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'''''The Dreamers''''' is a 2003 [[Romance film|romantic]] [[drama film]] directed by [[Bernardo Bertolucci]]. The screenplay is by [[Gilbert Adair]], based on his own novel ''[[The Holy Innocents (novel)|The Holy Innocents]]''. An [[international co-production]] by companies from [[Cinema of France|France]], [[Cinema of the United Kingdom|the United Kingdom]], and [[Cinema of Italy|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 conflict. It is set against the backdrop of the [[May 1968 in France|1968 Paris student riots]]. The film makes several references to various movies of [[classical Hollywood|classical]] and [[French New Wave|New Wave]] cinema, incorporating clips from films that are often imitated by the actors in particular scenes.
'''''The Dreamers''''' is a 2003 [[Romance film|romantic]] [[drama film]] directed by [[Bernardo Bertolucci]]. The screenplay is by [[Gilbert Adair]], based on his own novel ''[[The Holy Innocents (novel)|The Holy Innocents]]''. An [[international co-production]] by companies from [[Cinema of France|France]], [[Cinema of the United Kingdom|the United Kingdom]], and [[Cinema of Italy|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 conflict. It is set against the backdrop of the [[May 1968 in France|1968 Paris student riots]]. The film makes several references to various movies of [[classical Hollywood|classical]] and [[French New Wave|New Wave]] cinema, incorporating clips from films that are often imitated by the actors in particular scenes.


The film was controversial in the United States because of its nudity and sexual content, and attracted an [[NC-17]] rating.
The film was controversial in the United States because of its nudity and sexual content. A minute was cut from the film for the American market<ref name=notbondgirl>{{cite news |author=Jeffries, Stuart |title=He's the Bond girl, not me |work=The Guardian |location=UK |date=26 January 2007|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/jan/26/jamesbond |accessdate=27 August 2007}}</ref> and the cut version attracted an [[NC-17]] rating.


The primary language spoken in the film is English, though French and English are spoken interchangeably throughout.
The primary language spoken in the film is English, though French and English are spoken interchangeably throughout.

Revision as of 04:47, 5 January 2013

The Dreamers
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBernardo Bertolucci
Screenplay byGilbert Adair
Produced byJeremy Thomas
StarringMichael Pitt
Eva Green
Louis Garrel
CinematographyFabio Cianchetti
Edited byJacopo Quadri
Music by(see Music and soundtrack)
Production
companies
Distributed byTFM Distribution (France)
Medusa Distribuzione (Italy)
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release dates
  • 10 October 2003 (2003-10-10) (Italy)
  • 10 December 2003 (2003-12-10) (France)
  • 6 February 2004 (2004-02-06)
Running time
115 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
France
Italy
LanguagesEnglish
French
Budget$15 million[1]
Box office$15,121,165[1]

The Dreamers is a 2003 romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The screenplay is by Gilbert Adair, based on his own 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 conflict. It is set against the backdrop of the 1968 Paris student riots. The film makes several references to various movies of classical and New Wave cinema, incorporating clips from films that are often imitated by the actors in particular scenes.

The film was controversial in the United States because of its nudity and sexual content. A minute was cut from the film for the American market[2] and the cut version attracted an NC-17 rating.

The primary language spoken in the film is English, though French and English are spoken interchangeably throughout.

Plot

Matthew is a young American exchange student who has come to Paris to study French. Though he has lived there for several months and stays in Paris for a year, he has made no friends. As a huge fan of film, he spends most of his time in the Cinémathèque Française. Eventually he forms a close friendship with a Frenchwoman, Isabelle, and her brother, Théo. All three are avid film lovers, especially fond of "the classics". As their friendship grows, Matthew learns of the extreme intimacy shared by the siblings (what one reviewer described as "incestuous in all but the most technical sense"[3]) and gets pulled into their world. Over time he falls in love with both of them, and the three seclude themselves from the world, falling further and further from the reality of the 1968 student rebellions. Eventually, however, their idyll is shattered and they are forced to face reality.

Cast

Production

Screenplay

The first draft of the screenplay was an adaptation by Gilbert Adair of his own novel, The Holy Innocents. 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."[4]

Casting

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 graphic sex scenes – would cause her career to "have the same destiny as Maria Schneider".[4]

Rating

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.[5] In the United States, the film was released theatrically with an NC-17 rating[5] whereas in Italy the same film was rated VM14. Even with its NC-17 rating, this film grossed $2.5 million in its United States theatrical release – a respectable result for a specialized film with a targeted audience.[5]

Reception

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."[4]

Among the reviews gathered by review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 60% gave it a "fresh rating".[6] The 40 reviews gathered by Metacritic on average gave it scores that placed 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."[3] 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."[8]

Music and soundtrack

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.[9] 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."[10]

  1. "Third Stone from the Sun" – Jimi Hendrix
  2. "Hey Joe" (cover version) – Michael Pitt & The Twins of Evil
  3. "Quatre Cents Coups" (from the score of "Les Quatre Cents Coups") – Jean Constantin
  4. "New York Herald Tribune" (from Breathless) – Martial Solal
  5. "Love Me Please Love Me" – Michel Polnareff
  6. "La Mer" – Charles Trenet
  7. "Song For Our Ancestors" – Steve Miller Band
  8. "The Spy" – The Doors
  9. "Tous Les Garçons et Les Filles" – Françoise Hardy
  10. "Ferdinand" (from Antoine Duhamel's score of "Pierrot Le Fou")
  11. "Dark Star" (special band edit) – The Grateful Dead
  12. "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" – Edith Piaf

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.

Home media

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.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b The Dreamers at Box Office Mojo
  2. ^ Jeffries, Stuart (26 January 2007). "He's the Bond girl, not me". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 27 August 2007.
  3. ^ a b When to Be Young Was Very Sexy, a review from The New York Times
  4. ^ a b c Stealing beauty, a February 2004 article from The Guardian
  5. ^ a b c NC-17 comes out from hiding, an April 2004 article from the Los Angeles Times
  6. ^ The Dreamers at Rotten Tomatoes
  7. ^ The Dreamers at Metacritic
  8. ^ The Dreamers, a November 2003 review by The Times of its London Film Festival screening
  9. ^ The Dreamers at IMDb
  10. ^ The Dreamers (Original Soundtrack) at AllMusic

External links

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