Backdrop fallback

Romance

Romance

Share

Romance

"Love is desolate. Romance is temporary. Sex is forever."

1999

1h 39m

5.5(314 votes)

Drama

Romance

Overview

Frustrated by the lack of intimacy in her relationship, a young schoolteacher goes through a series of intimidating and often violent sexual partners.

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

ARTE France Cinéma

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Caroline Ducey

Caroline Ducey

Marie

Sagamore Stévenin

Sagamore Stévenin

Paul

François Berléand

François Berléand

Robert

Rocco Siffredi

Rocco Siffredi

Paolo

Reza Habouhossein

Man on stairs

Ashley Wanninger

Ashley Wanninger

Ashley

Emma Colberti

Emma Colberti

Charlotte

Fabien de Jomaron

Claude

Carla

Model

Pierre Maufront

Photographer

Creative team

Directed by: Catherine Breillat
Written by: Catherine Breillat
Produced by: Jean-François Lepetit

Similar Movies

The Painting

The Painting

Utilising the Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen technique, this visually poetic non-narrative film revisits Diego Vélasquez’s 1652 portrait of Queen Mariana of Austria with genuine feeling.

Hair or No Hair

Hair or No Hair

Bel Davis has been hiding behind wigs for years until her Alopecia is exposed publicly. She uses this experience as a catalyst to break free of the shame she feels towards her baldness.

Hateship Loveship

Hateship Loveship

A shy caretaker believes that the father of her teenage charge is falling in love with her, unaware that she is actually the victim of the girl's prank.

Ameisen gehen andere Wege

Ameisen gehen andere Wege

After his father committed suicide, Richard decides to stay in a youth center rather than staying with his mother. There, he finds a bizarre bunch of teenagers. Each of them experienced pain from early on, having their own desires and fighting for happiness with peculiar humor and fantasy. Richard doesn’t want to get involved with any of this – if it weren’t for her: Kyra.

One. Two. One

One. Two. One

In a society where all social customs are based on the beauty of a woman, her challenge is to find self confidence and inner beauty despite having lost her physical beauty.

Subway Stories

Subway Stories

An anthology of 10 stories depicting real-life incidents of subway riders in New York City, which range from compassion and love to violence and loss.

Tell Me a Riddle

Tell Me a Riddle

Aging couple David and Eva have lost the spark that once infused their marriage. After nearly four decades together, the elderly duo is feel disconnected and lost. When they discover that Eva is sick, they decide to travel across the country to stay with their granddaughter in San Francisco. On the trip, with Eva's possible death looming, the couple rediscovers the passion and love that had been missing from their lives.

Love's Routine

LOVE’S ROUTINE is a dark comedy about a discordant elderly couple, who ultimately prove that love is greater than flesh and blood.

Tonight Nobody Goes Home

Tonight Nobody Goes Home

The Chen family contagiousness extends to taking on an extra-marital affair. Gua Ah-leh is at the movie's centre: she shines as Lung's wife, who finds she has a thing or two to learn from the gigolo after Lung blithely. Lang Hisung plays old dentist for broad comedy he is sixty years old.

In Between

In Between

Three flatmates share a luxury flat. A philandering hairdresser meets his match. A young stockbroker meets his boss's soon-to-be-ex-wife. A pregnant lady unsure over the identity of the baby's father.

Circus Performers at the North Pole

Circus Performers at the North Pole

In the sequel to Saltimbancii (1981), Fram the polar bear and the performing Marcellonis weather plotting competetors, bumbling kidnappers and family tragedy in this entertaining family film.

Orphans

Orphans

Orphans is the true story of a forbidden love affair set in the oppressive and violent atmosphere of nineteenth century Mexico. One man, Melchor Ocampo, driven by the twin passions of love and idealism, defies the stain of illegitimacy to shake off the crippling yoke of Spain and the Catholic Church. In so doing he becomes a founding figure of modern day Mexico.

Mary's Sons

Mary's Sons

After the death of her husband and teenage son, a woman puts an ad in a newspaper for a surrogate child.

Never Eat Alone

Never Eat Alone

An elderly widow (Joan Benac) starts to wonder what happened to a would-be lover from her past who appeared with her in a live televised drama in the 1950s. After discovering the show in CBC’s archive, her granddaughter Audrey (Deragh Campbell) attempts to try and track the man down.

Istanbul Story

Istanbul Story

Katia’s unexpected journey to Istanbul traps her in a chain of adventures enacted on the front of her disrupted childhood. She discovers her mother’s secrets and faces her own inner desires and dilemmas.

