174 out of 191 people found the following comment useful :- fine film-making overcomes flaws, 3 October 2004
Author:
Roland E. Zwick (magneteach@aol.com) from United States
'The Dreamers' is Bernardo Bertolucci's bizarre and fascinating (if not
altogether successful) distillation of the radical '60's mentality.
Since the film is set in Paris in 1968, the radicalism naturally takes
the form of perverted sexuality and extreme cinephilia. Leave it to the
French to be exploring l'amour in all its myriad possibilities!
In terms of plotting, 'The Dreamers' is much like an incestuous version
of Truffaut's menage a trois classic 'Jules and Jim,' with the new
film's subject matter as shocking today as was the earlier film's in
its own time. Time and culture sure do march on, and it always seems to
be the French leading the way. In 'The Dreamers,' Isabelle (Eva Green)
and Theo (Louis Garrel) are twins who have developed a rather
'unnatural' attraction to one another, becoming 'one' in virtually
every way imaginable - physically, spiritually, psychically. Matthew
(Michael Pitt, who looks for all the world like Leonardo Di Caprio) is
the young American in Paris whom they pull into their strange little
world of sexual intrigue and emotional games. Matthew is a product of
his time, a young man who is not very experienced in the ways of the
world but who is willing to partake in the moral relativism that is
permeating the culture. Thus, he becomes the perfect candidate for
Isabelle and Theo to work their magic on. Their power of attraction
proves overwhelming and irresistible for Matthew, for they are both
exotically beautiful creatures, seemingly in tune with the trendy
radicalism swirling around them. Yet, Mathew eventually discovers that
they are really only passive observers paying little but lip service to
the cause, too obsessed with their own twisted relationship to actually
step out and participate in those grand social movements they talk so
freely about. Isabelle and Theo are 'radicals' to be sure, yet their
radicalism seems to be channeled in a self-destructive, ultimately
futile direction. Only over time does Matthew awaken to this
realization.
Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the subject matter, Bertolucci
often seems more interested in shocking than enlightening us. Isabelle,
Theo and Matthew are so insulated and cut off from the outside world
that the points Bertolucci seemingly wants to make about the times - as
reflected in protesters marching in the streets, the references to
Vietnam, Mao and Jimmy Hendrix - feel tacked on and superfluous, not
particularly integral to the film as a whole. He is never quite able to
bring these background elements and the foreground story together in
any meaningful way. What Bertolucci does capture well is the obsessive
love the French have always had for the cinema as both entertainment
and art form. His characters live, breathe and think films, often
acting out favorite scenes while the director intercuts snippets from
the movies themselves. The beautiful thing about the French is that
they have always had such an eclectic taste in film, embracing both
American studio and French New Wave products with equal passion. And
this artistic open-mindedness Bertolucci captures with gleeful abandon.
The film, in many ways, becomes an homage to Chaplin and Keaton,
Astaire and Rogers, Samuel Fuller, Truffaut, Godard, Greta Garbo and
many other icons of movie history.
'The Dreamers' doesn't entirely hold together and the sum of its parts
is better than the whole. Still, the acting is excellent and Bertolucci
has lost none of his skills as a director, making each beautifully
composed shot stand for something - a real treat for audiences bored to
tears by the kind of by-the-numbers film-making we get so often today.
Bertolucci is a true film artist and it is a joy just to sit and watch
what he does with his actors and his camera, like a master painter
working wonders with his canvas.
As for the much-vaunted sexual content of the film (it is rated NC-17),
certainly those who are easily offended by nudity and provocative
sexual themes had best avoid subjecting themselves to this film. Those,
however, with a more open mind will find little that is overtly
offensive about what is shown here. In fact, if Isabelle and Theo
weren't brother and sister, there would be little controversy at all
generated by the film. My suspicion is that Bertolucci and writer
Gilbert Adair made their film about incest because an ordinary love
triangle would have seemed just too commonplace in this day and age to
serve as a successful plot device for a film whose very theme centers
around radicalism. They really needed to shake the audience up and this
was as effective a way as any to do that. Whether it repels more people
than it compels is something only time will tell.
As it is, 'The Dreamers' is not an entirely successful film, but those
impressed by fine film-making had best not pass it up.
116 out of 132 people found the following comment useful :- Sex, Cinema, Politics - A True Molotov Cocktail, 20 July 2004
Author:
Radu Olievschi from New York, NY
The decor for The Dreamers, Bertolucci's sensual and narcotic film is
represented by effervescent moments that took place in Paris in 1968.
In the same manner in which the house inhabited by the three main
protagonists represents a character, so do the Parisian streets, with
their trepidation and demonstrations. Contrary to other films directed
by this director - who has promised much and delivered even more
throughout his career - The Dreamers opens in a fast-paced and
provocative manner. The director establishes the cinematic convention
precisely, eloquently, and elegantly. It becomes clear that the film
deals with furious and beautiful young people who live through the
films they devour. In the first five minutes, the heroine of the
picture (played impeccably by Eva Green, a theatre actress reminiscent
of Isabella Rossellini) announces that she was born in 1959. Logically,
it is impossible, seeing that the year is 1968 and she seems to be at
least 19 years old. Therefore, she explains further: 1959,
Champs-Elysee, where she yelled "New York Herald Tribune!" Suddenly the
film cuts to a scene from the classic Breathless (A bout de soufflé) by
Godard, where Belmondo's feminine partner sells American newspapers on
Champs-Elysee. Consequently, Bertolucci's feminine character believes
that she has not been alive until seeing the afore-mentioned film,
considered by many the beginning of the New Wave. The idea of
interposing images and references to classic films is augmented in The
Dreamers. It becomes a means of communication between the characters
and in fact it ignites the entire "action" of the film.
