The Dreamers | |
---|---|
Directed by | Bernardo Bertolucci |
Screenplay by | Gilbert Adair |
Based on | The Holy Innocents by Gilbert Adair |
Produced by | Jeremy Thomas |
Starring | Michael Pitt Eva Green Louis Garrel |
Cinematography | Fabio Cianchetti |
Edited by | Jacopo Quadri |
Production companies | Recorded Picture Company Peninsula Films |
Distributed by | TFM Distribution (France) Medusa Distribuzione (Italy) Fox Searchlight Pictures (United Kingdom/United States) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 115 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom France Italy |
Languages | English French |
Budget | $15 million [1] |
Box office | $15.12 million [1] |
The Dreamers is a 2003 romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The screenplay is by Gilbert Adair, based on his 1988 novel The Holy Innocents . An international co-production by companies from France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, the film tells the story of an American university student in Paris who, after meeting a peculiar brother and sister who are fellow film enthusiasts, becomes entangled in an erotic triangle. It is set against the backdrop of the 1968 Paris student riots. The film makes several references to various movies of classical and French New Wave cinema, incorporating clips from films that are often imitated by the actors in particular scenes.
There are two versions: an uncut NC-17-rated version, and an R-rated version that is about three minutes shorter.
Matthew is an American exchange student who has come to Paris to study French. While at the Cinémathèque Française protesting the firing of Henri Langlois, he meets the free-spirited twins Théo and Isabelle. The three bond over a shared love of film. After dinner with their parents, Théo and Isabelle offer Matthew the chance to stay with them while their parents are on a trip. Matthew accepts, considering them his first French friends.
Matthew becomes suspicious of their relationship after seeing them sleeping nude together; he soon discovers that they accept nudity and sexuality liberally. Matthew begins to accept Théo and Isabelle's sexuality and his time living with them soon becomes idyllic. The three re-enact a memorable scene from Bande à part by "breaking the world record for running through the Louvre", and Matthew and Théo engage in playful arguments about Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, as well as the subject of Maoism, which Théo fervently believes in.
After Théo loses at a trivia game, Isabelle sentences him to masturbate to a Marlene Dietrich poster in front of them. After Matthew loses at another game, he is dared by Théo to take Isabelle's virginity in front of him. Matthew and Isabelle then become lovers.
During this time, Matthew begins to pursue a relationship with Isabelle, separate from Théo. Matthew and Isabelle leave the house and go on a regular date, which she has not experienced before. Théo retaliates by inviting a companion up to his room, upsetting Isabelle. She distances herself from both Théo and Matthew, only to find them next to each other on Théo's bed when an argument between the two turns erotic. She then surprises them with a makeshift bedsheet fort and the three fall asleep in each others' arms.
The next morning, Théo and Isabelle's parents arrive home and find the sleeping trio naked in bed together. They are startled by what they find, but let them be, departing after leaving a cheque. Isabelle wakes up and discovers the cheque, realising that their parents have found them out. Wordlessly, she attaches a hose to the gas outlet and lies back down with the still-asleep Théo and Matthew, attempting to commit murder-suicide. After a few moments, however, they are awakened by a brick being hurled through the window; they discover hundreds of students rioting in the streets.
All three of them are overjoyed and proceed to join the protesters. Théo then joins a small team of protesters preparing Molotov cocktails. Matthew tries to stop Théo by kissing him and his sister, arguing against violence, but he is shunned by both Théo and Isabelle.
As Matthew walks away through the chaos, Théo takes Isabelle's hand and hurls a Molotov cocktail at a line of police. The police charge the crowd.
The first draft of the screenplay was an adaptation by Gilbert Adair of his own novel, The Holy Innocents (1988), inspired by the novel Les Enfants terribles (1929) by Jean Cocteau and the eponymous film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville in 1950. During pre-production, Bertolucci made changes to it: he "peppered the narrative with clips from the films he loves" and dropped homosexual content – including scenes from the novel that depict Matthew and Théo having sex – which he felt was "just too much." After the film was released, he said that it was "faithful to the spirit of the book but not the letter." [2]
Eva Green told The Guardian that her agent and her parents begged her not to take the role of Isabelle, concerned that the film – which features full frontal nudity and full rear nudity along with graphic sex scenes – would cause her career to "have the same destiny as Maria Schneider." [2] Jake Gyllenhaal screen tested for the role of Matthew alongside Green, but eventually removed himself from consideration due to concerns about the film’s nudity. [3] Michael Pitt was cast instead.
