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Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Dreamers"
is a nice ode to the French New Wave movement that the
filmmaker was alternately apart of and influenced by back in
the 1960s. Returning to his roots of exploring sexuality,
"Dreamers" doesn't have the necessary heat or sensuality.
Add awful actor Michael Pitt as the lead, and while this
NC-17 rated production has great intentions, it ends up a
mess.
The year is 1968, and a young American
pacifist named Matthew (Michael Pitt, “Murder By Numbers”) has
decided to leave his chaotic homeland for the serene beauty of
France to do some studying. Enjoying the new culture, Matthew
becomes caught up in the daily screenings at the Cinematheque
Francais, where he meets, and instantly befriends, siblings Theo
(Louis Garrel) and Isabelle (Eva Green). Bonding over their shared
obsessive love of films, the three begin a strange sexual
friendship, which closes them off to the changing face of France
happening in the outside world. Once that world finally seeps in,
the trio are confronted with who they really are, and how this
relationship has changed them.
“The Dreamers” is renowned director Bernardo
Bertolucci’s (“Last Tango in Paris,” “The Last Emperor”) attempt to
capture the spirit of the French New Wave cinema movement of the
1960s. Delighting in the sights and sound of the era, as well as
directly editing in clips from the bookings at the Cinematheque
Francais that the directors of the movement learned their craft
from, Bertolucci has created a film that has a difficult time trying
to spit out everything it has to say. The plot contains elements of
sexual obsession, combative friendships, film geekdom, and, finally,
the changing face of political resentment in the youth of France.
The events are seen through the eyes of the American, Matthew, which
helps to justify the wildly fluctuating themes of the film, and it’s
all captured with honey glazed sensuality by Bertolucci’s wandering
eye. But even working in the filmmaker’s “back yard,” as it were,
“Dreamers” doesn‘t have the fires within to make its ambitious
points or expand on the experience like it desires.
“The Dreamers,” is an intoxicating sit for
about an hour. The story of Matthew, Theo, and Isabelle coming
together and exploring their sexual and emotional limits is where
Bertolucci has always excelled. Depicting France at a cultural sweet
spot in its history, Bertolucci could’ve pointed his camera to the
floor and found the makings of a decent movie. But “Dreamers”
becomes more determined and pointed with its historical perspective
and its acting as it closes. The filmmaker lets the actors head off
into method land as the relationships become more toxic and puckered
with jealousy, and the last thing any director should be doing is
letting Michael “I’m acting, dammit!” Pitt make his own decisions.
Once the bubble pops on the dreamy glow of France at the end of the
60s, and the French youth succumb to political disparity and riots,
Bertolucci is making a clear point, but by this time the narrative
fire and invention as been depleted.
The defining characteristic of “The Dreamers”
is not the political subplots or the cinephile mentality, but the
sexual content. Indeed, it is one of the few NC-17 rated films to
see a sizable release in the last decade, Bertolucci is no stranger
to sexually volatile subjects, and “Dreamers” returns the director
to his blunt focus on the human body. Trouble is, as deeply erotic
as the film is, is isn’t hot at all. There’s a chill in the air when
the characters disrobe and explore the more, ahem, “distinct”
corners of obsession and intercourse. 1996‘s “Stealing Beauty,” the
last foray into sexual exploration by Bertolucci, was genuinely
gripping and seized the senses with depictions of sensuality and
deflowering. “The Dreamers” contains the very same moments, but they
go wrong as soon as they start. I applaud Bertolucci for not bowing
down to studio pressure to trim the carnal content, but “The
Dreamers” ends up being defined by the flesh, not the mind, and it
just isn‘t enough.
My Rating: C