The Dreamers

Beautiful Paris. Beautiful Eva Green. Beautiful Michael Pitt. Beautiful naked Eva Green and Michael Pitt. Sound promising? Unfortunately, the "reality" of The "Dreamers" is a letdown.

Against the backdrop of 1968 Parisian revolution, American student Matthew (Michael Pitt) meets French twins Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel). The 3 share a passion for film and intellectual discussion and soon Matthew is staying with the twins in their parents' apartment. Insulated from the "reality" of the streets the twins "dream" away the days drinking wine, discussing film and playing mind games with each other and with Matthew.

The film in inter-cut with scenes from classic films such as Freaks and Breathless just to name a few. These scenes were fun and worked well. The best scene in the film is when the main characters recreate a dash through the Louvre from A Band Apart.

Interesting but perplexing is the sexual politics at play between the three. The intimate relationship between the twins is supposed to be shocking but is merely curious. An attraction between the boys goes nowhere and when Matthew and Isabelle get down and dirty on the kitchen floor it isn't really sexy at all.

This is very obviously a European film and I mean that in the worst possible way. The characters are lifeless, naive and arrogant. Only Matthew seems to recognize the pretension. He is meant to be the voice of reason and even though he seems a bit dense he comes off all wise and worldly in comparison to the twins.

The last half hour or so of the film is the weakest part and doesn't seem to fit with the tone of what went on before.

I tried to like The Dreamers. I almost feel guilty for not liking it more. If it didn't try so hard to be saying something about youth, sex and revolution then it wouldn't have failed so miserably.

Paris, May 1968. Revolution breaks out and the world seems to be in a critical turning point, but inside the four walls of an apartment, three youngsters experience their very own revolution.

Yes, it's true. In the year 2004, one of the best cinematic experiences is offered by Bertolucci. Many are those who'd thought that he had nothing more to give, but with THE DREAMERS, the creator is reborn and next to his heroes he witnesses again the passage from adolescence and innocence to the age of responsibilities. A great fan of cinema himself, he doesn't hesitate to pay a number of tributes, just like Godard used to do in the past and Tarantino very recently. As he puts his view into the eyes of his protagonists, the girl and the boys seem to live inside the movies they adore. They're playing with lines from known films, they imitate characters, they put themselves into the sequences they love.

Despite their young age, all three actors not only do they show that they're worth of starring in a Bertolucci film, but they also go even further giving in every scene the necessary vividness and realistic tension. Ignoring the cosmogony taking place in the streets, they surrender to their own cosmogonic changes, to the wild sexual awakening, to the game between friendship and love, pleasure and pain. Eventually they commit themselves to the struggle between the game itself and real life. And that's where the heroes violently return in the thrilling final sequences in order to face their duty towards history.

THE DREAMERS is by far one the best motion pictures of the year, so daring but at the same time so energetic that seems able to touch anyone as a pure and romantic confession of a great filmmaker.

THE DREAMERS (3 outta 5 stars) Interesting project by the renowned director Bernardo Bertolucci... dealing with the events of 1968 in France... a time of great social upheaval, as rioting students took to the streets to shut down the French government. The main characters are a young American student who has come to France to study film... and a very unconventional brother and sister who recruit him to their offbeat lifestyle. All three are obsessed by film (as many young people were in 1968... the glory days of the avant garde)... and also with the concept of breaking rules and societal taboos. With their parents away for the month and the flat to themselves, bets are made on film trivia and the penalties for not identifying a particular moment from a particular film become more and more shocking. Only leaving their home to watch films, the trio are basically oblivious to the growing trouble in the streets... until finally they can sit passively no more. Very intriguing concept and the acting is fine... but ultimately I thought the conclusion fell a little flat... the transition from sexual hedonism to political activism didn't really work for me... it all seemed a little abrupt and could have been explored a little deeper. Worth watching and discussing though.

This is a fantastic movie for cinephiles, and if you didn't know it was directed by Bertolucci you would think it was the work of some young turk eager to impress. The references to movies of the past are many, and it is to Bertolucci's credit that he gives a nod to some of the great directors of the French Nouvelle Vague, Truffaut and Godard in particular. The movie begins with the protests over the sacking of the head of the Cinemateque, and there is Jean-Pierre Leaud playing himself but 35 years later. You are introduced to the eternal love triangle Truffaut was so fond of in movies like Jules et Jim and Silken Skin. The three main characters - Matthew, the American, is De Caprio, Theo is Belmondo and Isabelle is Anna Karina. The story revolves around the inability of Theo and Isabelle to break away from their incestuous relationship, excused by, they say, the fact that they were conjoined twins. You are left asking whether they are, Bertolucci continuously alludes to the matching marks on their upper arms, or to the fact that they do not appear to be. Theo and Isabelle are truelly dislikable, vain and self-obsessed, and as Matthew is increasingly drawn into their world you pity him for his inability to stand up against their pompous self-importance instilled in them by their parents liberal intellectualism. Including the clips of movies is as much for the name-that-movie parlour game addicts as is including the sixties sound track, but they do strengthen the direction the movie follows as all three characters main point of reference is movie history. Excellent little vignettes concerning such things as who is the greatest clown? Chaplin or Keaton, are included. And Theo's assertion that the Chinese revolution is just like a movie is shot down in flames by Matthew - these soldiers have but one book and seem to be nothing more than extras on a film set. The sex, although fairly strong, is never gratuitous, and is seen more as a way for Isabelle to break free from the relationship she has with her brother. The ersatz revolutionary Theo plays out the revolution in his head while drinking red wine and talking movies. In the end Matthew begins to see him and Isabelle for what they really are, vainglorious do-nothings. When Matthew argues with them that violence is not the way forward as they man the baracades, Isabelle has to choose between the two of them, and chooses her brother, yet you are still left with the feeling that this is merely a badge of honour for the pseudo communists.

Whiffs of Band a Part, Les Enfants Terrible, even Repulsion are there. This is a fantastic movie, and all credit to Bertolucci for giving us an insight into the movies and time that made him the director he was and is.

"The Dreamers" is all about three young adult upscale hippy types who languish in a flat in Paris in the late 60's and talk about cinema, politics, sex, and other stuff while sharing some first experiences. Two are brother (Garrel) and sister (Green) identical twins (or so we're told) who have an almost metaphysical bond and the third is an interloper (Pitt) who falls in lust with the sister. There's little plot to this slice of young adult life flick which seems to be more of a Bertolucci pet project than a commercial product for the masses. Less than engaging and much less than compelling, "The Dreamers" immerses itself in the esoterics of the place and time to the exclusion of anyone who wasn't there then. Beautifully filmed and masterfully crafted with some young actors doing superb work under difficult circumstances with plenty of graphic nudity and sex, "The Dreamers" will play best with aficionados of French cinema, Bertolucci fans, etc. Those who are squeamish about sex/nudity should pass. All others, be prepared for a marginally interesting watch. (B)