From Catherine Breillat, the provocateuress behind the films Romance and Fat Girl, comes this odd tale of a woman and a gay man who enter into a deal that exposes them to each other at the most intimate level. Reteaming with European porn king Rocco Siffredi (who had a smaller role in Romance), Breillat sticks to her cold, anti-feminist, abstract guns, while utilizing Siffredi quite effectively to said end.

The story opens with Amira Cesar, the very attractive female lead, attempting suicide in the bathroom of a gay nightclub. Siffredi walks in on her and takes her to the hospital. They go out walking afterward, engaging in a hostile discussion that culminates with Cesar blowing Siffredi and then making a proposition: She'll pay him to observe her at home.

Over the following four nights, Siffredi becomes intimately acquainted with Cesar, who spends most of that time completely naked. He does strange things to her, like paint her vagina lips with lipstick and cram the handle of a hoe inside her. On the first and last nights, he also has sex with her, almost as an experiment, just to know what a woman feels like. All the while, Cesar pontificates about why men despise women and find them repulsive.

It's certainly not a film for everyone, but it can be said that Siffredi gives a commanding performance. He may be the only porn actor who's made a legitimate crossover to mainstream acting, and the fact is he's good. We'd like to see him, in fact, in a role that doesn't require him to unzip his pants.

Pre-nom Siffredi for Best Actor - Film.