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Dreamers, The
(2003)
Starring:
Michael Pitt,
Eva Green, Louis
Garrel
Director:
Bernardo
Bertolucci
Rating: NC-17
Studio: Fox
Searchlight
Release Date:
02.06.04
Review
Posted: 03.05.04
Spoilers:
Minor
By
Howard Schumann
Bernardo
Bertolucci's The Dreamers is a gorgeously filmed ode to cinema
that captures the pulse of Paris in the late 1960s, its bravery and
idealism as well as its ambiguities. Based on The Holy Innocents,
a novel by Gilbert Adair, The Dreamers joyously recreates the
time of burgeoning student political awareness, sexual liberation and
heightened interest in world cinema. The film intersperses clips from
films such as Shock Corridor, Freaks, Breathless, Top Hat,
and Mouchette with movie scenes reenacted by the characters,
allowing a new generation to experience the glory days of the movies.
Bertolucci is not intimidated by taboos and there is a lot of
simulated sex and full frontal nudity that has resulted in an NC-17
rating but, beyond the squirm factor, none of it seems very shocking.
The film begins as a large protest is
gathering over the firing of Henri Langlois as director of
Cinematheque Francaise by Minister of Culture Andre Malraux. During
the protest, Matthew (Michael Pitt), a blond twenty-year old
Californian studying in Paris meets twins Theo (Louis Garrel), a young
French student and his sister Isabelle (Eva Green). Isabelle, wearing
a red beret, has chained herself to the Cinematheque gate but it is
soon apparent that she is only playing at protest. Theo and Isabelle
invite Matthew home to meet their father, a famous poet and mother, a
British intellectual. When the parents go on vacation, Matthew moves
from his hotel to share their elegant Paris apartment and the group
embarks on a voyage of self-discovery that includes every variety of
experimentation you can imagine and even some you cannot.
Most of the film takes place inside the
apartment. They drink vintage wine, smoke herbs, talk about
revolution, have sex, talk about movies, then have more sex, all to an
ingratiating soundtrack featuring artists such as Janis Joplin, Bob
Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors. The twins, who Matthew discovers
sleep together, express their erotic fixation, playing mind games
seeking to discover who has the most knowledge of cinema with the
loser having to undergo a "forfeit", a form of sexual punishment. Theo
and Isabelle play the role of sophisticate to naïve Matthew. "You
Americans don't understand your own culture", Theo says to Matt. "No
wonder you never got the point of Jerry Lewis". Matthew is awed by his
friends' seeming worldliness but is shocked when he discovers that,
for all her posing, Isabelle is a virgin, a dreamer playing the role
of sophisticate.
There are scenes to warm the heart of every cinephile. In one
exhilarating sequence, the three friends try to beat the record from
Godard's Band of Outsiders by running through the Louvre. In
another, Isabelle imitates the memory scene from Queen Christina
as Bertolucci brings in the soundtrack. They argue the merits of great
performers from the past such as Keaton and Chaplin, but for them
cinema is divorced from real life, and they do not seem to be aware of
the increasing politicization of the films of Godard and the French
New Wave. Consistent with its title, The Dreamers is about
young people who would rather dream than act. Afraid of being
committed to anything outside of themselves, desperate to feel
important, they are in love with the world in their head not the one
outside their window. Theo talks about Mao and the Red Guard and is
all for revolution except when it means taking some form of action.
They try to exclude everything outside of their comfort zone, but life
has a way of objecting. It is only when the world intrudes in the form
of a political demonstration that comes crashing through their window
do they get a powerful wake up call that may just have saved their
life.
Film
Grade: A-
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