When Green saw a rough cut of the film, she said she was "quite shocked" and had to look away during the sex scenes; she later told an interviewer that for her, "it was as though I was wearing a costume while we were making the film. It was as if I had another story in my mind. So I was left speechless." [2]
Fox Searchlight Pictures gave the uncut version a limited theatrical release in the United States in 2004; it played in 116 theaters at its peak. [4] In the United States, the film was released theatrically with an NC-17 rating, [4] whereas in Italy it was rated VM14. Even with its NC-17 rating, it grossed $2.5 million in its United States theatrical release. [5]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a positive score of 60% based on 161 reviews, with an average rating of 6.18/10. The site's consensus reads, "Though lushly atmospheric, The Dreamers doesn't engage or provoke as much as it should." [6] The 40 reviews gathered by Metacritic gave it an average score of 62/100, which places the film in the website's "generally favorable" category. [7]
A.O. Scott of The New York Times said the film was "disarmingly sweet and completely enchanting" and described it as "fus[ing] sexual discovery with political tumult by means of a heady, heedless romanticism that nearly obscures the film's patient, skeptical intelligence." [8] The Times called it a "heady blend of Last Tango and Stealing Beauty , but one that combines the grubbily voyeuristic elements of each film rather than their relative strengths." [9] Roger Ebert gave the film four stars, his highest rating, describing the film as "poignant" and "extraordinarily beautiful". [10]
The music advisors were Julien Civange and Charles Henri de Pierrefeu. Janice Ginsberg is credited as music supervisor and Nick Laird-Clowes as music consultant. The soundtrack was released in February 2004; Allmusic gave it three out of five, noting that "while its juxtapositions of French tradition and counterculture are jarring at times, Dreamers still does a worthy job of capturing the film's personal and political revolutions through music." [11]
Though the music of Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company was featured prominently in the film, none of the songs were included on the soundtrack. All of the songs used in the film were from the album Live at Winterland '68 . Bob Dylan's song "Queen Jane Approximately", from the album Highway 61 Revisited , is also used in the film but is not included on the soundtrack. The Doors song "Maggie M'Gill" can be heard in the movie, but is not included on the soundtrack either.
The Dreamers was released on DVD in 2004. It includes a BBC film directed by David M. Thompson, Bertolucci Makes The Dreamers, narrated by Zoë Wanamaker, and a documentary Outside the Window: Events in France, May 1968 with contributions from Robin Blackburn, Adair, and Bertolucci. Bertolucci says that 1968 was about cinema, politics, music, journalism, sex and philosophy dreaming together.
Bernardo BertolucciOMRI was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international acclaim. With The Last Emperor (1987) he became the first Italian filmmaker to win the Academy Award for Best Director, and he received many other accolades including a BAFTA Award, a César Award, two Golden Globes, a Golden Lion in 2007, and an Honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2011.
The Motion Picture Associationfilm rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictures are the responsibility of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), previously known as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) from 1945 to 2019. The MPA rating system is a voluntary scheme that is not enforced by law; films can be exhibited without a rating, although most theaters refuse to exhibit non-rated or NC-17 rated films. Non-members of the MPA may also submit films for rating. Other media, such as television programs, music and video games, are rated by other entities such as the TV Parental Guidelines, the RIAA and the ESRB, respectively.
Showgirls is a 1995 erotic drama film directed by Paul Verhoeven from a script written by Joe Eszterhas and starring Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins, and Gina Ravera.
Last Tango in Paris is a 1972 erotic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The film stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and Jean-Pierre Léaud, and portrays a recently widowed American who begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.
Catherine Breillat is a French filmmaker, novelist and professor of auteur cinema at the European Graduate School. In the film business for over 40 years, Breillat chooses to normalize previously taboo subjects in cinema. Taking advantage of the medium of cinema, Breillat juxtaposes different perspectives to highlight irony found in society.
Eva Gaëlle Green is a French actress. The daughter of actress Marlène Jobert, she began her career in theatre before making her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers (2003). She portrayed Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem in Ridley Scott's historical epic Kingdom of Heaven (2005). The following year, she played Bond girl Vesper Lynd in the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006), for which she received the BAFTA Rising Star Award.