As in The Last Tango in Paris or Stealing Beauty, sex and sensuality
also represent means of expression on which the director relies
heavily. Yet The Dreamers rejects the desperation of The Last Tango
through a seductive irreverence that indeed characterizes the so-called
"enfants terrible" of 1968 Paris. It should be noted that The Dreamers
contains various sexual and nude scenes, but that these are by no means
as shocking as the sex scenes in The Last Tango were, when that film
was released in the 1960s. Since then, video and Internet pornography
have occurred and shocking audiences through nudity has become
something of a moot point. It is only the MPAA that hasn't grown up. It
gave The Dreamers basically the same rating that The Last Tango got, 30
years ago.
Undoubtedly, the angles of the shots in The Dreamers are what impresses
the most. As in other films by Bertolucci, practically every shot could
be cut out and studied hours at an end for its elegance. The three main
characters (all played beyond reproach) live their menage-a-trois
through concrete gestures and attitudes, as well as through emotions
that are suggested by the sublime cinematography.
The ending of the film, considered by some critics a weak point, is in
fact quite accomplished. American viewers (including some critics) are
used to American films, in which the build-up leading to the climax is
essentially dynamic, suspenseful or tragic. But the European cinema is
different. It often shows how feelings are condensed in a quiet but
explosive mixture. This description fits The Dreamers like a glove.
Finally, a note for film buffs. In the initial scenes, at the
demonstration in front of the Cinematheque, Bertolucci used news reel
footage from the '60s with Jean-Pierre Leaud si Jean-Pierre Kalfon
(known actors of the New Wave). They are seen giving speeches and
throwing paper leaflets to the crowd. In 2003, when shooting the film,
Bertolucci got Leaud and Kalfon, now aged, to "reenact" the images from
the news reels. The end result is a mixture of new and old images, the
former in color, the latter black and white. It is such tricks that
Bertolucci uses throughout this nostalgic film that celebrates a
certain period, during which the young generation had more meaningful
things to fight than computer-simulated monsters.
91 out of 112 people found the following comment useful :- A romantic confession of a great filmmaker, 1 August 2004
Author:
theachilles from Athens. Greece
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.
88 out of 110 people found the following comment useful :- All dreamers must eventually wake up, 10 March 2004
Author:
cs100 from West Coast, USA
My rating: 6/10
There are two types of dreamers in `The Dreamers': the three main
characters, who create their own interior world and prefer to view the
outside world by watching classic 1930s cinema; and the socialist street
revolutionaries of riot-torn 1968 Paris, who attempt to overthrow the
political and economic power structure. `The Dreamers' focuses more on the
former than the latter, and Bernardo Bertolucci is careful to leave his film
open to interpretation, but ultimately the dream world of the three main
characters is shattered by the realities of life. The film ends before
resolving the outcome of the second set of dreamers, but we all know our
history. Some may think it a shame that the dreamers fail, but others like
myself will view it as something that has to happen, if the dream is
unrealistic and unsustainable.
The relationship between the three main characters is unlike anything that
I've ever seen portrayed on film. The twins, Isabelle and Theo, are almost
as close to each other in young adulthood as they were during the nine
months they spent together in their mother's womb. Matthew, a U.S. student
studying abroad in Paris, inserts himself into the middle, and when he
receives early indications that portend the depth of the relationship
between the twins, he does not run away. To me, this required too much
suspension of disbelief, but I'm certainly aware that others have different
proclivities. If Bertolucci's intent was to show a high degree of
separation between his three dreamers and the rest of society, he certainly
succeeded.
The three dreamers have some, but ultimately too little, awareness of their
separation from reality and the unsustainable nature of the world they
create. While sympathizing with the revolutionaries in the street, they
actually are the ultimate materialistic consumers: they produce nothing
that they consume (neither food nor art), and when the money their parents
provide runs out, and they've drained most of the wine cellar, the harsh
realities of life set in. Rooting through trash heaps isn't the answer, and
the choices that they leave themselves in the end (self-annihilation or
nihilism), I believe, show just how flawed their ideal world is. My
interpretation is that this lesson also applies to the other set of
dreamers, the street revolutionaries, but those who even today sympathize
with the views of those revolutionaries will reject this
interpretation.
`The Dreamers' is very voyeuristic, and Bertolucci puts his three leads
through some incredibly intimate moments. All three leads are quite good,
with Eva Green in particular deserving special notice for a completely
uninhibited performance (at least the two male leads had each other's
example to follow). It's hard to come up with an accurate overall rating
for this film, because I think there will be a widespread variance in how
different people react to both the storyline and the images. Read the
reviews carefully, and if it sounds like something that interests and won't
shock you, then give it a try. My middle-of-the-road rating is mainly due
to my not being terribly interested in the type of relationship formed by
the three main characters.
67 out of 90 people found the following comment useful :- Only real film lovers will understand and love this work of art, 5 August 2005
Author:
Aluísio Parondi (nem.freud.explica@gmail.com) from Winooski, Vermont, USA
"The Dreamers" is one of Bernardo Bertolucci's most underrated films. A
mesmerizing love declaration for The Cinema, this unforgettable film
must be discovered.
In 1968, 19-year-old American Matthew (Michael Pitt), while settling in
Paris for studying French, meets two equally young, beautiful and
liberal film buffs: the twins Isabelle (Eva Green, another Bertolucci's
luminous discovery, like he did with Liv Tyler in "Stealing Beauty")
and Theo (Louis Garrel, son of French director Philippe Garrel and the
best of the cast). The twins' parents travel, and Matthew is invited to
join the attractive duo in their apartment. He accepts the invitation,
of course, and the threesome starts a bizarre game of seduction with a
charming leitmotiv: riddles about classic films. Who doesn't know the
right answer, has to do what he/she is asked to. In the background,
student riots in defense of Henri Langlois and his merit on the
Cinémathèque Française are breaking out on the streets.
