The controversial French film, Romance, broke the South African record for the biggest opening week ever for a foreign-language film.
The film’s performance at the box office improves on previous records set by Roberto Benigni’s Oscar gem Life is Beautiful and the award winning Central Station.
Romance explores the sexual odyssey of a young schoolteacher Marie (Caroline Ducey) who is propelled into a series of sexual flings after being rejected by the man she’s been living with for three months.
The film shows the devastating effects that an unfulfilling and unrequited love (or sexual passion) can have on our lives. It is a woman’s journey, sometimes haphazardly told through the eyes of a woman, about finding your own freedom through the sexual choices you make.
Directed by a woman, the film contains the amount of nudity and explicit sex that until now have only been seen in the dingy art house cinemas frequented by old men with big brown overcoats. Even though the frequent and explicit sex can be seen as a big draw card, Ster Kinekor’s Ludwig Wagner explains that there’s more to Romance than just sex.
“I think there’s some truth in the theory that the film works as a result of the sex and nudity (something that has not been shown on South African screens). I for one prefer to think that Romance is enjoying the success it has because it is a groundbreaking film – and a good one too. It is important that it is told through the eyes of a woman – a coup for feminism that topples many of the old clichés of chauvinistic South African males, namely that a woman is a slut when she has more than one sexual partner.”
Romance opened on the local circuit on Friday, July 7 and the statistics are based on print averages at the two release cinemas, Cinema Nouveau Rosebank and Cinema Nouveau V&A Waterfront.