The Dreamers Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)October 17th, 2003
THE DREAMERS
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Bernardo Bertulucci's tale of the friendship between an American cinephile, Matthew (Michael Pitt, "Murder by Numbers") and movie mad French twins Isabelle (newcomer Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel) begins with the event that many consider the beginning of the student riots of '68 in Paris - the firing of Henri Langlois, director of the Cinematheque Française. 'Only the French would have a cinema inside a palace,' observes Matthew (a questionable sentiment considering that the U.S. built 'movie palaces'). Love of cinema is beautifully stated as Bertolucci shows Pitt crowded amongst other young people, the black and white images of a Nicholas Ray film flickering over their rapt faces. Matthew joins the crowds protesting Langlois's removal (a protest that proved successful - he was reinstated) and is struck by a young woman who has chained herself to a fence, looking like one of his screen idols.
Isabelle latches on to the young American and invites him home for dinner with their parents, George (Robin Renucci), a well known author and Bohemian intellectual mother (Anna Chancellor, "What a Girl Wants"). When George challenges Matthew for not listening to his ramblings, Matthew turns tables, giving a witty discourse on the cosmic harmony of his cigarette lighter with the patterns of their tablecloth, cementing his reputation with the twins. Their parents departing for the country for the entire summer, Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew to quit his shabby hotel and move in with them. Matthew is overwhelmed.
The straight arrow American is thrown off guard immediately with the twin's casual regard for nudity, sharing the bathroom, and even more alarmingly, their bed. Simple games of cinema trivia take a bizarre 'truth or dare' twist, when Theo fails Isabelle's challenge and she doles out a 'punishment' of masturbation, which Theo dutifully fulfills. Matthew is put on the spot when Theo demands that he sleep with his sister, which Matthew does, on the kitchen floor while Theo fries eggs. Soon the threesome are sharing baths, but the decadent lifestyle and borderline incestuousness of the twins' relationship forces Matthew to attempt to restore some kind of order. He asks Isabelle out on a date.
"The Dreamers" shown at the San Sebastian film festival was, of course, the original version, which will be cut by some 2-3 minutes for its American release. The attendant hoopla this is sure to attract will be good publicity for a rather stupid film which will lose little attaining its 'R' rating. "The Dreamers" must be given credit for its homage to cinema, which is quite masterfully accomplished, with finely tuned editing by Jacopo Quadri. Isabelle throws down a challenge that the trio best the 9 minute record of running through the Louvre accomplished in Godard's "Bande A Part," and as they do the film intercuts the earlier race being duplicated. Then Isabelle and Theo chant the line from Browning's "Freaks," 'We accept him,' all the way home. In a visually witty bit, Isabelle swoons about Matthew's bedroom in tandem with Garbo in "Queen Christina." Garbo's rapturous grasping of a phallic bedpost is hilarious in the new montage.
The film's problem is that its French twins are simply unlikable, the spoiled, self-obsessed children of wealthy intellectuals who live in irresponsible squalor. The '68 riot backdrop is completely absent through the main section of the film, where the three cavort in an apartment that may as well be hermetically sealed from the world. (When the riots are introduced at the film's end, they only serve as a fashionable bandwagon for Isabelle and Theo to jump upon.) It's odd that in Bertolucci's return to 'French' cinema, it is only the American character that has any smarts! (This is further delineated by the sides Matthew takes against Theo debating the merits of Keaton vs. Chaplin and Hendrix vs. Clapton.)
Michael Pitt seems like a substitute for Leonardo DiCaprio in this film. Looking like James Dean crossed with McCauley Kulkin, Pitt softly mumbles his way through. Green has a vivacious quality and Garrel spins an appropriate brood, but the two are saddled with characters who act years younger than their age. Jean Rabasse's production design is the true star of the film. The fabulous layout of the Parisian apartment, where characters can gaze upon each other from rooms separated by an interior courtyard, is more fabulous than its inhabitants.
Brilliantly referenced cinema history paired with a ridiculous central story make "The Dreamers" a wash. C
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