Guilty Pleasures

Documentary on the romance novels of Mills and Boon and, in particular, five people obsessed with them.

"There’s a Mills & Boon romance novel sold every four seconds. Julie Moggan’s film investigates the fantasies of true love and sexual fulfilment that they promote – and their bearing on the love lives of a handful of their producers and consumers. Disillusionment seems inevitable, but Moggan’s approach is fond and good-humoured. Prolific author Gill Sanderson turns out to be a balding Yorkshireman named Roger – who assures us he’d never call a hero Roger. Chiselled cover model Stephen may be deemed to be the man women want but he’s a paperback reader himself, a consumer of self-help lit struggling earnestly to find his 'twin flame'. Without ever condescending to their fancies, Moggan profiles three avid readers in considerable depth. There’s Brit fan Shirley, Hiroko in Japan and, somewhat alarmingly, Shumita in Delhi, who has been texting her ex for the past five years while devouring stories about women who actually love the men they think they hate." (Source: NZ International Film Festival 2011)

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