The film is superb, artistically and technically. Bertolucci is
top-notch, the soundtrack is overwhelming (with songs by Janis Joplin,
Jimi Hendrix and Édith Piaf, among others), and the cinematography (by
Fabio Cianchetti) is one of the best, if not the best, I've seen
recently. Gilbert Adair, we can't forget, did an excellent job adapting
his novel, "The Holy Innocents", to the big screens. The sex/full
frontal scenes and amorality can shock some people, this is definitely
not a film for all tastes (as almost all masterpieces), but those who
are open-minded and admire good cinema, will be entranced. The ending
is one of the most surprising, original and brilliant I've ever seen,
but, unfortunately, not everyone will get it. That's a crying shame,
but original films tend to be misunderstood. "The Dreamers" is no
exception.
A must-see to all film lovers. My vote is 10.
53 out of 66 people found the following comment useful :- One of the Best Movies of the Year, 19 July 2005
Author:
Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In 1968, while living in Paris for learning French, the nineteen years
old American Matthew (Michael Pitt) meets the also film lovers, amoral
and incestuous twins Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel) in
the "Cinémathèque Française" in the Palais de Chaillot and they become
best friends. They stay together in the twin's apartment, while many
social protests are arising on the streets of Paris.
"The Dreamers" has been released on DVD in Brazil a couple of months
ago, and it certainly is one of the best movies of the year. The story
conflicts the dreams of three youngsters, who breathe and see the world
through the cinema, and the reality of life, on the social movements on
streets of Paris. The stone through the window of their apartment is a
metaphor of the awakening of Isabelle and Theo. The direction is
superb, the cinematography and camera are amazing, the erotic story
having the background of true events is delightful and the performance
of the cast is perfect. The beauty of the unknown Eva Green is very
impressive, and I really recommend this outstanding movie. My vote is
ten.
Title (Brazil): "Os Sonhadores" ("The Dreamers")
63 out of 89 people found the following comment useful :- Rêve Nostalgique, 21 December 2004
Author:
TemporaryOne-1 from Orlando, Florida, USA
The Innocents is Bertolucci's nostalgic reverie of the Past, Present,
and Future.
Bertolucci dreamily reminisces of youths who long to experience new
sensations of freedom unknown to them.
Underlying his dream, The Innocents depicts youths imitating art
imitating youths, a powerful, universal cycle which revolves without
end, propelling the revolutions that fuel humanity forward.
Although Bertolucci stages the film in 1968 Paris, he allows the
essence of the film to meander wistfully from the revolutionary past as
we gleefully remember it, to the present life as we dolefully (and
regrettably) live it, and forward to the unknown future that brims with
exciting possibilities of new revolutions.
His gives us three innocent youths desiring to plow forward into a
hypnotic New World that titillates their senses and intellect.
However, the inexperienced innocents become overwhelmed by the raging
life encompassing them; they lock themselves away, creating a dream
world which enables them to safely explore New World ideals without
affecting their innocence.
Their self-exilement turns revolutionary as they act upon exactly what
they feel; abandoning Old World traditions, they allow their innocence
to transform itself into experience, and they leave their dream-world
behind.
Bertolucci reflects upon these sensory moments by injecting into the
film snatches of real breakthrough European films, music, and sexual
explicitness that inspired European youths to break away from Old World
traditions. These films and songs captured moments of pure sensory
freedom unimcumbered by afterward consequences.
As youths do in reality, the three innocents on screen embrace these
"controversial" films and songs, and delight in their awakening
sexuality. They desire to "experience" the exuberance exhibited in the
films and music, without a care for the real impact of their actions.
These films and songs capture sensory moments without definitive
endings, and the three innocents capture sensory-sexual moments without
being tangled up in the consequences.
The Innocents becomes a piece of revolutionary nostalgia for all
viewers: viewers who delightfully consume the novelty of the cinematic
experience and viewers who condemn the film; the ultimate consequence
occurs: the film is pushed into the cycle of youths imitating art
imitating youths...
41 out of 51 people found the following comment useful :- Cinema, sex, politics, and Bertolucci..., 23 July 2004
Author:
fdpedro from Miami, Florida
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Some people think Bernardo Bertolucci could be placed among Italy's
other great directors such as Fellini, Leone, or DeSica. But there are
still people out there who never forgave him from LITTLE BUDDHA, or
that thought LAST TANGO IN Paris was overrated soft-core porn. His
latest film, THE DREAMERS, might be misunderstood as a film about the
1968 student riots in Paris. It's not. Instead, it uses 1968 Paris as a
backdrop for the triangular relationship of a naïve American with a
pair of incestuous French twins.
Young and innocent Matthew (Michael Pitt) just arrived in Paris from
San Diego in order to study the French language, but finds himself
attending to the Cinematheque Francais instead. 'Only the French would
build a movie theater in a palace,' he states in his narration. As he
spends his vacation inside screening room with chain-smoking New Wave
pioneers, the student riots start breaking out and he ends up meeting
twins Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel), who both are very
similar to Matthew except that they are hmmm very French. After
engaging interesting conversations that range from Nicholas Roeg to
rock n' roll, they all start bounding up as friends and the twins
invite him over to their apartment for dinner.
Theo and Isabelle's apartment consists of the stereotypical French
family: They all smoke like chimneys and mom and dad (Anna Chancellor
and Robin Renucci) are poets who love to talk about art and philosophy.
When Matthew learns the parents are leaving for a month and that he can
stay with the twins in the apartment for all this time, he finds
himself in heaven. But things are far from heaven. He soon sees
Isabelle and Theo have an unhealthy closure: They bathe together, sleep
together, and masturbate in front of each other. Is there something
going on or are they just too European?
At first Matthew is disgusted by their behavior, but the sexual tension
between him and Isabelle (and to some extent, Theo) soon wins over.
This is Bertolucci we're talking about, after all! The apartment
eventually becomes one filthy, inhabitable place and the kids can
barely survive. They run out of food, money, and are close enough to
fall asleep in a bathtub and wake up dipped in menstrual blood. You
would expect the story could take a LORD OF THE FLIES approach of
turning the twins into psychopath savages, but screenwriter Gilbert
Adair (who based the movie upon his novel) gives us a much more
interesting story to watch.
