The Dreamers (2003) User Reviews

All dreamers must eventually wake up

[cs100 · 6/10 · 10 March 2004]

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.

A romantic confession of a great filmmaker

[theachilles · 8/10 · 1 August 2004]

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.

A Bertolucci pet project

[=G= · 7/10 · 14 July 2004]

"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)

fine film-making overcomes flaws

[Buddy-51 · 3 October 2004]

'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.

From Sexual Hedonism To Political Activism

[hokeybutt · 6/10 · 4 March 2005]

THE DREAMERS (3 outta 5 stars) Interesting project by the renowned director Bernardo Bertolucci... dealing with the events of 1968 in France... a time of great social upheaval, as rioting students took to the streets to shut down the French government. The main characters are a young American student who has come to France to study film... and a very unconventional brother and sister who recruit him to their offbeat lifestyle. All three are obsessed by film (as many young people were in 1968... the glory days of the avant garde)... and also with the concept of breaking rules and societal taboos. With their parents away for the month and the flat to themselves, bets are made on film trivia and the penalties for not identifying a particular moment from a particular film become more and more shocking. Only leaving their home to watch films, the trio are basically oblivious to the growing trouble in the streets... until finally they can sit passively no more. Very intriguing concept and the acting is fine... but ultimately I thought the conclusion fell a little flat... the transition from sexual hedonism to political activism didn't really work for me... it all seemed a little abrupt and could have been explored a little deeper. Worth watching and discussing though.

How I fell in love with Eva Green

[Bored_Dragon · 10/10 · 16 February 2019]

Bernardo Bertolucci has always been one of my favorite directors, but with this film, he bought me for all time. "The Dreamers" is a film that I saw many times and I've never found the strength nor found the right words to describe and analyze it. This is an example of movie magic, and magic cannot be explained. Or maybe I do not want to try, fearing that by analyzing I could spoil my love for this movie. A strong story, perfect atmosphere, great music and a very good feeling for details. "The Dreamers" is full of references to many famous movies and, as my movie experience grows with years, every time I watch it the experience is getting stronger. Eva Green is fantastic and it's hard to believe that this is her first movie role. I'd be lying if I said that her nudity and sex scenes had no influence, but mostly I was fascinated by her overall appearance and a powerful presence on the screen, and this fascination holds me for fifteen years. The first cadre of the scene where she mimics Venus de Milo is one of the most beautiful erotic photographs I have ever seen.

10/10

When Politics, sex, films and books are all united.....

[Lady_Targaryen · 6/10 · 12 August 2006]

Based on Gilbert Adair's novel'' The Holy Innocents'', ''The Dreamers'' is a very different movie from the conventional ones I am used to watch. Isabelle and Theo, the twins, has a very intimate relationship for brothers that I don't understand very well and Matthew, their new American friend (and lover) starts to accept the way they are and fall in love with both of them. One thing I need to complain about the movie, is the hypocrisy that I read in the trivia section, saying that if they show Matthew's and Theo's relationship it might have been "too much'' for the public, but Theo and Isabelle, that are brother and sister, can sleep together and have the most unusual behavior of all. I don't agree with that and if I needed to choose something that would ''shock'' someone, an ambiguous relationship between brothers would be much more shocking then a gay relationship.

Anyway, Matthew is a young American exchange student that came to Paris in order to study French. The year is 1968, and he easily become friend of the twins Isabelle and Theo, since they three love to watch movies.

As their friendship grows, Matthew learns of the extreme intimacy shared by Isabelle and Theo and enters into their world. First he falls for Isabelle for later also love Theo, and the three seclude themselves from the world, falling further and further from the reality of the 1968 student riots.

