The Dreamers (Original Uncut NC-17 Version)

I saw it first on IFC on TV and found it to be very provocative

The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003)

I have to say, the more I watch Bernardo Bertolucci's films, the less I understand the seemingly universal accolades for his talent. Yeah, they're okay, I haven't found myself actively hating one. But they have never struck me as being great. The Dreamers is the latest example of this.

The story concerns Matthew (Bully's Michael Pitt), an American student in Paris in 1968, who befriends a brother and sister, Isabelle (The Golden Compass' Eva Green in her film debut) and Theo (Inside Paris' Louis Garrel). Before long, the three of them are living together in Isabelle and Theo's house, increasingly drawing away from the world as they get lost in one another, while outside, Paris is on the brink of a revolution.

The story itself is fantastic; it's the way Bertolucci plays it out that bugs me. The flick is riddled with capital-S symbolism that's about as subtle as a hammerblow to the face. Yeah, the three of them in a bath, each reflected in a different mirror. Could we be any less subtle? (And, for that matter, hasn't that trope been cliché for at least a couple of decades now?) That's only one example; you can find them throughout the movie. Bertolucci, working from Gilbert Adair's adaptation of his own novel, had an amazing canvas to work with here, but it seems phoned in. The characters' obsession with film is a great jumping-off point for a meditation on how retreating into a fantasy life can ultimately be even more harmful than the real world, but all the meditation there is to be found is in the script; the visual presentation just doesn't match up. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems a good number of directors could have handled this better.

All that said, it's a very pretty film, and the acting by the principals is everything it should be. Eva Green is breathtaking, both in the sense that she's beautiful and in the sense that Isabelle is the character who's farthest into a fantasy world, and thus has the farthest to fall when reality comes crashing in. Michael Pitt pulls off the mix of naivete and cynicism his character demands. Garrel, though, is the real find here; he seems at first to be sleepwalking through his role, but there's a great deal under the surface that comes out once we've gotten to know Theo a bit better, and Garrel makes Theo into the most vital of the characters by the end of the film. The Dreamers had the potential to be a truly amazing work of art; much of that potential is lost in Bertolucci's lack of artistry. **

This was a great movie. It was very erotic as well as a well put together, entertaining movie.

A near-great movie for 6.50? Who would pass that up?

I loved all the sex scenes (but only as a voyeur), and no, it is not a "virtually" incestuous relationship--it is an incestuous relationship.
I think my favorite scene is when the twins' parents arrive unexpectedly, and all three young people are sleeping in a happy naked pile in the tent they've set up in the livingroom (probably because their sheets are to dirty to use--in addition to the fact that sleeping in tents is fun). The parents look with horror at the way their house has been trashed, discover that their childrens' morals are ditto, and then one of them writes a check for them, and puts it under a candle on the table (which is then blown out). The wife starts pulling on her husband's sleeve, and when he looks indignantly at her, she says "Did you want to stay for dinner?"

But: what I liked best about this movie is that the American is right about everything! Jimmy Hendrix is better than Eric Clapton, Chaplain is better than Keaton, Mao is not a very creative or humane way to go, all wars are for shit, and breaking and burning other people's property in the streets of Paris isn't going to make anyone agree with you....and incest, although it may be fun, will eventually "make you forget your friends, homework, to fall in love and to brush your teeth." (quote from me in..a story I, um, can't publish). Anyway, usually, the Americans are WRONG about everything. How refreshing!

As always, Bertolucci is very beautiful.

First this flicka started slow, then it somewhat draws you in, maybe simply because you are watchin it. Twill be viewed twine, but likely not a third time. For it's price it was entertaining. NPC