These kids are, like many of us, movie buffs and spend their time
challenging each other on identifying film references. The punishment
for not knowing how the famous assassination scene in SCARFACE turns
out to be sexual interplay between the characters. Is that a
punishment? The discussions in the apartment cover sex, cinema, music,
and politics. So you have the kids discussing who is funnier: Keaton of
Chaplin? Who plays the guitar better: Hendrix or Clapton? Is the
Vietnam War right? But my favorite is weather or not Maoism is the way
to go. Theo describes Maoism as an epic movie with thousands of
idealistic thinkers carrying their little red books and revolting. But
Matthew adds that it would not be a very engaging epic since everyone
carrying the little red book would speak the same dialogue, wear the
same clothes, have the same characteristics. They wouldn't be
characters, they would be extras. It's in moments like these where the
actors really shine. Eva Green in particular is a true charming
revelation and it's a shame Fernando Meirelles wasn't able to cast her
in THE CONSTANT GARDENER like he wanted to.
Bertolucci isolates the characters from the events happening in the
streets as much as he can, keeping the camera (for most of the time)
inside the apartment. It's not enough to call the film a Dogma 95
sell-out, but it's really engaging and quite different from what you
would expect from the director of THE LAST EMPEROR. The movie is called
THE DREAMERS because the kids live inside their little mystical cocoon
isolated from life and not doing anything about the problems they
discuss. Matthew is the only one who seems to realize how immature it
all is and how sick the incestuous relation between Theo and Isabelle
makes him feel, unlike the usual 'Europeans are way cooler than
Americans' stereotype you would expect from these cultural clash
topics. Once the violent revolts start kicking in and the kids' orgy
cocoon is shattered by the stone breaking the window, they eventually
join the riots. But that is when Matthew finally realizes he will never
convince the twins to change their nature.
The film was rated NC-17 in America by the MPAA. So it's okay to show
Jesus Christ being slowly killed for two-hours, but a gasp a penis is
truly outrageous! The NC-17 rating truly killed the film from getting
any kind of attention it deserved since Americans still confuse it with
pornographic material. We all know that rating systems across the world
are different. In America, sex is seen as a more serious taboo than
violence while 14 year olds can see this film in Italy and the French
gave it a -12 rating. It's not only sex however, the French slasher
film HAUTE TENSION was recently given the NC-17 tag also, and for
violence. While I know the MPAA will never change their ways, I really
think it's time they grew up and decide to create a new rating
in-between R and NC-17 showing the this film is intended for adults
only. Similar to what they did when RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK came out.
America really needs a complete ratings make-over and the MPAA should
really think of replacing their team with people who actually know
right from wrong. Otherwise, brilliant films like these will keep
getting overlooked in the future.
(5/5)
36 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :- A Bertolucci pet project, 14 July 2004
Author:
George Parker from Orange County, CA USA
"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)
47 out of 75 people found the following comment useful :- Poetically brave and challenging., 13 May 2004
Author:
ks4 from EU
Matthew is a young american student in france, his passion for movies
leads
him into Theo and Isabelle, two twins that shares his passion, they
quickly
build a deep friendship and Matthew gets invited to stay with them while
their parents are gone. However once he gets settled with them he
discovers
sides of both that he had not expected. While they spend their time
talking
and playing, the riots of Paris 1968 goes on in the "real
world".
This is a very brave film in the way it has been build, but it is also a
complicated movie that will leave you both confused and thinking, it's
beautiful and it can almost be described as cinematic poetry, however this
poetry also makes it a difficult one to relate too.
After seeing this film i am confused in what i feel about it, the movie
feels very divided, and some times it is an extraordinary brave and
experimental film, other times it is confuing, and at some times boring
too.
It's really a hard movie to understand because of the poetic feeling it
gives, it's like reading a poem where some of the lines doesn't make
sense,
but i guess that could be an advantage as it can be seen more than once. I
feel the strength of the movie is the way it challenges and explores like
no
american or typical mainstream movie would do, the often use of nudity and
raw sex scenes would never be seen elsewhere, and even though it may annoy
many people, Bertolucci portrays the scenes very beautiful and they never
seem like dirty scenes, the most impressive scene is the one where Matthew
and Isabelle have sex, never have a full sex scene been portrayed in such
a
beautiful and realistic way on screen. And there are many examples of
this.
What brings the movie is first of all the very slow storyline, it barely
moves at all, the whole 2 hours are pretty much circulating around one
thing, which is the way these 3 youngsters spend their sparetime, it's an
mysterious movie that really brings up interesting situations a lot of
times, but other times it simply gets too slow and gets a little boring.
Another partly negative thing is the understanding of the movie, as I
earlier mentioned the movie is like a poem, if you have problems with a
few
lines the whole deeper meaning may fall apart. I wouldn't say i did not
understand the fully deeper meaning of the movie, but i think each
individual will understand this movie differently, due to the complex way
it
has been made. But i honestly think Bertolucci wanted it to be like that,
a
movie that will leave you thinking about many things, but i think what it
really is about is finding yourself in a world where there are 6 billion
people looking like you on the outside.
The movie is very well directed, a solid directing and you can clearly see
the trademarks of the director, one thing i noticed was the floating
camera.
The floating camera gives a feeling of being there, it is mostly used in
the
first part of the movie where Matthew learns more about his mysterious new
friends, it gives us a feeling of curiousity towards these two new
persons.
Two persons whom we soon discover have more to them than showing on the
outside.
The acting in the movie is solid. I usually don't expect much from new and
coming actors and actresses that i have not heard about before, this was
also the case for this movie. But the acting is really good, Michael Pitt
and Louis Garrel really gives an above average performance, great to see
that there are still new actors who can take over when the old ones will
be
gone. But the star of this movie is Eva Green, what a mysteriously and
unique performance, and what a brilliant casting, she is unique, beautiful
and most importantly interesting, erotic and challenging. Also i give
props
to all the three main characters for their brave and realistic portray of
nudity and the complications of sex among unexperienced
youngsters.
