Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, UK/France/Italy, 110 mins/ English/French
Cast:
Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel, Eva Green, Robin Renucci, Anna Chancellor
Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers is based upon Gilbert Adair's (who also wrote the screenplay) novel The Holy Innocents. The story is set against the turbulent political backdrop of France in the spring of 1968. Matthew (Pitt) is an American student in Paris who doesn't hit his books as much as he does the Cinematheque Français. On turning up to get his regular film fix, he finds the building is closed and surrounded by hoards of irate cinephiles protesting at the sacking of the Cinémathèque's famous director Henri Langlois.
Chained to the railings, Matthew spots Isabelle (Green). They get talking and she introduces him to her twin brother Theo (Garrel). The three of them get on like a house on fire, talking mainly about film. They invite Matthew over to their apartment for dinner and when their parents (Robin Renucci, Anna Chancellor) go away for the summer, the twins insist that Matthew stays with them.
The three eventually isolate themselves in the apartment. They wile away the hours drinking, smoking and testing each other's movie knowledge. Matthew also becomes aware of how close the twins are to each other. However, when Matthew and Isabelle's relationship becomes sexual, things take a disturbing turn and the three are forced to re-evaluate their friendship.
For Bertolucci, memories of Paris '68 are wrapped up in three themes: cinema, sex and politics. But while the sacking of Langlois and the subsequent protests were seen as the precursor to the May student uprising that followed, Bertolucci reduces this to a brick through the apartment window in the final reel. Much of the film's action takes place inside the apartment; in particular it's the sexual shenanigans between the Matthew, Isabelle and Theo that preoccupy his film. A case of fiddling with each other while Paris burns!
Prior to the screening we were informed that the film was to be released in America uncut. Strange lot the American censors, happy to watch frame after frame dripping in blood from excessive violence. But w-m-d's - that's willy, member, dick programme-related activity - are a big no-no. If found, cuts will be made. Ouch!! However, they needn't have worried. Where Bertolucci created something of a stir with his eroticism (that butter scene still makes me wince!) in Last Tango in Paris, in The Dreamers revolutionary it's not.
But, the sex does highlight an interesting dynamic between Isabelle and Theo in that it's initiated by them against each other in the context of a game. When Théo fails to answer a film trivia question, as a forfeit Isabelle orders him to masturbate in front of her and Matthew. Equally, Theo orders Matthew to make love to Isabelle as a forfeit. It's a move Theo regrets as three become two, with Theo very much on the outside - if only for a short while.
Matthew's attempts to pull Isabelle away from Theo acts as a catalyst in the film heralding one of its most powerful scenes. They return from a date to find Theo is locked in his room entertaining a woman. A jealous Isabelle begins to bang on Theo's door and scream hysterically. Matthew watches on confused and is unable to console her. Up until this point, Isabelle was confidence personified, but what she reveals is that she cannot disconnect from her twin. Unfortunately Bertolucci underplays this dynamic, never really adding any depth to the twins' relationship hence taking away any potency that the story could have.
The most engaging aspect of the film is the film clips. Bertolucci honours the Cinémathèque Française with shots from films that were screened there, including archive shots of Jean-Pierre Léaud giving a fervent speech in defence of Langlois. As Matthew, Isabelle and Theo recreate scenes from their favourite film, Bertolucci cleverly splices shots from the films themselves with comic results. For example having completed and beaten the record in Godard's Bande à Part for running through the Louvre, an ecstatic Isabelle and Theo hug Matthew and chant: 'We accept you, one of us'. Bertolucci cleverly marries this with the same scene from Freaks.
In trying to capture the spirit of the cinema, sex and politics of Paris '68, Bertolucci may have tried to do too much. At worst what we get is a glimpse of what could have been a masterpiece. At best a homage to cinema - and cinephilia!
Sandi Chaitram
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