Posted: 02/27/2004

The Dreamers

(2004)

by Alexander Rojas

Bernardo Bertolucci’s latest a beautiful masterpiece.

I wasn’t around for the birth of the French New Wave or the ousting of the Cinematheque Francais founder Henry Langlois by the French government or the riots that immediately followed. As a matter of fact, the closest I’ve been to France is by way of the Freedom Fries specials from Maxwell Street Hot Dogs I indulge in late at night. Maxwell Street grease food is good in a Bernardo Bertolucci (Last Tango In Paris, The Last Emperor) film kind of way. The initial idea is enticing and ones you get a flavor for it you want more. However, once you overstuff yourself with all the junk, it starts to make you wonder whether it was all worth it. My answer is yes, yes and absolutely yes. The Dreamers was not the best Maxwell Street polish sausage I’ve had, but I was craving for one and The Dreamers hit the right spot.

Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers is set against the background of the ‘68 student riots in France and is the story of a young cinephile American, Matthew (Michael Pitt Bully, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) studying in Paris. He develops a friendship with a brother, Theo (Louis Garrel), and sister, Isabelle (Eva Green), who are fraternal twins that are as infatuated and devoted to cinema as he is. They quickly become impressed by Matthew and bring him into the isolated and offbeat world they inhabit. He comes to assimilate into their behaviors, but just as easily stirs up their everyday life.

The Dreamers is made up of three core elements: sex, cinema, and politics. All these elements exist both in the hostile climate of ‘68 France and in the dream-like world of the main characters. Each character embodies all three elements, but only one prevails in each of them. Cinema is the strongest in Matthew who can recall any film title by just a few descriptive words. Politics is mostly Theo’s focus as he addresses leftist views but mostly comes off as a pseudo-communist. Sex is shown, discussed and flaunted throughout the film, but its main personification is through Isabelle who is consistently displayed nude and the center of Matthew’s attention. She lures Matthew with her sexuality and keeps a close and physical relationship with her brother. Being that Theo and Isabelle are fraternal twins, they are naturally considered to be close. However, their relationship is on the fringe of being sexual and Matthew is the alternate to their perversions.

Bertolucci inserts clips of black and white films within specific designated scenes that reflect a cinematic consciousness amongst the characters. As much as I liked this technique, Bertolucci did not use it enough to keep it from feeling distracting, awkward and under-used. As much as some claim Bertolucci went too far with the nudity and the graphic sex scene, it actually feels not far enough. It appears that the relationship with Theo and Matthew was intended to be just as sexually explicit as with Matthew and Isabelle, but Bertolucci limited himself to hints of attention and fascination between the two characters. Surprisingly, the film was released in its original cut with an NC-17 rating. Perhaps Mr. Bertolucci’s name recognition allowed for such a release to be supported by its distributor. Of course if this film had no nudity or sex, but plenty of violence, which could have been portrayed in the riot scenes, it would have received an R rating. The MPAA’s practices prove further hypocritical when a recently released religious film that is described by a veteran Chicago film critic as being the most violent film he has ever seen gets an R rating, while The Dreamers nude male and female content is branded with a NC-17 warning sign.

Alexander Rojas has been known to crush a few cinematic hopes and dreams with a vicious review on a bad day. Pray, pray for good days filmmakers.

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