As i said earlier this movie is very complex, it's hard to understand, and
i
could probably talk about it forever, but i got to stop somewhere. I think
the movie is definetely worth watching, it's very artistic and does indeed
stand on its own feet, it takes chances you don't see many movies take,
and
it's all done very well. On the negative side i think the movie sometimes
get too complex and slow, but overall i don't regret seeing it, and i
think
that i will be seeing it again due to the complex story, it will probably
bring me new thoughts when i see it next time.
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The Dreamers (2003) More at IMDbPro »
174 out of 191 people found the following comment useful :-
fine film-making overcomes flaws, 3 October 2004
Author: Roland E. Zwick (magneteach@aol.com) from United States
'The Dreamers' is Bernardo Bertolucci's bizarre and fascinating (if not altogether successful) distillation of the radical '60's mentality. Since the film is set in Paris in 1968, the radicalism naturally takes the form of perverted sexuality and extreme cinephilia. Leave it to the French to be exploring l'amour in all its myriad possibilities!
In terms of plotting, 'The Dreamers' is much like an incestuous version of Truffaut's menage a trois classic 'Jules and Jim,' with the new film's subject matter as shocking today as was the earlier film's in its own time. Time and culture sure do march on, and it always seems to be the French leading the way. In 'The Dreamers,' Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel) are twins who have developed a rather 'unnatural' attraction to one another, becoming 'one' in virtually every way imaginable - physically, spiritually, psychically. Matthew (Michael Pitt, who looks for all the world like Leonardo Di Caprio) is the young American in Paris whom they pull into their strange little world of sexual intrigue and emotional games. Matthew is a product of his time, a young man who is not very experienced in the ways of the world but who is willing to partake in the moral relativism that is permeating the culture. Thus, he becomes the perfect candidate for Isabelle and Theo to work their magic on. Their power of attraction proves overwhelming and irresistible for Matthew, for they are both exotically beautiful creatures, seemingly in tune with the trendy radicalism swirling around them. Yet, Mathew eventually discovers that they are really only passive observers paying little but lip service to the cause, too obsessed with their own twisted relationship to actually step out and participate in those grand social movements they talk so freely about. Isabelle and Theo are 'radicals' to be sure, yet their radicalism seems to be channeled in a self-destructive, ultimately futile direction. Only over time does Matthew awaken to this realization.
Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the subject matter, Bertolucci often seems more interested in shocking than enlightening us. Isabelle, Theo and Matthew are so insulated and cut off from the outside world that the points Bertolucci seemingly wants to make about the times - as reflected in protesters marching in the streets, the references to Vietnam, Mao and Jimmy Hendrix - feel tacked on and superfluous, not particularly integral to the film as a whole. He is never quite able to bring these background elements and the foreground story together in any meaningful way. What Bertolucci does capture well is the obsessive love the French have always had for the cinema as both entertainment and art form. His characters live, breathe and think films, often acting out favorite scenes while the director intercuts snippets from the movies themselves. The beautiful thing about the French is that they have always had such an eclectic taste in film, embracing both American studio and French New Wave products with equal passion. And this artistic open-mindedness Bertolucci captures with gleeful abandon. The film, in many ways, becomes an homage to Chaplin and Keaton, Astaire and Rogers, Samuel Fuller, Truffaut, Godard, Greta Garbo and many other icons of movie history.
'The Dreamers' doesn't entirely hold together and the sum of its parts is better than the whole. Still, the acting is excellent and Bertolucci has lost none of his skills as a director, making each beautifully composed shot stand for something - a real treat for audiences bored to tears by the kind of by-the-numbers film-making we get so often today. Bertolucci is a true film artist and it is a joy just to sit and watch what he does with his actors and his camera, like a master painter working wonders with his canvas.
As for the much-vaunted sexual content of the film (it is rated NC-17), certainly those who are easily offended by nudity and provocative sexual themes had best avoid subjecting themselves to this film. Those, however, with a more open mind will find little that is overtly offensive about what is shown here. In fact, if Isabelle and Theo weren't brother and sister, there would be little controversy at all generated by the film. My suspicion is that Bertolucci and writer Gilbert Adair made their film about incest because an ordinary love triangle would have seemed just too commonplace in this day and age to serve as a successful plot device for a film whose very theme centers around radicalism. They really needed to shake the audience up and this was as effective a way as any to do that. Whether it repels more people than it compels is something only time will tell.
As it is, 'The Dreamers' is not an entirely successful film, but those impressed by fine film-making had best not pass it up.
116 out of 132 people found the following comment useful :-
Sex, Cinema, Politics - A True Molotov Cocktail, 20 July 2004
Author: Radu Olievschi from New York, NY
The decor for The Dreamers, Bertolucci's sensual and narcotic film is represented by effervescent moments that took place in Paris in 1968. In the same manner in which the house inhabited by the three main protagonists represents a character, so do the Parisian streets, with their trepidation and demonstrations. Contrary to other films directed by this director - who has promised much and delivered even more throughout his career - The Dreamers opens in a fast-paced and provocative manner. The director establishes the cinematic convention precisely, eloquently, and elegantly. It becomes clear that the film deals with furious and beautiful young people who live through the films they devour. In the first five minutes, the heroine of the picture (played impeccably by Eva Green, a theatre actress reminiscent of Isabella Rossellini) announces that she was born in 1959. Logically, it is impossible, seeing that the year is 1968 and she seems to be at least 19 years old. Therefore, she explains further: 1959, Champs-Elysee, where she yelled "New York Herald Tribune!" Suddenly the film cuts to a scene from the classic Breathless (A bout de soufflé) by Godard, where Belmondo's feminine partner sells American newspapers on Champs-Elysee. Consequently, Bertolucci's feminine character believes that she has not been alive until seeing the afore-mentioned film, considered by many the beginning of the New Wave. The idea of interposing images and references to classic films is augmented in The Dreamers. It becomes a means of communication between the characters and in fact it ignites the entire "action" of the film.
