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Wow it seems like none of you know anything about sexuality nor animal magnetism. I think this film is one of the more erotic and somewhat romantic films ever made.
Always look for the positive in every situation.

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I agree. Very disturbing relationship. I want to add that while some movies about failed affairs focus on how human mistakes screw up relationships, these characters don't feel human at all. Stephen and Anna are profoundly creepy and seem so robotic in acting out their affair.

I only saw this film for the first time last night, but my interpretation is that Stephen and Anna were somewhat damaged people - Stephen for his prepensity toward order and control and Anna for the loss of her brother (but could it be that narcisim was at the heart of that, and had she had an incestuous relationship with him?). Either way, the film explores the frailities and inadequecies that can lay hidden behind a perfect and attractive facade.
My perception is that they somehow recognised a dysfunction in each other. Notice how they made eye contact, with no real conversation or basis for a relationship? In each sex scene, Anna is completely passive, to the point of repulsion. There is no fight in her whatsoever. For some reason, Stephen wants to possess Anna, or possess what she represents, because in his ordered and public life, she represents intrigue, freedom and gives him the vehicle to demonstrate that brutal part of himself he is not able to otherwise express. The other disturbing thing is that it seemed they made very little effort to get to know each other and therefore, how can you truly respect somebody if you don't know their character? The fact that Anna ignored Stephen's request for common decency and to end the affair indicates that she is indeed a degenerate in a very attractive body.
I think the true revelation to the film occurs in the final scene where Stephen explains that he "saw her once more only", and that "she was no different from anyone else". I also think the photo in the room is his only sense of family left.

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