One of the Best Movies of the Year

[claudio_carvalho · 10/10 · 19 July 2005]

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")

Two hours in the company of people who weren't that interesting

[Tweekums · 6/10 · 18 June 2012]

In the summer of 1968 American student Matthew is in Paris; he is spending a year there to improve his French; he is also a cinephile, spending much of his time at the Cinémathèque Française watching films old and new. Also attending are twins Isabelle and Theo although they don't talk to each other until the man in charge of the cinema is fired leading to protests by his supporters. During the protest Matthew gets talking to Isabelle and later gets invited home for dinner. It is raining so he ends up spending the night in the spare room. The next day Isabelle and Theo's parents depart for a month long holiday and the twins invite him to stay. It is clear that Isabelle and Theo aren't like most twins; they have a relationship that is almost incestuous. They spend their time discussing films, enacting scenes from films for the others to guess and when they can't expecting them to perform forfeits of a sexual nature. It is one such forfeit that begins Isabelle and Matthew's sexual relationship. While this is going on the city is in turmoil but the trio barely notice as they are so wrapped up in their own world.

What you think of this film will largely be down to what you think of the three main characters; if you find them interesting people to be with you'll probably love it; if you find the to be pretentious bores you won't; unfortunately I found my self leaning towards the latter camp. I suspect it would also help if you have a good knowledge of the films they reference. This isn't to say the film isn't well made; I liked how their actions were intercut with clips from the films they were referencing and thought the actors did a fine job portraying their characters. There is a fair amount of nudity and sexual activity that some viewers might find excessive although it is for the most part dealt with in a very matter of fact way; filmed in the way one might film a clothed person rather than being coy or attempting to eroticise the nudity... there is one scene that might shock though when it becomes clear that is was Isabelle's first time. Overall I'd say this is worth checking out but be prepared to be disappointed... however you might just have the opposite reaction and love it!

The Dreamers

[FilmFanatic09 · 9/10 · 4 December 2006]

The characters of "The Dreamers" love movies. They pass their time quoting them, reenacting scenes from them, and debating age-old questions such as the merits of Chaplin versus Keaton. When at the cinema, they make sure to sit in the rows closest to the screen. Why? So the images will reach them before anyone else, while still fresh. If this strikes you as illogical, perhaps "The Dreamers" isn't the movie for you. This is a film about film lovers and will likely be most appreciated by lovers of film in return. The basic narrative follows Matthew, a young American (the boyish Michael Pitt), who is studying in Paris during the late 60s, the time of the student riots. The film does a good job of setting up the loneliness which engulfs him in this foreign place, so we are quick to understand why he so eagerly accepts the offer to stay with French twins Isabelle and Theo (Eva Green and Louis Garrel) he has met at- where else?- the cinema.

As the three take up life in their spacious Parisian flat, vacated by the twins' parents while abroad, Matthew senses that something about these two is a bit off. It isn't long before he is aware of the incestuous undertones constantly present in the twins' interactions with one another. In attempting to confirm that their relationship does have some degree of limitations, Matthew questions Isabelle, receiving the chilling response, "He is always inside of me." It may be reassuring to Matthew, as well as many audience members, that no, these characters never sleep together in the literal sense. What is at work here is something much more difficult to explain. The film handles it well. Eventually, in an attempt to break Isabelle out of her self-inflicted dependency on her brother, Matthew asks her on a date, which proves to be the most joyfully innocent moment of the film. From here, things turn slightly ambiguous and the film opts to relinquish the personal, in favor of a more political ending. It is interesting to note the closing credits run over chanteuse Edith Piaf's "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" (No, I Regret Nothing). If we knew whether or not this was chosen in irony, a lot would be explained.

One can't help compare "The Dreamers" to Bertolucci's other Parisian-set exploration of erotica, "Last Tango in Paris." That film contained two lovers who were very much dead inside. "The Dreamers" contains three who are filled with youthful exuberance and have seemingly endless passion for things such as politics and the arts. Both films are frank and graphic in how they depict sex. As a matter of course, both stirred much controversy. I suspect many people will watch "The Dreamers" already expecting to be incensed by it. That is their loss. For those who are willing, "The Dreamers" can be a changing experience. What exactly it changes, however, is certainly bound to vary from person to person. Perhaps it will force you to reconsider your political outlook. Possibly it will alter how you view societally unacceptable relationships. Conceivably it could lead you to the realization of just how great an impact the films have on some people and their existence. Or maybe it will change your stance on who really was better: Chaplin or Keaton?

