The Dreamers gave me a bad case of Deja Vu. Every now and again, my friends and I have this little "movie" game we play. One of us will quote a line from a favorite film, while the rest of the group tries to name the movie. Sometimes, we'll make it easy ("We're gonna need a bigger boat"), but most of the time, we like to quote the obscure ("I'm taking it out of my pants! . . . I'm doing what my mommy . . . told me not to do!") I'm sure this game is common among movie
fanatics everywhere, and the reason I bring it up is because Bernardo Bertolucci's new film The Dreamers features characters who have a true love for cinema, so much so in fact, that they play this very game throughout the movie.

This sweet love letter to the movies takes place in Paris in the late 60's and features Michael Pitt (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) as Matthew, a naive pacifist with an extensive knowledge and love for film. After spending several lonely nights in Paris, he meets siblings Isabelle and Theo at the Cinematheque and the three soon become inseparable friends. As their friendship blossoms, Matthew becomes increasingly curious about the strange bond between the mysterious brother and sister.

The Dreamers features several sequences in which characters spew their knowledge of film, and while some of the conversations seem a bit obvious (at one point in the picture, Matthew and Theo argue over who's a better performer; Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton), it's clear that this movie and it's makers love cinema.

The Dreamers is making waves and headlines for it's NC -17 rating. It is an extremely erotic film and features explicit sexual encounters, full frontal nudity and two masturbation sequences, but I wouldn't deem the movie pornographic. Intimate yes, but distasteful no. Although Bertolucci does push the envelope (as he did so many years ago with the beautiful Last Tango
in Paris).

The first half of this picture had me absolutely enraptured. It captures a certain movie era that I wasn't a part of, but am familiar with (a time
when film-makers like Godard and Truffaut were the talk of the town). An era that Bertolucci witnessed first-hand. So essentially, the famed director has used this setting to give us a taste of how much movies mean to him.

To a certain extent, The Dreamers attempts to examine the power of movies and the effect they can have on us, however this picture's main characters aren't overly consumed by cinema. Sure, they are passionate about the films they see but their lives aren't obsessively effected by them. And it should also be noted that movie culture now is vastly different than it was back then. The power of independent film is still alive and well, but most of the multiplexes these days are plagued by fast-food films. Back then, and in that particular part of the world, movies meant something completely different. They were overflowing with ideas and passion. These days, generally speaking, we have to seek out the provocative movies. They just aren't as successful as they used to be, though every so often one will generate enough controversy or word of mouth to assure that it's seen (i.e. The Passion of the Christ).

It's clear while watching The Dreamers that Mr. Bertolucci is incredibly passionate about cinema. Not only does this film make references to countless other movies, but it also pays homage to them with stylistic devices (most notably through editing, in which classic film clips are intergrated into the picture).

The performances are quite bold in that all three roles require the ability to be uninhibited. Michael Pitt is quiet and restrained as an observant dreamer in a foreign land, and let's just say that during the course of his screen time, we see more than an Angry Inch. Eva Green is gorgeous and has an absolute love affair with the camera. She's mysterious, sexy, and extremely offbeat, and we will most certainly be seeing more of her in the future. Louis Garrel rounds out the cast as Theo, a young man with
aspirations of changing the world by what ever means necessary.

I've already indicated that I was completely entranced by the first half of The Dreamers, with it's wonderful look at the power of the movies. How did the second half of the picture measure up? Not as well, I'm afraid. This isn't to say I hated it. I just felt that once The Dreamers explodes in a ball of sexual fury about midway, the film kind of loses it's way. It became a tad heavy-handed for my taste, and the cinephile mentality that was so prominent in the first half of the picture was diluted by political statements and other disconcerting themes. Then again, there was a revolution going on at the time, so I guess it's unfair to call the movie uneven.

The Dreamers is a beautiful yet flawed film. Director Bernardo Bertolucci has assembled a cast that was willing to take chances, but it's the film maker's pure love of cinema that really shines through, and that for me, made it pulse with life and art.