Art, sex, and politics

"The Dreamers," directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, is set in Paris in the 60s. Michael Pitt plays Matthew, an American student and cinema lover. He meets Isabelle and Theo (played by Eva Green and Louis Garrel), a brother and sister with a rather unusual relationship. The film follows the trio as they explore their passion for film and for each other in the shadow of political upheaval.

"Dreamers" is a beautiful film to watch. It's full of sensuous, artfully crafted images--many involving explicit nudity. Michael Pitt is impressive in the lead role. He brings a wide-eyed sense of wonder and an appealing vulnerability to his character. He also fully commits to the frank sexuality of the performance.

Despite the efforts of Green and Garrel, however, I never found their characters believable, and this weakens the film overall--as does its abrupt and unsatisfying ending. Still, the film as a whole pulsates with life and energy, and contains some really wonderful scenes. "The Dreamers" is a vivid portrait of a society in upheaval, and a celebration of the power of film.

A Film That Plays Like Chamber Music

THE DREAMERS has certainly polarized viewers: those who are devoted Bertolucci fans welcome this very unique work and those who object to viewing explicit youthful sensual exploration loathe it. Taken in the vein of Bertolucci's output, it is more a youthful version of his LAST TANGO IN PARIS and as such it is a rather quiet, elegiac exploration of the needs and desires of the disenfranchised youth of the 1960s. The love triangle here is played out by brother/sister Theo/Isabelle ( Louis Garrel and Eva Green) and the American student Matthew (Michael Pitt, in a role that is surprisingly well acted). How they interact, mixing their obsession with old movies with their need to act out their feelings in the 'self-imposed' repression of the isolation of a Parisian apartment when outside the real world is undergoing the Protest Period of the 1960s' disdain for the Vietnam War, etc, etc, is the crux of the ambiguous story. There is no real beginning or ending to this piece, just a glowing string of theme and variations that in Bertolucci's imaginative hands becomes moody chamber music. This is not a film for the squeamish, but it is an elegant cinematic achievement that leaves a strangely beautiful afterglow.

Bold, brave and inquisitive

Bertolucci displays with this unnecessarily controversial movie more bravery than many other directors half his age. Anyone who is young should see it to observe the contradictions that youth's idealism brings upon the three protagonists. Anyone who is older should watch it to remember the bravery of times gone by, to remember a time when many of us still believed protests could change the world and to acknowledge the validity of both youth's panache and experience's fountain of knowledge.