Side note: I found it endlessly refreshing to find a film where characters spoke in their native language when appropriate, and the audience was forced to make-do with subtitles.

A Heterosexual Film Cleverly Disguised as a Bisexual Wet Dream

[surenm · 6/10 · 7 February 2004]

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

If you're bisexual or gay and you don't want to be, this anthem of unashamed nudity is the film for you.

It is of high interest to me at least that in a world where individuality is praised over all else that such conformist filmmaking still exists to the extremes seen in "The Dreamers," especially for such an art house piece. One cannot discount Bertolucci as a filmmaker, his craft is superb and his technique unsurpassed, but his sexual politics are highly questionable.

This is probably the closest I have ever seen a film teeter-totter on the edge of having real bisexual characters, yet carefully making sure to never cross into that "dangerous" and "forbidden" territory. One could say the same about its incestuous brother / sister couple, for he never "entered" her, so technically they didn't really have a sexual relationship, so by this logic they basically weren't really a couple. And Michael Pitt never really did anything with Louis Garrel so basically they were both straight, except that they liked to be naked a lot and take baths with each other, against the "hot" backdrop of the '68 Paris riots. What kind of message is this film sending? That it is okay to lie naked and so intimately close to other members of the same sex just as long as you don't touch them in any way that might be considered sexual? Or that one would go too far by having a brother and sister make out or worse make love on screen? But implying that they do, except actually they don't, is okay instead?

This is very confused filmmaking when dealing with sexual politics and it sends mixed signals; a kind of very strange, conservative, and conformist message to the art house scene. My opinion: if you're going to make a film about a boy that falls in love with a girl and a boy, whether they are brother and sister or not, then make that film. Don't make a film pretending to be a film about a boy that falls in love with a girl and a boy but only makes out with the girl. This is a highly pretentious and cold way of treating a potentially beautiful concept.

Interestingly, the way the sexuality of the three-way relationship was treated mirrors the way the Paris riots where treated, they were utterly glossed over and unreal, they felt like an overtone to a movie about a hopelessly romantic yet sexually mature heterosexual American boy falling in love with a confused little French girl who just happens to live with her weird heterosexual Siamese twin brother. And they all love to sleep naked next to each other. It is unbelievable how a film about love, sex, and the beauty of openness can be so utterly cruel, closed-minded, and conservative. If you like your sex and history the way you like your toast, buttered on one side only, then enjoy this bitter piece of celluloid chocolate.

Poetically brave and challenging.

[ks4 · 8/10 · 13 May 2004]

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

Loses steam in the second half (**1/2)

[Ronin47 · 6/10 · 6 March 2004]

"The Dreamers", Bernardo Bertolucci's NC-17 rated movie about sex, riots and film in 1968 Paris is a meaningful and worthwhile film. In fact, parts of it are so good that when it loses a lot of steam in the second hour, it hurts.

Matthew (Michael Pitt, from "Bully" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch") is an American student in Paris, a film-lover at a time and place where being one (and seeing films by controversial New Wave directors like Jean-Luc Godard) was actually a political and revolutionary gesture. He meets attractive French twins Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel) who are also young and have similar interests.

Matthew is staying in a hotel but his new friends Isabelle and Theo invite him to stay in their large house while their parents are away. In this house over the next few weeks, with a student riot brewing in the streets outside, the three of them engage in various sexual games with one another, pushing each other further and further.

Matthew is highly put off at first by the creepy, nearly-sexual intimacy between the twins, but at a time in history where ANYTHING outside of the norm feels like a revolutionary gesture, he is swept along, exhilarated by any opportunity to push the boundaries.

The first hour of "The Dreamers" is excellent. The period detail, soundtrack (including lots of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin), cinematography, acting...all is nearly perfect. So it's a shame when it becomes repetitive and flat for much of the second half.

Unlike a lot of reviewers, I don't have any problems with Michael Pitt's performance. I think he portrays the initially blank, impressionable Matthew quite well.

