex dirty?". His response: "Only if you are doing it right." They definitely don't do it right in this movie. If you like pretentious movies with hardcore sex, watch either Realm of the Senses or Betty Blue (the latter of which they might not be doing it for real but it sure looks like it). If you want arty sex movies, watch either Unberable Lightness of Being or Henry & June. They aren't really having sex in the latter movie, but you sure will if you are watching it with someone who's at least possibly interested in you.
Rating: Summary: Both groundbreaking and yet traditional; unforgettable! Review: This is easily one of the more remarkable films of recent years. Breillat's frank treatment of sex sets the film apart from any other of its type. The story itself is unfortunately a dismal treatment of one woman's masochistic approach to sex as a form of self-punishment for her lover's refusal to sleep with her (will we never, ever see a woman truly enjoying sex for sex's sake, and finding it the life-giving respite from the world that it is?) But still, to actually see such frank depictions of sex is tremendously refreshing...it's particularly wonderful to at last see an erection in a mainstream film (the brief glimpse in "Angels and Insects" notwithstanding). And that one of those should belong to the extraordinarily beautiful European porn star Rocco Siffredi, in a sweet and understated performance, is of course icing on the cake. But again, the real drawback of this film is that it is yet another protrait of a woman who suffers in love rather than breaking out and going for something better. However, for what it is, "Romance" is a remarkable film.
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