(1999; French, subtitles; if rated this would qualify for an X) The story is told from the point of view, with interior monologues, of a young elementary schoolteacher, Marie (Caroline Ducey), who tells her male-model boyfriend, a poser unwilling to demonstrate his love, of three months, Paul (Sagamore Stévenin), "You don't deserve my faithfulness."

She desires love-making with him; he has almost no sexual interest in her and didn't expect she would want to sleep with him every night. If he would cheat on her and screw her, she could accept that arrangement. A stickler for absolutes, love or hate would be bearable, but not this indifference. She goes out late at night to meet men.

She appreciates disgusting things - used condoms and Tampax - which men cannot abide. She hates the men who fornicate with her - her purity she believes is in becoming a hole, a hollowness to their cocks - refusing to kiss them (or leaves them when she does). A relationship develops between her and Robert, her principal, who tells her he has had 10,000 women; she allows him to gag her and tie her up. Robert speaks poetically and philosophically - "Beauty feeds on degradation" and "Physical love is triviality clashing with the divine" - while carefully putting Marie into physically painful and disgusting positions. She accepts a stranger's offer of cunnilingus on the stairs for payment; he then rapes her: "I'm not ashamed!" she yells after him as he flees.

Accepting that love between a man and a woman is a devious conflict, Marie masturbates to convince herself she doesn't need a man for pleasure. Her nymphomania expresses a sort of death wish; Jack the Ripper could dissect her.

Accidentally she gets pregnant with Paul, who only makes love to her once more, though his proposal of marriage Marie accepts. A substitute for sex, her monthly gynecological exams involve multiple interns. On the morning the baby is to be born, Paul is too hung over to get up; Robert takes her to the hospital. It is a journey of a womb to a tomb.

Be forewarned: this film unblinkingly shows complete nudity (including the vagina and penises), sexual acts, and the actual birth of a baby graphically.

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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