Xamou

Xamou

“Xa mou” means “to do whatever I feel like” in the Cretan idiom. Johnny, the film’s main character, is a French man who lives in Crete. He unexpectedly loses his job, but he is reborn when he discovers the small pleasures in everyday life.

Borderland

In 'Borderland,' Joel (26), an up and coming Latino immigration officer, moves to a small Hispanic town to pursue his career. After the first day of training, Joel realizes that his job is in direct conflict with his personal identity. Joel must decide how to serve his country while honoring his culture.

Sound of Waves

Sound of Waves

Umi’s hearing is so sensitive that even notes played slightly out-of-tune give her a headache. Violinist Yuko arrives from Tokyo to play a concert on Umi’s small island near Okinawa, and gradually befriends the girl. Both struggle with friendships and family relationships, but are brought together by music.

Ein Haus?

A married couple with a child is considering buying a terraced house in the countryside. They have different views, wishes, and ideas.

Werewolf

Werewolf

There are three children growing at Tammaru farm - one boy, Margus; and two orphan girls, Mari and Tiina. Margus' parents want him to marry Mari instead of Tiina as she is more their kind. Hotblooded Tiina is completely different from them and her mother was once executed for being a witch. Thinking that Tiina has bewitched Margus, Mari starts to publicly accuse her stepsister of being a werewolf.

Recommended Movies

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adult life and what led to her being in Seligman's care.

Below Her Mouth

Below Her Mouth

An unexpected affair quickly escalates into a heart-stopping reality for two women whose passionate connection changes their lives forever.

Fifty Shades Freed

Fifty Shades Freed

Believing they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian and Ana fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as Mrs. Grey and he relaxes into an unfamiliar stability, new threats could jeopardize their happy ending before it even begins.

The Duke of Burgundy

The Duke of Burgundy

Day in and day out, lovers Cynthia and Evelyn enact an elaborate sadomasochistic fantasy as mistress and maid. But as their ritual of domination and submission begins to turn stale, Cynthia yearns for something more conventional, while Evelyn tries to push their taboos even further.

Unfaithful

Unfaithful

A New York suburban couple's marriage goes dangerously awry when the wife indulges in an adulterous fling.

My King

My King

Tony is admitted to a rehabilitation center after a serious ski accident. Dependent on the medical staff and pain relievers, she takes time to look back on a turbulent relationship that she experienced with Georgio.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades of Grey

When college senior Anastasia Steele steps in for her sick roommate to interview prominent businessman Christian Grey for their campus paper, little does she realize the path her life will take. Christian, as enigmatic as he is rich and powerful, finds himself strangely drawn to Ana, and she to him. Though sexually inexperienced, Ana plunges headlong into an affair -- and learns that Christian's true sexual proclivities push the boundaries of pain and pleasure.

Belle de Jour

Belle de Jour

Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.

Double Lover

Double Lover

Chloé, a fragile young woman, falls in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul. A few months later she moves in with him, but soon discovers that her lover is concealing a part of his identity.

Betty Blue

Betty Blue

A lackadaisical handyman and aspiring novelist tries to support his younger girlfriend as she slowly succumbs to madness.

Crash

Crash

A car crash victim inexplicably finds himself aroused by car accidents and becomes involved with an underground subculture of like-minded souls.

Emmanuelle

Emmanuelle

An employee at the French Embassy in Bangkok invites his wife to join him – and enjoy the benefits of their open marriage.

The Piano Teacher

The Piano Teacher

Erika Kohut, a sexually repressed piano teacher living with her domineering mother, meets a young man who starts romantically pursuing her.

Newness

Newness

In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.

Love

Love

Murphy is an American living in Paris who enters a highly sexually and emotionally charged relationship with the unstable Electra. Unaware of the seismic effect it will have on their relationship, they invite their pretty neighbor into their bed.

Happiness

Happiness

Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Thérèse, young husband and father François finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker. One of Agnès Varda's most provocative films, 'Le bonheur' examines, with a deceptively cheery palette and the spirited strains of Mozart, the ideas of fidelity and happiness in a modern, self-centered world.

Desire

Desire

In a social context deteriorated by a countrywide economic crisis, the life of several people will be turned upside down after they meet Cécile, a character who symbolizes desire.

Monday

Monday

A spark on a Friday can lead to a sizzling weekend fling, but what happens when you get to the inevitable Monday?

Time Is Up

Time Is Up

Vivien, an accomplished student with a passion for physics, and Roy, a troubled young man, are involved in an accident that forces them to reclaim their lives one minute at the time.

The Man from Elysian Fields

The Man from Elysian Fields

A failed novelist's inability to pay the bills strains relations with his wife and leads him to work at an escort service, where he becomes entwined with a wealthy woman whose husband is a successful writer.