The Dreamers ('04) 2004, Rated unrated Fox

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A Fox release. Written by Gilbert Adair; directed by Bernardo Bertolucci; starring Michael Pitt, Eva Green and Louis Garrel.S Released to DVD on July 16, 2004.

After a particularly raucous press screening of director Larry Fessenden’s Wendigo some years back, a friend of mine who had accompanied me tellingly observed: you’ve got to assume that a fight between two film critics is just a race to see who can sit on who first. The analogy can certainly be extended to other hard-core cinephiles as well. Any activity that requires people to spend copious amounts of time in dark rooms where they aren’t allowed to talk each other can certainly be expected to have its fair share of negative interpersonal side effects. Director Bernardo Bertolucci’s latest project, The Dreamers, is a film that not only accepts this concept, but that embraces it as well. The film’s best line comes very early on when a French girl comments to the lead that "You’re awfully clean for someone who likes the cinema so much."

Michael Pitt stars in The Dreamers as Matthew, a young American studying abroad in Paris in 1968. Having made no friends during his lengthy Parisian stay, Matthew has found refuge in the city’s cinematheques (which he refers to accordingly). Finding himself drawn to the works of Fellini, Godard and and Trufault, Matthew becomes a regular at the Cinematheque Francais, one of Paris premiere art houses. There he meets and befriends the nineteen year old French twins–and devout film fans–Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel). Starved for attention, Matthew attaches himself to the twins and begins a journey into Isabelle and Theo’s thoroughly twisted and bizarre relationship.

Obviously created and shot with a fondness for the time period and the sentiment of youth, The Dreamers is a strange work because it focuses on a series of events that I would assume most people would rather try to forget (or repress). An unsure, naïve fish-out-of-water, Matthew is a little bit too perfect of a lead; his character is the essence of what most middle-aged people want to remember themselves being like when they were younger.

The reality of the situation, however, is that most of us were literally tripping over our feet during our later teens years, filled with self-doubt and positively mystified by the members of the opposite sex to whom we were attracted. We were not able to gracefully carry on conversations with good looking girls, debate poetry with our friends’ parents and we were definitely not following in the footsteps of screenwriter Gilbert Adair’s on-screen creations here and engaging in no-holds-barred sex in a sprawling Parisian apartment with a set of fraternal twins, enjoying food plucked straight from the garbage can and bloviating about the classic moments of the silent film era. Even considering the lead characters’ undying love of the most pretentious cinematic genres and releases, I am hard pressed to imagine anyone I know, American born or otherwise, who would have stayed put upon learning first hand that brother and sister, Isabelle and Theo, sleep together in the same bed. Naked. In their parents house. With the door open.

Pitt has made a name for himself on the indie scene by playing a wide-variety of outsiders and studious loners in films like Bully, Murder by Numbers, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Wonderland. The result of this is that Pitt has Matthew’s mannerisms down pat. He checks his watch, directions and books twice, unsure of himself at first read, keeps his head constantly cocked as if surprise lurks around every corner and has nearly trademarked the habit of innocently pushing his wispy, blond hair out of his face like he were opening a magnificent set of curtains on a glorious presentation of life’s theater. Strangely, though Pitt gives Matthew the (extremely) inexperienced energy required, it plays too smoothly. Gazing on everything with the wonderment and the youthful passion that Adair and Bertolucci forcefully instill in their lead, Pitt’s Matthew is perpetually shocked (as some would argue he well should be). However, never hesitating to dive right into any of the strange situations and sexual escapades that present themselves to him, Matthew’s actions never match his naïve incredulity.

Bertolucci is commonly viewed by Americans as a master of the Vaseline lens, a modern precursor to some of the soft-core porn titles Zalman King and Adrian Lyne have created in recent years. Film critics have railed against this description of Bertolucci’s works, decrying the seamy and perjorative nature of the statement. By creating The Dreamers, Bertolucci has done nothing but make his ardent fans’ lives a little bit more difficult; there is nothing substantive enough in this film to earn it comparisons to movies that can’t be seen on late night Cinemax.

Chris Neumer

yes, it's true: Since breaking onto the scene in 1998, Michael Pitt has played characters with the names of: Tommy Gnosis, Stuff, Chep. Gopher, Buddy and Finton Coin.