The film is pretentious and sometimes slow-going in that second hour, but when it works, it's gripping and damn good.

A story of three students, emotionally adrift at a time of swift social change, eagerly pushing cultural and sexual boundaries but perhaps unprepared for the consequences, this is not a story you get at the movies very often.

One thing is for sure, it's for adults only. The NC-17 rating is well-earned, and the sex scenes here will take all but the most mentally prepared art film aficionados quickly out of their comfort zone.

It's disappointing in the end, but has enough powerful moments to be well worth taking notice of.

Weird, and not in a cool way

[fairy396 · 2/10 · 8 September 2023]

I'm surprised people like this movie so much and call it a masterpiece. The movie is just an American guy meeting two French colleagues that are children of an English mother and know the main character is American and doesn't speak French from the beginning, and the three become close friends right away. They take Matthew to their house, the siblings' parents are very nice people (while Matthew's are not) and still Theo doesn't like them (at least his father). The parents invite Matthew to stay over, even though they barely know him, and leave.

At the first night, Matthew figures that Theo and Isabelle have an incestuous relationship and Isabelle kisses Matthew even though they barely know each other, on the next day he wakes up with her licking him, which is very intrusive and not nice at all.

And oof, Matthew has the **unforgivable** habit of urinating in the sink. Once he does it on Theo's toothbrush and he doesn't even have the decency of throwing it off. Why? It's disgusting!

They are cinephiles, but it seems to be only a detail to fit in the overly sexual plot. The sister asks her brother what's the name of the movie and when he doesn't, she makes him masturbate to a woman in a picture in front of her and Matthew and even licks the fluid. It's gross, honestly.

Theo later on decides to do the same. He gives Isabelle - and Matthew - the task of identifying a movie and Matthew is close to, maybe even did guess, but Theo deliberately makes the time short enough not to let them guess, and then make Isabelle and Matthew do you know what in front of him. Matthew is reluctant and even hides but even then they force/pressure him into it. That's literally sexual abuse. And after it, Isabelle bleeds and cries, Theo puts his hand on the blood and then Matthew rubs the blood on her face and they kiss. What an awful scene.

Matthew and Isabelle starts dating and Theo ironically doesn't like it. Theo and Matthew later on do the homoerotic shotgunning, which makes one think they later will have a threesome or a relationship, whatever, there's more nudity, they eat from the trash can after spending all their money, keep talking about films... I don't know much about the rest. I stopped watching at some point.

This movie is basically shock value with hardly any substance. Maybe what makes it appealing is that the actors look good, the siblings' parents are nice, there's art, there's Paris (which many people are in love with), and also some people have certain kinks and/or like shocking movies.

Anyway, not for me.

Sex, Cinema, Politics - A True Molotov Cocktail

[Alex_52 · 20 July 2004]

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.

Imperfect But, Nonetheless, an Important Bertulucci Film

[lawprof · 7/10 · 7 February 2004]

Bernardo Bertulucci has a solid place in modern filmmaking. A genuine iconoclast, he has produced movies of lasting value although, perhaps, of more interest to serious cinema lovers and film academics than to a wider audience.

Bertulucci's vision of film is that of a political activist in a director's chair. Film to him matters for far more than its transient entertainment value. Bertulucci has stated that "cinema is the true poetic language" and in "The Dreamers" he has gone further than in previous efforts to unite a love of film with his heartfelt belief that it encompasses and presents the realities of both personal experience and political change and turmoil.

The year is 1968. It was, as I well remember as a military intelligence, General Staff Army officer in the Pentagon, a disturbing and troubled year. Anti-war demonstrations, often violent, racial unrest leading to major upheavals in America's cities, Resurrection City, distrust of government and the political process, the "Police Riot" during the Chicago Democratic Convention - these and other events were the fragile tinderboxes of widespread dissent. But compared to France, the United States was experiencing unpleasant but ultimately absorbed and defanged behavior The country's youth, a minority of them, demonstrated, a few committed major crimes and most cared about futures in which they believed. Racial bigotry and discrimination produced some change, not enough but not so little as to sustain recurring rioting.

