In separate interviews, a woman and a man talk to the camera about their affair, which took place some years earlier. These complete strangers meet, forgo any small talk, go to a hotel and carry out her sexual fantasy. They enjoy themselves and meet every week to repeat the process. One time, as they part, he suggests that they sit down to talk. Having broken away from their routine, they bond and get comfortable with each other. Instead of the usual fantasy sex (it was becoming less exciting anyway) they decide to make love instead and find it stimulating and new.
Most sex scenes in movies are included to arouse the viewer rather than for the characters to express themselves. These are fantasy scenes, and bear little relation to how and why people make love in real life. There are very few movies with such realistic scenes of people making love. In one of them, Nic Roeg's Don't Look Now, when Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie make love it not only shows two people seeking comfort and affection, but the wistful music that accompanies the images emphasises their sadness after the death of their daughter. Through their lovemaking they conquer death by affirming life.
We do not actually see 'Her' sexual fantasies performed in Une Liaison Pornographique, but we do see them 'make love'. It opens up the emotions of both characters, and they become more spontaneous rather than sticking rigidly to the unwritten rules they have created around themselves. However, at the very point where they must decide to commit to each other - when she declares her love for 'Him' - he says no, and she agrees with him.
These are distant characters, both in their actions and in their portrayal. They do not tell each other their names, or their professions, or their addresses. They perform intimate acts with their bodies, but do not allow intimacy in their minds. When they fall in love they become 'real' people, yet the longer they are together, and the more they reveal, the more they fear that they will reveal too much. Eventually, they both decide to become distant again, and to exclude each other from their lives. Director Frédéric Fonteyne emphasises this distance by framing 'Her' on the left hand of the screen, and 'Him' on the right. Even when the characters are together in the same scene, they are often shown individually and not together. They are only framed together during the few times that they share intimacy.
The austere form and light touch of this film hides the furious emotions hiding just below the surface - too far below the surface for me. I couldn't feel for them because they would not allow us to know how they were feeling. In this respect, the film is too ambiguous, too abstract. Films are usually about the transformation of the characters as they learn from their experiences. Une Liaison Pornographique is about a woman and a man who do not change, and will not allow anybody to see them as they really are, which is truly sad. Not only have they kept each other at a distance, they keep the viewer at a distance also.
Reviewed by Paul Duncan
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