Does anyone know if this movie was ever even released in Australia? I'm currently reading an article on controversial movie releases and it makes reference to Romance. Doesn't go into any detail though. Is it just a porno? I have no desire to see it, I just love controversy. What was so "shocking" about it?
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED IF EARTH IS ANOTHER PLANET'S HELL?
it was banned in australia but i think it has since been released on video. it is a pretty raw movie. it shows all sorts of inappropriate footage, the kind you would see in a porn movie, but it is done with a bit more taste and neccesity. it is not shy about close ups on various parts of both the male and female body, including giving birth. it is not for the faint hearted.
shareI live in Australia and have seen this movie in video stores many times (Rated R)
The OFLC originally slapped a ban due to the fact that the film depicted actual sexual activity, which was not allowed at that time in the R rating. But they could not give it an X rating either because it depicted fetish activity in the form of very mild bondage, which is no longer allowed in the X category (up until the year 2000, our X classification originally allowed bondage, fisting, urolagnia and other fetishistic activities until Howard and religious friends clamped down on X and outlawed all but the most mundane of explicit sexual activities).
Potential Films, the distributor in this country, appealed the ban stating that the film had screened several times in Melbourne and Sydney during the French Film Festival without complaint, among other things. The Classification Review Board - the body that deals with appeals against OFLC decisions - overturned the ban on the basis of semantics within the R category's guidelines, that a 'general rule' on actual sex being disallowed within the R rating implied exceptions. Well they applied an exception and the ban was removed!
That decision was an absolute watershed in Australia's R classification, and we have since seen actual sex shown in several films, such as 'Intimacy', 'Baise-moi', 'In the Cut', and '9 Songs', as well as including Catherine Breillat's later two films 'A ma soeur' and 'Anatomy of Hell'.
To call Romance 'porno' is completely off the mark in my opinion. It's more a peculiar tale of a woman's depressive journey of sexual experimentation, spearheaded by the lack of 'romance' she receives from her dull, emotionally unresponsive boyfriend.
I don't know about the other films, but the "real sex" is Intimacy is an urban legend.
shareI don't know about the other films, but the "real sex" is Intimacy is an urban legend.
shareUrban Legend? Are you serious? The first sex scene in Intimacy clearly shows penetration. It's not right in your face like a porno film, but if you have your eyes open you can see it easily several times... If that isn't real sex, it's a damn good simulation.
shareI've seen some good simulations in my time, and I haven't actually seen these scenes so I can't say for sure, however the director and the actress's significant other have both insisted in interviews that there was no penetration. They could be lying, just like Raffy Palmeiro.
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