In France the Republic came close to falling as first students and then workers battled police with a fierceness that threatened social and political stability. Three characters in "The Dreamers," each a devoted cinephile, fall into an unusual - and for some audience members today unsettling- menage a trois as they try to reconcile a love of film with a Paris of threatening disorder and violent change.

American Matthew, played by a dreamily listless Michael Pitt, is using his student deferment to study French. At a demonstration protesting the government-ordered closing of a major movie theater devoted to the full range of film history, he meets beautiful Isabel, Eva Green, and her brother, Theo, Louis Garmel. A friendship quickly develops and the siblings invite Mathew to their parent's spacious but cluttered apartment, first for a meal and then to stay while the parents go on holiday.

Theo disdains his author/father and behaves like the petulant child he really is. He fancies himself an intellectual but Bugs Bunny has expressed deeper thoughts. Theo is the stereotype of the "don't trust anyone over thirty" character of those days.

Matthew realizes that Theo and Isabel are unusually close for siblings. In point of fact they have a physical relationship, the depth of which is never fully revealed. Matthew is drawn into explicitly shown sex with Isabel, the reason for the rare NC-17 that is the movie's rating (I.D. was actually checked at the ticket booth and anyone looking south of age 25 had to proffer acceptable documentation). Too many reviews of this movie emphasize the incestuous relationship to the exclusion of more important themes.

The trio acts out various tableaux based on questions about classic film scenes which are interspersed throughout the game-playing which is a central part of the siblings' interaction. However sensational the sex scenes are to some, Bertulucci's key success is showing the insidious transformation of harmless games into a coda for sexuality and political belief and action. For Theo, film is a reality that transmogrifies his world view. An increasingly credulous, and sensible, Matthew is madly in lust with Isabel but when Theo asks him to consider China's Great Cultural Revolution as a glorious film with Mao as director and millions as the cast he knows something is amiss with his friend.

In the Bertulucci tradition of a film within a film, the three-way sexual relationship is both an encounter with and a retreat from reality. But the world can't be kept at bay forever as Bertulucci shows in the final scenes.

Hardly a perfect film, "The Dreamers" is, once the sexual explicitness is relegated to its proper place, a homily about how film matters but that it may not always be a safe harbor for its devotees. The non-physical relationship of the three young people is far deeper and more interesting than the erotic aspect.

There's little chance a movie with an NC-17 rating will be in many theaters or play long in those where it is booked. But anyone serious about the relevance of a vibrant cinema owes Bertulucci a careful viewing of "The Dreamers."

At the end of the trailer there was a magnificent absurdity (this can't possibly be deemed a spoiler). We're all used to being assured that no animals were harmed during filming. This one proclaims that "Indigenous trees were planted to offset the release of carbon dioxide during filming." Political correctness to the nth degree.

7/10.

A disquietingly beautiful film

[seishino · 10/10 · 28 October 2006]

To steal a metaphor from the movie, The Dreamers is like watching your parents have sex through the keyhole of their door. It disturbs you, sometimes so deeply that you want to run away. But it is so real that you can't stop watching. And as you watch it, your view of the world changes a little.

This is not an easy movie. It starts out lighthearted, innocent, and 2-dimensional. But as it progresses, it gets deeper and deeper and the characters get more and more complex. Uncomfortable aspects of the people are brought to the forefront. While it doesn't bask in hedonism like most Hollywood films, it doesn't shy away from any controversial subjects as long as they're the reality of the people.

You don't have to be in an open relationship to identify with the situations the characters find themselves in. Taking place almost entirely with three people in one large house, it's amazingly acted, wonderfully heartfelt... If you are strong enough to watch it, The Dreamers is well worth the effort.

magnetic debut for Eva Green

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 2 September 2015]

It's 1968. Matthew (Michael Pitt) is an American student in Paris to study French. He ends up spending his free time watching French cinema. He meets twins Théo (Louis Garrel) and Isabelle (Eva Green) at the Cinémathèque Française protesting the firing of Henri Langlois by the government. Matthew stays with them while their parents are away. They spend all their time together and then the student riots begin.

