Rape of Love is a 1978 French drama film directed by Yannick Bellon.
Nicole (Nathalie Nell) is a gentle and hardworking young French nurse who lives happily in Grenoble with her soldier fiancé Jacques. One day, she's abducted and gang-raped by four men of the town. Encouraged by her best friend and defying her rapists' threats if she talks about it, she takes her case to court.
Rape of Love provides examples of the following tropes:
- The '70s: Filmed in the decade, with the expected fashion, hairstyles and cars of the era in France (the Citroën 2CV dates back to the late '40s, but it was still a popular car back then).
- '70s Hair: A given considering the decade it was filmed in. The most prominent example is the long hair of Julien (Pierre Arditi) and Daniel (Daniel Auteuil).
- Best Friend: The blonde Catherine (Michèle Simonnet) to Nicole, who encourages her to take her case to court and comforts her when she's feeling overwhelmed by the burden of her post-rape feelings.
- Break the Cutie: Natalie is a pretty and gentle nurse who gets gang-raped and goes through an emotional ordeal as a result.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: When Nicole and Catherine discuss at the hospital the next day after the gang rape, Catherine asks Nicole what she would do if the roles were reversed, if her fiancé Jacques was raped by four women. Nicole (on a humorous tone) says she would "kill him".
- Dull Surprise: One would expect quite a bit more rage from Jacques when he learns about the rape of his fiancée than what he displays (the bad acting of Alain Fourès doesn't really help).
- Good Samaritan: After she's dumped on the side of a road following the rape, Nicole is found by a gentle couple who immediately take her to a doctor with their car and comfort her on the way as she can't do anything but cry.
- Hair-Contrast Duo: Nicole is a brunette, and her Best Friend Catherine is blonde.
- Hope Spot: After undressing, Nicole tries to escape in the dark woods, but the rapists catch up with her.
- Poor Man's Porn: While playing cards at their barracks, Jacques and his army comrades listen to a woman's immodest orgasms on their radio.
- Post-Rape Taunt: Days after the rape, Nicole's rapists (who wear costumes for their circus show) wave her hello while their car is passing by her in town (one of them even blows her an air kiss).
- Rape as Drama: The core of the film is the emotional ordeal Nicole goes through after the rape, struggling between keeping it for herself and her inner circle (out of guilt, shame, loneliness, feeling "ugly" and not wanting to be touched anymore) and going to court to bring the rapists to justice. After a while, Nicole can't stand the former anymore.
- Rape Discretion Shot: Completely averted with the gang-rape scene, which pulls no punch in showing how brutal it is and how helpless Nicole is. They also force her to undress herself beforehand.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The film pulls no punch in showing the ordeal the rape victim goes through, both physical and emotional (particularly how ashamed she feels afterwards, despite most people telling her she has no reason to feel so).
- Slut-Shaming: While Nicole is being raped, one of the men notices she's not a virgin, and they start calling her "garce", "pute" and "salope" (all vulgar terms equivalent to "whore" in French).
- Standard Snippet: The rapists sing the "Habanera" aria from Georges Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen when they abduct Nicole.
- Would Hit a Girl: Nicole is slapped by the rapists until she obeys their order to undress.
