Made on a budget of , Romance grossed $28 million worldwide, becoming a modest arthouse success.
The first thing the Wiki entry taught me was that titles lie. While I had searched for "Romance," the sidebar (the Infobox) immediately corrected my expectations.
A researcher finds a tragic, anonymous love letter washed ashore in a bottle and tracks down its author, a grieving shipbuilder.
Legally, no. It uses unsimulated sex but does not exist solely for arousal. The sex scenes are deliberately unerotic, often cold or disturbing. The film’s intent is philosophical, not masturbatory.