This was the first thing I saw from Eva Green and she is completely magnetic. She owns the screen. She even exceeded the veteran at the time Michael Pitt. It's a big debut. The mixing with the old film clips would have been great except I recognize only a few of them. This meanders too much for me. It's lazy hazy summer of love.

Excellent movie with superb actors

[siebold · 10/10 · 10 July 2005]

Yeserday I saw this film. I hoped it would transmit the feeling of the '68 and the film did. Not only the menage a trois but also the surrounding atmosphere of Paris and the streets have also been really fantastic.

The sex-scenes of two of the three main-actors has been really realistic and often quoted as reality and not acting. From my point of view great parts of the film focuses on the relationship between the three characters which has the result that a great part of the "real" history has to be reduced.

Otherwise displays the relationship of the three figures the feeling of the time and their participators.

A really great movie of Bertoluci.

Siebold

The nudity...my god!

[matthewreynolds83 · 7/10 · 15 January 2007]

I am watching The Dreamers as i write this. I'm nearly deaf so have rigged up an in ear monitor type device so I can listen at top volume. It's amazing, the difference it makes being able to hear each syllable as it's spoken as clear as a thought in your own head. With this in mind I found the dialogue a little pretentious. Also I found it easy to predict a lot of the dialogue which is something I dislike about a lot of films. The nudity shocked me. Not because I'm repressed or 'innocent' but because it's steps over boundaries as if they were pieces of gum on the pavement. It happens! BAM! An erection right there, so close you can nearly smell it! This didn't bother me as such, in fact I admired the actors for their courage and passion for their art to perform so outwardly. So far (over an hour in...probably more) I like it a lot. These are my opinions. I am not a critic. You can probably tell this fact from reading this drivel. In fact I dislike critics with a passion. Watch the film. I liked it, and i'm great!

great movie

[datflyboy · 10/10 · 20 May 2005]

this was a truly great movie, i enjoyed it from start to finish. i think it was very creative and well put together. as a very artistic free thinker i loved it. i know many may not get it though, and i know some may not see past the nudity and some of the content. i think these all tied in well with the story however. even more than this movie being great. the story was great as well. loved it! the characters in the movie were well rounded and the director should be credited for that. the political twist of the student riots also added a nice touch to the movie. the ending was the only thing i was disappointed in. it left me wanting more. i guess that isn't a bad thing however. i just wanted to know what went on to happen.

Strange enough to either like it or hate it

[siderite · 7/10 · 29 September 2005]

I didn't like it. :) It was too French for an American audience and too American for a European one. It was too sexual and unconventional for our parents, yet full of references to films that only they could possibly remember.

In the end it felt like an interesting but boring project. I mean, Eva Green was pretty cute, although not particularly beautiful, but I've grown past the age when every film with nudity seemed interesting. The plot was certainly original, but I couldn't really relate to any of the characters. Maybe I'm a prude or something. The wife liked it, though, she found it exciting, even. I can't rate it above average.

It's about cinema and it's about sex: my two favourite things ever :-)

[dickback · 8/10 · 9 March 2005]

Exactly. This movie is about cinema and about sex: how could it possibly be wrong? :-) But yes, I admit I'm too biased to judge it fairly. But the beginning monologue is just captivating: why do you sit in the first row, at the cinema? To catch the images when they are still fresh, and before than the others - oh yeah!

Take a horror movie: maybe it's a great film, but hardly ever you'll dream, you wish you were there - right inside the movie. Well, with "The dreamers" it could be the opposite: regardless from the quality of the movie, you watch it and just wish you were there - living with those beautiful people, in such a stimulating environment, culturally and politically.

In other words, you see "The Dreamers" and you start dreaming. Well, of course that does not make of it a great movie, necessarily - but it's a pretty good start, I'd say.