As in The Last Tango in Paris or Stealing Beauty, sex and sensuality also represent means of expression on which the director relies heavily. Yet The Dreamers rejects the desperation of The Last Tango through a seductive irreverence that indeed characterizes the so-called "enfants terrible" of 1968 Paris. It should be noted that The Dreamers contains various sexual and nude scenes, but that these are by no means as shocking as the sex scenes in The Last Tango were, when that film was released in the 1960s. Since then, video and Internet pornography have occurred and shocking audiences through nudity has become something of a moot point. It is only the MPAA that hasn't grown up. It gave The Dreamers basically the same rating that The Last Tango got, 30 years ago.
Undoubtedly, the angles of the shots in The Dreamers are what impresses the most. As in other films by Bertolucci, practically every shot could be cut out and studied hours at an end for its elegance. The three main characters (all played beyond reproach) live their menage-a-trois through concrete gestures and attitudes, as well as through emotions that are suggested by the sublime cinematography.
The ending of the film, considered by some critics a weak point, is in fact quite accomplished. American viewers (including some critics) are used to American films, in which the build-up leading to the climax is essentially dynamic, suspenseful or tragic. But the European cinema is different. It often shows how feelings are condensed in a quiet but explosive mixture. This description fits The Dreamers like a glove.
Finally, a note for film buffs. In the initial scenes, at the demonstration in front of the Cinematheque, Bertolucci used news reel footage from the '60s with Jean-Pierre Leaud si Jean-Pierre Kalfon (known actors of the New Wave). They are seen giving speeches and throwing paper leaflets to the crowd. In 2003, when shooting the film, Bertolucci got Leaud and Kalfon, now aged, to "reenact" the images from the news reels. The end result is a mixture of new and old images, the former in color, the latter black and white. It is such tricks that Bertolucci uses throughout this nostalgic film that celebrates a certain period, during which the young generation had more meaningful things to fight than computer-simulated monsters.
91 out of 112 people found the following comment useful :-

A romantic confession of a great filmmaker, 1 August 2004
Author: theachilles from Athens. Greece
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.
88 out of 110 people found the following comment useful :-

All dreamers must eventually wake up, 10 March 2004
Author: cs100 from West Coast, USA
My rating: 6/10
There are two types of dreamers in `The Dreamers': the three main characters, who create their own interior world and prefer to view the outside world by watching classic 1930s cinema; and the socialist street revolutionaries of riot-torn 1968 Paris, who attempt to overthrow the political and economic power structure. `The Dreamers' focuses more on the former than the latter, and Bernardo Bertolucci is careful to leave his film open to interpretation, but ultimately the dream world of the three main characters is shattered by the realities of life. The film ends before resolving the outcome of the second set of dreamers, but we all know our history. Some may think it a shame that the dreamers fail, but others like myself will view it as something that has to happen, if the dream is unrealistic and unsustainable.
The relationship between the three main characters is unlike anything that I've ever seen portrayed on film. The twins, Isabelle and Theo, are almost as close to each other in young adulthood as they were during the nine months they spent together in their mother's womb. Matthew, a U.S. student studying abroad in Paris, inserts himself into the middle, and when he receives early indications that portend the depth of the relationship between the twins, he does not run away. To me, this required too much suspension of disbelief, but I'm certainly aware that others have different proclivities. If Bertolucci's intent was to show a high degree of separation between his three dreamers and the rest of society, he certainly succeeded.
The three dreamers have some, but ultimately too little, awareness of their separation from reality and the unsustainable nature of the world they create. While sympathizing with the revolutionaries in the street, they actually are the ultimate materialistic consumers: they produce nothing that they consume (neither food nor art), and when the money their parents provide runs out, and they've drained most of the wine cellar, the harsh realities of life set in. Rooting through trash heaps isn't the answer, and the choices that they leave themselves in the end (self-annihilation or nihilism), I believe, show just how flawed their ideal world is. My interpretation is that this lesson also applies to the other set of dreamers, the street revolutionaries, but those who even today sympathize with the views of those revolutionaries will reject this interpretation.
`The Dreamers' is very voyeuristic, and Bertolucci puts his three leads through some incredibly intimate moments. All three leads are quite good, with Eva Green in particular deserving special notice for a completely uninhibited performance (at least the two male leads had each other's example to follow). It's hard to come up with an accurate overall rating for this film, because I think there will be a widespread variance in how different people react to both the storyline and the images. Read the reviews carefully, and if it sounds like something that interests and won't shock you, then give it a try. My middle-of-the-road rating is mainly due to my not being terribly interested in the type of relationship formed by the three main characters.
67 out of 90 people found the following comment useful :-

Only real film lovers will understand and love this work of art, 5 August 2005
Author: Aluísio Parondi (nem.freud.explica@gmail.com) from Winooski, Vermont, USA
"The Dreamers" is one of Bernardo Bertolucci's most underrated films. A mesmerizing love declaration for The Cinema, this unforgettable film must be discovered.
In 1968, 19-year-old American Matthew (Michael Pitt), while settling in Paris for studying French, meets two equally young, beautiful and liberal film buffs: the twins Isabelle (Eva Green, another Bertolucci's luminous discovery, like he did with Liv Tyler in "Stealing Beauty") and Theo (Louis Garrel, son of French director Philippe Garrel and the best of the cast). The twins' parents travel, and Matthew is invited to join the attractive duo in their apartment. He accepts the invitation, of course, and the threesome starts a bizarre game of seduction with a charming leitmotiv: riddles about classic films. Who doesn't know the right answer, has to do what he/she is asked to. In the background, student riots in defense of Henri Langlois and his merit on the Cinémathèque Française are breaking out on the streets.
