This is a 'must see'!

It is a must, because it is so out of the ordinary. Not only is Romy an out-of-the-ordinary performer; that's almost minimal here.

But it finally is an almost a-sexual film about love. We live in such an oversexed time, that we tend to lose the feeling for love without the sexual under- and overtones. This movie is one of the few that explores love, in the sense of the also shown essentialisme, without sex. Sex is an aside only, as mere business. One could almost say that the world of sex is another world; not the one covered by the movie.
It is almost strange and surely unexpected, when the lead roles consistently refuse to sleep with each other, despite of deep affections. It starts pretty early in the plot with the two having a clandestine meeting, the husband in cinema, only to spend time together. And later on, when she wants to give herself, he refuses. In another scene, she begs her husband to take her, several times, but he doesn't.

I don't think this is too much of a spoiler, when I mention that the soft-core actress has no trouble playing in the movie, where she will have her panties taken off later, kneeling over a bleeding, maybe dying, man. But she can't say "I love you"; though it only is a movie. Also, she doesn't mind the movie cameras, but insists on the stills camera to be removed.

During the movie, if one watches closely, it becomes clear why the latter gets on her nerve. The former scene, well, we're going to see another version later on in the movie.

As a personal touch to me, I was watching in a serious emotional state of suffering with the heroes, so to say, for their total lack of ability to express their love. At least to other humans; the only 'normal' scene of love - if memory serves well - is the one between the intellectual alcoholic and his dog.

I have difficulties remembering any other movie so consistently exploring the topic of 'love', excluding the sexual component so effectively.