Yes, the movie is about love (lust, maybe, sex), but also about getting along well with people who are right for you. Not friends, not necessarily friends, but interesting folk, who maybe won't last forever, but who help you in doing what you like, thinking what you think, going where is good for you. And I'm not saying that the cultural environment and the people depicted in the film are the right ones for everybody, but what I say is that watching this film made me feel I'm missing the right company, the right people around me (I'd say, a sort of cultural loneliness), exactly in the same way of when you see a love story and start dreaming about your soul mate. When Matthew writes to his mother and says "you'll be happy to know I met the right people", well, I just envied him. The right people, so rare nowadays.

The Naked Truth

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 24 December 2010]

In Paris for the spring of 1968, cute California exchange student Michael Pitt (as Matthew) meets magnetically sexy twins Eva Green and Louis Garrel (as Isabelle and Theo). The young threesome come together via their love for old movies, and mutual attractiveness. Call them sexy cinephiles. When the twins' parents take a month-long holiday, Mr. Pitt is invited to stay over. The trio discuss old movies, as director Bernardo Bertolucci expertly initiates star "cameos" with Garbo (as "Queen Christina") and Ms. Green memorizing bedrooms. While well-stacked Green puts on a "Big Brother" record (an advance copy?), the guys debate Chaplin versus Keaton. Pitt picks Buster, while Mr. Garrel favors Charlie. They run Godard's "Bande a part" (1964).

The three drink a lot of wine and walk sexily around the house, undressing, while student protesters gather outside…

Mr. Bertolucci's visually beautiful film misses the mark in a couple of crucial areas. The Parisian place is perfect, but the 1968 appearance isn't; led by Pitt's long-in-the-front modern hairstyle and Green's untimely make-up, the players never really look like they have much to do with the heavily evoked setting. You can't dig it. Only Garrel looks like he could've been there. With supplies so low on bell bottoms, chain belts, and Nehru jackets, "The Dreamers" should have used a more modern setting; but, looks aren't everything. Most importantly not too "groovy" was the decision to cut writer Gilbert Adair's sexual experimenting between Pitt and Garrel, while leaving in the tease; this is the critical blow, and it hurts the intertwined trio's relationship considerably.

****** The Dreamers (9/1/03) Bernardo Bertolucci ~ Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel, Robin Renucci

Mr.Bertolucci, you dirty old man

[thehellhole · 1/10 · 4 April 2007]

Mon dieu, "The Dreamers" is one crappy art-house movie! It's highly self-indulgent, pretentious and offers nothing except a glimpse on Eva Green's luscious anatomy (and some bare butts and small sized wieners for the more female male out there).

The story is paper-thin and laughable at times. The "shocking moments" in the movie (rubbing menstruation blood in the face, incest, masturbation while someone is watching, etc..) all feel forced and do not serve the story at all. There are more subtle ways to show that the main characters are deranged and decadent than wanting someone to shave pubic hair as a proof of love.

Here's the basic outline of the story: naive American student meets French twins while protesting at the cinematheque in Paris. They invite him to live with them at their flat while mommy and daddy are away on a long long trip. The three create their own world of rebellion and decadence and screw everything up in the end.

There were two hilarious scenes I really could enjoy: 1) "The Dreamers" are out of money and food, so naked Theo (the twin bro) puts on a jacket (nothing else) and goes straight for the garbage can in the backyard to find something to eat. I literally could not stop laughing!

2) Isabelle (the twin sis) finds daddy's paycheck and realizes that their parents visited them while they were sleeping naked in the tent, so she decides that they have to commit suicide because of the shame. She takes a hose from the kitchen to kill the boys and herself with gas. But SUDDENLY there's a riot on the street, they all wake up, Isabell has to change her plan, quickly puts back the hose and tries to act casual.

The characters in "The Dreamers" act "highly illogical" as Mr. Spock would say. This fact combined with the impression that all three are arrogant morons, who think "Well, f*** up the system, cause daddy is going to fix it!", makes the story really offensive. I'm in my late 20ies but I wanted to kick them all in the nuts, except Eva Green, mainly for anatomical reasons.

If you want to see an interesting film about incest, dysfunctional relationships and consequences watch "The Cement Garden" or way better, read the book by Ian McEwan.