The film is superb, artistically and technically. Bertolucci is top-notch, the soundtrack is overwhelming (with songs by Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Édith Piaf, among others), and the cinematography (by Fabio Cianchetti) is one of the best, if not the best, I've seen recently. Gilbert Adair, we can't forget, did an excellent job adapting his novel, "The Holy Innocents", to the big screens. The sex/full frontal scenes and amorality can shock some people, this is definitely not a film for all tastes (as almost all masterpieces), but those who are open-minded and admire good cinema, will be entranced. The ending is one of the most surprising, original and brilliant I've ever seen, but, unfortunately, not everyone will get it. That's a crying shame, but original films tend to be misunderstood. "The Dreamers" is no exception.
A must-see to all film lovers. My vote is 10.
53 out of 66 people found the following comment useful :-

One of the Best Movies of the Year, 19 July 2005
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In 1968, while living in Paris for learning French, the nineteen years old American Matthew (Michael Pitt) meets the also film lovers, amoral and incestuous twins Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel) in the "Cinémathèque Française" in the Palais de Chaillot and they become best friends. They stay together in the twin's apartment, while many social protests are arising on the streets of Paris.
"The Dreamers" has been released on DVD in Brazil a couple of months ago, and it certainly is one of the best movies of the year. The story conflicts the dreams of three youngsters, who breathe and see the world through the cinema, and the reality of life, on the social movements on streets of Paris. The stone through the window of their apartment is a metaphor of the awakening of Isabelle and Theo. The direction is superb, the cinematography and camera are amazing, the erotic story having the background of true events is delightful and the performance of the cast is perfect. The beauty of the unknown Eva Green is very impressive, and I really recommend this outstanding movie. My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): "Os Sonhadores" ("The Dreamers")
63 out of 89 people found the following comment useful :-

Rêve Nostalgique, 21 December 2004
Author: TemporaryOne-1 from Orlando, Florida, USA
The Innocents is Bertolucci's nostalgic reverie of the Past, Present, and Future.
Bertolucci dreamily reminisces of youths who long to experience new sensations of freedom unknown to them.
Underlying his dream, The Innocents depicts youths imitating art imitating youths, a powerful, universal cycle which revolves without end, propelling the revolutions that fuel humanity forward.
Although Bertolucci stages the film in 1968 Paris, he allows the essence of the film to meander wistfully from the revolutionary past as we gleefully remember it, to the present life as we dolefully (and regrettably) live it, and forward to the unknown future that brims with exciting possibilities of new revolutions.
His gives us three innocent youths desiring to plow forward into a hypnotic New World that titillates their senses and intellect.
However, the inexperienced innocents become overwhelmed by the raging life encompassing them; they lock themselves away, creating a dream world which enables them to safely explore New World ideals without affecting their innocence.
Their self-exilement turns revolutionary as they act upon exactly what they feel; abandoning Old World traditions, they allow their innocence to transform itself into experience, and they leave their dream-world behind.
Bertolucci reflects upon these sensory moments by injecting into the film snatches of real breakthrough European films, music, and sexual explicitness that inspired European youths to break away from Old World traditions. These films and songs captured moments of pure sensory freedom unimcumbered by afterward consequences.
As youths do in reality, the three innocents on screen embrace these "controversial" films and songs, and delight in their awakening sexuality. They desire to "experience" the exuberance exhibited in the films and music, without a care for the real impact of their actions.
These films and songs capture sensory moments without definitive endings, and the three innocents capture sensory-sexual moments without being tangled up in the consequences.
The Innocents becomes a piece of revolutionary nostalgia for all viewers: viewers who delightfully consume the novelty of the cinematic experience and viewers who condemn the film; the ultimate consequence occurs: the film is pushed into the cycle of youths imitating art imitating youths...
41 out of 51 people found the following comment useful :-
Cinema, sex, politics, and Bertolucci..., 23 July 2004
Author: fdpedro from Miami, Florida
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Some people think Bernardo Bertolucci could be placed among Italy's other great directors such as Fellini, Leone, or DeSica. But there are still people out there who never forgave him from LITTLE BUDDHA, or that thought LAST TANGO IN Paris was overrated soft-core porn. His latest film, THE DREAMERS, might be misunderstood as a film about the 1968 student riots in Paris. It's not. Instead, it uses 1968 Paris as a backdrop for the triangular relationship of a naïve American with a pair of incestuous French twins.
Young and innocent Matthew (Michael Pitt) just arrived in Paris from San Diego in order to study the French language, but finds himself attending to the Cinematheque Francais instead. 'Only the French would build a movie theater in a palace,' he states in his narration. As he spends his vacation inside screening room with chain-smoking New Wave pioneers, the student riots start breaking out and he ends up meeting twins Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel), who both are very similar to Matthew except that they are hmmm very French. After engaging interesting conversations that range from Nicholas Roeg to rock n' roll, they all start bounding up as friends and the twins invite him over to their apartment for dinner.
Theo and Isabelle's apartment consists of the stereotypical French family: They all smoke like chimneys and mom and dad (Anna Chancellor and Robin Renucci) are poets who love to talk about art and philosophy. When Matthew learns the parents are leaving for a month and that he can stay with the twins in the apartment for all this time, he finds himself in heaven. But things are far from heaven. He soon sees Isabelle and Theo have an unhealthy closure: They bathe together, sleep together, and masturbate in front of each other. Is there something going on or are they just too European?
At first Matthew is disgusted by their behavior, but the sexual tension between him and Isabelle (and to some extent, Theo) soon wins over. This is Bertolucci we're talking about, after all! The apartment eventually becomes one filthy, inhabitable place and the kids can barely survive. They run out of food, money, and are close enough to fall asleep in a bathtub and wake up dipped in menstrual blood. You would expect the story could take a LORD OF THE FLIES approach of turning the twins into psychopath savages, but screenwriter Gilbert Adair (who based the movie upon his novel) gives us a much more interesting story to watch.