Maria-Hélène Schneider, known professionally as Maria Schneider, was a French actress. In 1972, at the age of 19, she starred opposite Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris, but being traumatised by being raped in a scene and hounded by unsavoury publicity negatively affected her subsequent career. Although Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975) showcased her abilities, a reputation for walking out of films mid-production resulted in her becoming unwelcome in the industry. However, she re-established stability in her personal and professional life in the early 1980s, and became an advocate for equality and improving the conditions actresses worked under. She continued acting in film and TV until a few years before she died in 2011 after a long illness.
The Chorus is a 2004 French musical drama film directed by Christophe Barratier. Co-written by Barratier and Philippe Lopes-Curval, it is an adaptation of the 1945 film A Cage of Nightingales. The story is inspired by the origin of the boys' choir the Little Singers of Paris.
A Dirty Shame is a 2004 American satirical sex comedy film written and directed by John Waters and starring Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair, and Chris Isaak. It follows a community in suburban Baltimore divided between people with highly conservative attitudes towards sexuality, and those who have been turned into sex addicts after experiencing concussions.
Les Enfants Terribles is a 1929 novel by Jean Cocteau, published by Editions Bernard Grasset. It concerns two siblings, Elisabeth and Paul, who isolate themselves from the world as they grow up, an isolation which is shattered by the stresses of their adolescence. It was first translated into English by Samuel Putnam in 1930 and published by Brewer & Warren. A later English translation by Rosamond Lehmann was published in the U.S. by New Directions (ISBN 0811200213) in 1955, and in Canada by Mclelland & Stewart in 1966, with the title translated as The Holy Terrors. The book is illustrated by the author's own drawings.
Stealing Beauty is a 1996 drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Liv Tyler, Joseph Fiennes, Jeremy Irons, Sinéad Cusack, and Rachel Weisz. Written by Bertolucci and Susan Minot, the film is about a young American woman who travels to a lush Tuscan villa near Siena to stay with family friends of her poet mother, who recently died. The film was an international co-production between France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, and was Tyler's first leading film role.
Henry & June is a 1990 American biographical drama film directed by Philip Kaufman, and starring Fred Ward, Uma Thurman, and Maria de Medeiros. It is loosely based on the posthumously published 1986 Anaïs Nin book of the same name, and tells the story of Nin's relationship with Henry Miller and his wife, June.
Russian Dolls is a 2005 romantic comedy-drama film, the sequel to L'Auberge Espagnole (2002) and the second instalment in the Spanish Apartment trilogy, which is concluded with Chinese Puzzle. Cédric Klapisch wrote and directed the film, whose settings include Paris, London, Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Klapisch makes use of digital and split-screen effects in the film, as well as non-linear narrative.
In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scenes, had to be justified as part of the story.
Violette Nozière, also titled Violette, is a 1978 French–Canadian crime drama film directed by Claude Chabrol starring Isabelle Huppert and Stéphane Audran. It tells the true story of teenage prostitute and murderer Violette Nozière, who poisoned her parents in 1933 France.
Subway is a 1985 French thriller film directed by Luc Besson and starring Isabelle Adjani and Christopher Lambert. The film is classified as part of the cinéma du look movement.
The Conformist is a 1970 political psychological drama film written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, based on the 1951 novel of the same title by Alberto Moravia. It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda and Gastone Moschin. Set in 1930s Italy, The Conformist centers on a mid-level Fascist functionary (Trintignant) who is ordered to assassinate his former professor, an antifascist dissident in Paris. His mission is complicated after he begins an affair with the professor's wife (Sanda).
Ma Mère is a 2004 erotic drama film written and directed by Christophe Honoré, based on the posthumous 1966 novel of the same name by French author Georges Bataille. The film follows the incestuous relationship between a 17-year-old boy and his attractive, promiscuous, 43-year-old mother. The film stars Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel, Emma de Caunes and Joana Preiss.
The Holy Innocents (1988) is a novel by Gilbert Adair of three young cinephiles: two French siblings and an American stranger who enters their world. Its themes were inspired by Jean Cocteau's 1929 novel Les Enfants Terribles and by the 1950 film of the same name directed by Jean-Pierre Melville.
Emmanuelle is a 1974 French erotic drama film directed by Just Jaeckin. It is the first installment in a series of French softcore pornography films based on the novel Emmanuelle by Emmanuelle Arsan. The film stars Sylvia Kristel in the title role about a woman who takes a trip to Bangkok to enhance her sexual experience. The film was former photographer Jaeckin's debut feature film and was shot on location in Thailand and in France between 1973 and 1974.