Veteran Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci directs the erotic drama The Dreamers, adapted from the novel The Holy Innocents: A Romance by Gilbert Adair. American student Matthew (Michael Pitt) is studying in Paris during the politically turbulent late '60s. The story begins in 1968 with the firing of Henri Langlois, the founder of the French Cinémathèque. At a protest demonstration, Matthew meets cinema-obsessed Isabelle (Eva Green) and her twin brother, Theo (Louis Garrel). When their
Bohemian parents (Robin Renucci and Anna Chancellor) leave for the summer, the twins invite Matthew to live with them. While the revolution rages on outside, the three young people stay in the comfortable flat playing decadent sexual games. Bertolucci incorporates clips from classic films like Queen Christina, Band of Outsiders, and Breathless. After showing at several European film festivals, The Dreamers made its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
Its nostalgia and narcissism are ultimately two versions of the same thing, and neither can reopen cross-cultural channels. Instead they keep this story stuck in the past, frozen and intact and irrelevant.
Legendary director Bernardo Bertolucci ("1900") crafts a return to social revolt in the form of sexual pursuits by a trio of late '60s teenaged students in this engaging yet insufficient movie.
The film is at once a celebration of the sexual revolution and a celebration of cinema as the secular equivalent of religion, at a time when movies really mattered.
Maybe the worst thing Bertolucci has done is make a good film that is too blithe to distance itself from the offensively precious one it constantly threatens to be.
Wild and ambitious, The Dreamers is a Bernardo Bertolucci masterpiece that candidly declares an erotic affection for cinema with references to Breathless, Band Of Outsiders, and other classics. For cinephiles, The Dreamers is a daring and nostalgic exploration of cinema, sex, and politics with equally daring
performances from the talented ménage à trois - Michael Pitt, Eva Green, and Louis Garrel. Strictly for mature audiences only.
'Strange, beautiful.....and you'll never hear surf music again.' The soundtrack aptly begins and ends with the Hendrix tune, serving both as testament and summary.
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