These comments are offered as something of a public service, lest you walk into this movie too blindly.

Don't be put off by the innocuous title. It has very little to do with romance and everything to do with sex.

Which is a pity really, since I was always of the opinion that sex -- I prefer "making love" -- is an expression of love and romance, and not a blind mechanical act.

If you have seen "Emmanuelle" then you will have a pretty good idea of what to expect in "Romance". While Emmanuelle can be considered to explore men's fantasies with women, Romance goes the other way, as evident from the female writer/director.

Frustrated by the lack of interest in sex from her boyfriend, who takes a really flippant attitude to someone who loves him, our heroine does not invest in a vibrator. Nor does she dump him for someone more in tune with her needs. No, she starts playing around.

As in Emmanuelle, the plot is there merely as a linking device between various sexual acts.

And what acts.... the following (as best as I can remember) is more or less what is displayed graphically on screen:

• She attempts to masturbate her boyfriend
• She attempts felatio with him
• She lets a well-endowed stranger have sex with her, possibly anal sex, after we watch him put on a condom
• More attempts at masturbating boyfriend
• Cunninglitis with a stranger, followed by rape by same
• Bondage experiments with an older man
• Closeup of him fingering her
• Gynacological examinations by a string of medical students
• Close up of a baby's head as it begins to birth

I went into some detail here so that you can know what you are letting yourself in for. One could feel the tension and embarrasment in the (experienced) preview audience, and the nervous laughter after the screening.

So if this is the sort of things you like to see in a movie, enjoy. If seeing these in public will shock or upset you, there are better films on the art circuit to enjoy.

As for the effect on the viewer, the various sexual acts left me totally unmoved. Maybe I'm just getting old -- or blasé.