I found it to be a fascinating exploration on sex as a diversion as opposed to a attempt at intimacy. A very interesting perspective.

It seems there are many modern movies dealing with sex, often quite explicitly. I'm fine with that, but why do the characters have to be so emotionally tortured by it, or at best, feel the need to pontificate on it so extensively? Doesn't anybody just enjoy sex any more? I suppose the film makers believe that if their characters enjoy themselves they've crossed the line into pornography. Better to have them torturing themselves over it in order to keep the "art house" designation. I just find it boring.

Our heroine hates the men who bop her and loves the man who won't bop her but once and then barely but she gets pregnant. But she hates him too because he wouldn't bop her but the once. So she turns on the gas in their apartment before she goes to the hospital and he dies at the same time she gives birth. This movie is a deep meditation on the vicissitudes of love and death from a woman's point of view that somehow misses being profound. And a romance it most certainly is not.

Bitch doesn't shut the fuck up, nor does her supervisor. Hot, really nice ass for skinny girl. Not as much action as I wanted

"I gave my son his father's name. If someone up there counts souls, then we are even."

This movie has a couple of unforgettable scenes! Drags a little but it kept my interest.

Unique story but could've been more in terms of acting

Oh, wow. Not at all what we expected. Bizarre and not in a good way. How do things like this get onto my radar, let alone onto my Netflix queue?

I like the plot of story in Romance. That's why I give it 4 stars.

Gave this one a re-watch, it still holds up as well as a detached, clinical look at a failing relationship can. Catherine Breillat has always made film that I more respect than like, as they tackle uncomfortable subject matter that you don't see in the average run of normal cinema. Worth a rental, if only to see a part of the weird cinema conventions that happened in the late '90s and early 2000s, as real penetrative sex made its way into certain bits of French Indie cinema.

The utter patheticalness of the main character can be grating, and every person seems to be sexually repressed and suffering from some kind of psychological pathology (except, weirdly, Siffredi's character). So if you're into that. I would say it's less a good film than an interesting one.

Don't let the title fool you. If anything this is anti anything the word Romance might imply. A really clever, dark psycholgical erotic drama that is at times pretty disturbing and should appeal to fans of films like Breaking the Waves, Secretary or The Piano Teacher. Caroline Ducey was great in the leading role. Really cold, subtle and real performance for sure. The overall tone and pace of the film can be described in the same way, so might alienate some viewers, but this still has a very engaging story that kept me intrested from begining to end. Features a very realistic birth scene which is difficult to watch. Recommended.,

Pretentious French crap of the highest order.

Actually not so romantic at all. Not much of a pretty story it was so bizare of a troubled and deluded french teacher likes to have disgusting sexual pleasures. Lame and quite easy to forget.

The mother creates a son and the son creates a mother''... gave me a lot of thinking... still thinking !!

Greatly erotic and sensual art film, that turns out to be a little misogynistic.

Hilarious flick with maybe, maybe, an ironic title. Or not, who knows? I really don't know what to make of this film, kind of like In The Realm of the Senses. With our heroine's narration (I don't care what stuffs my cunt) and a creepy old man telling her that all women want to be raped (a paraphrase) makes for some good old fashion belly laughter. Add in bondage, unsimulated sex acts, including scenes with porn star Rocco Siffredi, you get...Romance. Irony?

Catherine Breillat's 1999 film ROMANCE inspired a series of films through the turn of the millennium that dealt with sex in a graphic fashion from the tradition of arthouse cinema. Just as these tended to be disappointing and even infuriating, the one that began it all strikes the viewer as quite ridiculous. Caroline Ducey stars as Marie, a young women looking for satisfaction when her lover won't sleep with her. She goes to a bar and instantly picks up a guy, thus spurring a series of encounters that serve only to allow Marie's voiceovers of how mixed up she is inside, in highfaulting language that really seems to say nothing. Towards the beginning of the film, one of the character's lovers scolds her about her angst, saying "There's more to life than this." Indeed, rather than dealing with Breillat's idees fixes for an hour and a half, I could have done something much more worthwhile. Though auteur cinema has changed my life, it seems sexuality is the one area that it's never accurately dealt with.

Interesting movie. Interesting characters. Just interesting. And intriguing. So much to say, just don't know how to say it.

the provoking woman's passion. brelliat always show it an act of sex, despite a meaning of sex. sometimes it works sometimes not.