Romance (1999 film)

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). This film inspired the recent trend of serious artistic films with explicit, unsimulated sex scenes such as: All About Anna, Sex and Lucia, Shortbus and 9 Songs.

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 impregnated by her boyfriend, in the end she kills him.

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. In Canada, particularly in Alberta and the Maritimes, the sexuality was seen as gratuitous to the film and it was given an A rating and XXX rating in those regions. In June 2008, the original, unedited version of Romance was shown in The Netherlands on Dutch public TV by VPRO as part of an Erotica series of arthouse films.