With love comes risk. With obsession comes damage...

Louis Malle brings Josephine Hart's best-selling erotic novel about obsession, deceit, and destruction to the screen, based on an adaptation by playwright David Hare.

Stephen Fleming is a British Conservative M.P. He is married to Ingrid (Miranda Richardson) and they have two children; Martyn (Rupert Graves) and Sally. It seems to be the perfect family life, but it is not.

When Stephen attends a cocktail party he meets a mysterious French woman named Anna Barton (Juliette Binoche), who happens to be Martyn’s new girlfriend. The attraction between Anna and Stephen is palpable. Very quickly they embark on a torrid affair. However, Anna is a deeply damaged person following the tragic suicide of her brother.

When Anna agrees to marry Martyn, Stephen’s sexual obsession intensifies as the inevitable fall-out of his affair with Anna leads to a tragedy neither can imagine.

Damage was critically successful upon its release, yet was surrounded by controversy when it was granted an NC-17 rating in the US, leading to Malle cutting several sexually explicit scenes. Juliette Binoche was César nominated for the fourth time for her role.