ROMANCE (Trimark, priced for rental, R-rated and unrated versions) 1999. Directed by Catherine Breillat. Starring Caroline Ducey, Sagamore Stevenin, Francois Berleand and Rocco Siffredi.
Hollywood has been inching closer and closer to producing a legitimate movie that incorporates sex scenes in which one actually sees the body parts used in sex as the participants engage in the act. In other words, hard-core sex as one would see in a porno movie but performed by legitimate actors in a conventionally written and directed film in which pornography is not the purpose of the movie.
However, it is the French who have done just that with the French-language Romance (with English subtitles). In the unrated 94-minute director’s cut of this drama (an 84-minute R-rated version is also available), one will see star Caroline Ducey performing fellatio on co-star Sagamore Stevenin and be able to clearly see that it is having little effect on him, which is the impetus for her subsequent behavior. And that is just the beginning of the shocking sex sequences. Eventually Ducey has sex in many other ways with many other actors.
There are many shots of full frontal nudity, not only of the participants but also in locker rooms full of men. Marie feels so rejected by her boyfriend’s lack of interest in physical contact with her that she begins a dangerous exploration of sexual encounters with total strangers that leads to some discomforting and downright brutal experiences.
One laborious and uncomfortable experience for both Marie and the viewer involves a school principal (practicing advanced studies in sadomasochistic behavior) who spends hours talking to Marie and then tying her up and gagging her. Even worse is an encounter in which Marie is essentially raped, although she has asked for it to happen. It’s not much more plot than that of some porno movies, but this is done measurably more artistically, and far less erotically, if that’s possible.
The nature of the plot and Marie’s plodding, self-destructive behavior make this a less-than-arousing “romance.”
Now that the wall has been knocked down in creating a “legitimate” movie with pornographic sex scenes, one wonders who will be the first director and actors to be bold enough to use hard-core pornography in a truly romantic love story.
Shooting Moonlighting
DVD TIP: Bruce Willis and series creator Glenn Gordon Caron provide amusing and illuminating comments on the entertaining audio commentary track of the 93-minute 1985 pilot movie of the TV series Moonlighting: The Pilot (Anchor Bay, $24.98). For instance, Willis notes that it was the 11 weeks off that co-star Cybill Shepherd needed to have her baby that allowed him to star in Die Hard, which launched his film career. Caron recalls how he tried very hard to talk Willis out of doing the part in fear that it would ruin his career.
Both Willis and Caron comment on Willis’ “Wink Martindale hair-do” (the actor now probably wishes he had much of it back).
The duo also offer audio commentary during a supplemental feature that shows Willis and actor Harley Venton doing two scenes for a screen test on Sept. 7, 1984. Willis was trying out for the lead role of sarcastic private detective David Addison. Actress Mary-Margaret Humes, who went on to play the role of Dawson’s mother on Dawson’s Creek, is reading Cybill Shepherd’s role of model-turned-detective agency owner Maddie Hayes during the screen test even though Sheperd already had the part.
Caron says that aside from Willis, only two other actors who auditioned “nailed” the Addison character, those being Adam Arkin and Dennis Dugan. Dugan, who was too short and didn’t match up physically with Shepherd, went on to direct many of the episodes of the series.
As for the pilot itself, it holds up fairly well, although, as Willis himself admits, he didn’t really get fully into his character until about the fifth episode.
And, as Caron realizes now, it seems that about half of this pilot episode is filled with scenes of the bad guys tracking each other down in order to stretch the one-hour show into a two-hour movie.
