Drama, 2003
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Cast: Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel
Score: *****

The voiceover at the beginning of The Dreamers—“…only the French would house a cinematheque in a palace” heard as pouting blonde American teen Michael Pitt crosses a bridge over the Seine in Paris, a copy of “Cahiers Du Cinema in his jacket pocket—is enough to make the eyes of any film buff swell with tears of nostalgia.  Director Bernardo Bertolucci (best known for The Last Emperor) returns to the city of lovers decades after Last Tango in Paris again to film, or more appropriate create another moving piece of art.

The year is 1968.  Understanding the political events taking place in Paris is crucial in appreciating the point Bertolucci is trying to put across.  The Cinematheque Francaise (founded to screen classics and masterpieces otherwise unavailable to the public) founder, Henri Langlois has just then been removed by the government and his followers are taking to the streets in rebellion catalyzing other riotous demonstrations by the public.  Scriptwriter Scots Gilbert Adair, adapting his own book, was there at the time as is evident from the clarity of the incidents that occur in the development of the story.  Matthew, played by Michael Pitt (perhaps a younger version of Adair) is in Paris to learn French but the cineaste gets a French education in sexual mind games when he crosses paths with twins Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel).  But it is the changes in idealism, morality and lifestyle of the three dreamers that Bernardo and Adair are more captivated with and it is the interaction of these values with Matthew’s loss innocence that eventually propels the story to its final and arguably destructive conclusion.

It is good to see Bertolucci in complete control of his material.  Those who love the cinema can understand what it means when some of these powerful images appear on screen like the film buff sitting in the first row of the Cinematheque or watching the end credits, the three protagonists imitating their heroes on film and the public fighting for their right to enjoy the freedom of film.  Film lovers can share in the games played – the tossing of a coin can be related to George Raft to tossing one in Scarface or the tribal dance connected to the number performed by Marlene Dietrich in a gorilla suit in Blonde Venus.  The stark figure of Isabelle’s ‘Venus de Milo’ photographed by Fabio Cianchetti, as she plays her last game also demands mention.

The erotica (carefully built up - from the initial scene of Pitt, sitting in his underwear by the telephone slowly dropping his saliva-wet fingers to his genitals to the nude three-some scene) earns the film its restricted rating.  Even the scene of Isabble holding Matthew’s erect penis is left intact.

The Dreamers is the film for movie buffs and critics.  Scenes like the black and white 1968 newsreel footage of Jean Pierre Leaud juxtaposed with the now older Leaud rallying the crowds and the three leads racing across the halls of Louvre to beat the record set by the characters in Jean Luc Godard’s Band a Part will definitely delight those in the know.  When Bertolucci asked Nouveau Vague (New Wave) director Godard (who was himself involved with the 1968 Cinematheque riots) for permission to use clips from Band a Part and A Bout de Souffle, Godard, dispensing with paperwork and legal red tape, replied “You do what you want.  There are no rights of the auteur, only duties!” Though The Dreamers is no masterpiece nor is it the best of his work (The Spider’s Stratagem and The Conformist get my votes), Bernardo Bertolucci has performed this duty well, not only educating, entertaining and captivating his audience but ultimately blowing them away!