Romance

Marie is a young schoolteacher in a relationship with Paul, who shares her bed but refuses to sleep with her. Frustrated by his withdrawal, she begins seeking physical intimacy elsewhere, and her encounters with other men become increasingly intimidating and often violent. The film follows her as she moves between the man she loves and the men she uses to fill the gap he leaves, treating desire as a matter of power as much as affection. Catherine Breillat wrote and directed the film, which sits between Perfect Love and Fat Girl in the run of features she has directed, following A Real Young Girl and 36 Fillette before it. Caroline Ducey plays Marie, with Sagamore Stévenin as Paul, François Berléand as Robert and Rocco Siffredi as Paolo among the twenty-two credited cast members.

Released in France in 1999, the film runs 99 minutes and was made for about 3 million dollars, a modest budget for a French production of its period. Its worldwide box office of roughly 1 million dollars shows it reached a limited audience internationally, though its explicit treatment of sexuality made it a subject of debate on release. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.2 from around 13,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.5 from roughly 315 votes, both placing it in middling territory with viewers. A critics' rating of 5.3 from 35 reviews sits close to the audience scores, indicating little divergence between the two groups.