These kids are, like many of us, movie buffs and spend their time challenging each other on identifying film references. The punishment for not knowing how the famous assassination scene in SCARFACE turns out to be sexual interplay between the characters. Is that a punishment? The discussions in the apartment cover sex, cinema, music, and politics. So you have the kids discussing who is funnier: Keaton of Chaplin? Who plays the guitar better: Hendrix or Clapton? Is the Vietnam War right? But my favorite is weather or not Maoism is the way to go. Theo describes Maoism as an epic movie with thousands of idealistic thinkers carrying their little red books and revolting. But Matthew adds that it would not be a very engaging epic since everyone carrying the little red book would speak the same dialogue, wear the same clothes, have the same characteristics. They wouldn't be characters, they would be extras. It's in moments like these where the actors really shine. Eva Green in particular is a true charming revelation and it's a shame Fernando Meirelles wasn't able to cast her in THE CONSTANT GARDENER like he wanted to.
Bertolucci isolates the characters from the events happening in the streets as much as he can, keeping the camera (for most of the time) inside the apartment. It's not enough to call the film a Dogma 95 sell-out, but it's really engaging and quite different from what you would expect from the director of THE LAST EMPEROR. The movie is called THE DREAMERS because the kids live inside their little mystical cocoon isolated from life and not doing anything about the problems they discuss. Matthew is the only one who seems to realize how immature it all is and how sick the incestuous relation between Theo and Isabelle makes him feel, unlike the usual 'Europeans are way cooler than Americans' stereotype you would expect from these cultural clash topics. Once the violent revolts start kicking in and the kids' orgy cocoon is shattered by the stone breaking the window, they eventually join the riots. But that is when Matthew finally realizes he will never convince the twins to change their nature.
The film was rated NC-17 in America by the MPAA. So it's okay to show Jesus Christ being slowly killed for two-hours, but a gasp a penis is truly outrageous! The NC-17 rating truly killed the film from getting any kind of attention it deserved since Americans still confuse it with pornographic material. We all know that rating systems across the world are different. In America, sex is seen as a more serious taboo than violence while 14 year olds can see this film in Italy and the French gave it a -12 rating. It's not only sex however, the French slasher film HAUTE TENSION was recently given the NC-17 tag also, and for violence. While I know the MPAA will never change their ways, I really think it's time they grew up and decide to create a new rating in-between R and NC-17 showing the this film is intended for adults only. Similar to what they did when RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK came out. America really needs a complete ratings make-over and the MPAA should really think of replacing their team with people who actually know right from wrong. Otherwise, brilliant films like these will keep getting overlooked in the future.
(5/5)
36 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-

A Bertolucci pet project, 14 July 2004
Author: George Parker from Orange County, CA USA
"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)
47 out of 75 people found the following comment useful :-

Poetically brave and challenging., 13 May 2004
Author: ks4 from EU
Matthew is a young american student in france, his passion for movies leads him into Theo and Isabelle, two twins that shares his passion, they quickly build a deep friendship and Matthew gets invited to stay with them while their parents are gone. However once he gets settled with them he discovers sides of both that he had not expected. While they spend their time talking and playing, the riots of Paris 1968 goes on in the "real world".
This is a very brave film in the way it has been build, but it is also a complicated movie that will leave you both confused and thinking, it's beautiful and it can almost be described as cinematic poetry, however this poetry also makes it a difficult one to relate too.
After seeing this film i am confused in what i feel about it, the movie feels very divided, and some times it is an extraordinary brave and experimental film, other times it is confuing, and at some times boring too. It's really a hard movie to understand because of the poetic feeling it gives, it's like reading a poem where some of the lines doesn't make sense, but i guess that could be an advantage as it can be seen more than once. I feel the strength of the movie is the way it challenges and explores like no american or typical mainstream movie would do, the often use of nudity and raw sex scenes would never be seen elsewhere, and even though it may annoy many people, Bertolucci portrays the scenes very beautiful and they never seem like dirty scenes, the most impressive scene is the one where Matthew and Isabelle have sex, never have a full sex scene been portrayed in such a beautiful and realistic way on screen. And there are many examples of this.
What brings the movie is first of all the very slow storyline, it barely moves at all, the whole 2 hours are pretty much circulating around one thing, which is the way these 3 youngsters spend their sparetime, it's an mysterious movie that really brings up interesting situations a lot of times, but other times it simply gets too slow and gets a little boring. Another partly negative thing is the understanding of the movie, as I earlier mentioned the movie is like a poem, if you have problems with a few lines the whole deeper meaning may fall apart. I wouldn't say i did not understand the fully deeper meaning of the movie, but i think each individual will understand this movie differently, due to the complex way it has been made. But i honestly think Bertolucci wanted it to be like that, a movie that will leave you thinking about many things, but i think what it really is about is finding yourself in a world where there are 6 billion people looking like you on the outside.
The movie is very well directed, a solid directing and you can clearly see the trademarks of the director, one thing i noticed was the floating camera. The floating camera gives a feeling of being there, it is mostly used in the first part of the movie where Matthew learns more about his mysterious new friends, it gives us a feeling of curiousity towards these two new persons. Two persons whom we soon discover have more to them than showing on the outside.
The acting in the movie is solid. I usually don't expect much from new and coming actors and actresses that i have not heard about before, this was also the case for this movie. But the acting is really good, Michael Pitt and Louis Garrel really gives an above average performance, great to see that there are still new actors who can take over when the old ones will be gone. But the star of this movie is Eva Green, what a mysteriously and unique performance, and what a brilliant casting, she is unique, beautiful and most importantly interesting, erotic and challenging. Also i give props to all the three main characters for their brave and realistic portray of nudity and the complications of sex among unexperienced youngsters.
As i said earlier this movie is very complex, it's hard to understand, and i could probably talk about it forever, but i got to stop somewhere. I think the movie is definetely worth watching, it's very artistic and does indeed stand on its own feet, it takes chances you don't see many movies take, and it's all done very well. On the negative side i think the movie sometimes get too complex and slow, but overall i don't regret seeing it, and i think that i will be seeing it again due to the complex story, it will probably bring me new thoughts when i see it next time.
6/10
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