Romance (1999)

X marks the spot in Catherine Breillat’s adult flick Romance (1999). Also known as Romance X, the French film set a trend followed by The Brown Bunny (2003) in the US, 9 Songs (2004) in the UK, and All About Anna (2005) in Denmark. That is, all of these arthouse movies feature unsimulated sex! With this pic, Marie (Caroline Ducey) puts her money where her mouth is — if by money you mean strange men’s penises. The sexplicit story follows a French woman who decides to find satisfaction outside of her sexless relationship with boyfriend Paul (Sagamore Stévenin). In other words, no holes are barred as she goes looking for love in all the wrong places — starting with a bar pickup with Paolo (played by Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi). As expected, Ms. Ducey bares her three Bs while getting busy with Mr. Siffredi. But because the actress had a man in real life, she had misgivings about having onscreen sex. “Caroline seemed to be frightened of me and was crying,” admits Rocco. “But when I was only looking at her, I felt very lustful for her, I thought about her boyfriend then immediately I got my erection back and she put a condom on me and I took her.” No wonder the film was given a triple X rating in Canada. Throughout Marie’s sexual quest, audiences members are treated to grindhouse blue plate specials including penetration, fellatio, bondage, sadomasochism, rough sex, and even a gynecological examination. You know, the usual.