The Dreamers (2003), Bertolucci

For anyone that has seen a Bertolucci film, The Dreamers is quintessential Bertolucci. The setting, the cinematography, and the story all fit into the image that Bertolucci creates in many of his films. For being 63 years old when he made this film, The Dreamers succeeds in having a youthful feel to the point that it almost seems to be the work of an up and coming new director as one critic thought upon first viewing the film (film review, A.O. Scott). Maybe this is because of the incestuous sex and politics that create a quite shocking and perverted image of youth. Bertolucci's in your face cinema makes the viewer uncomfortable but also question what it is they are watching and what purpose it serves. While The Dreamers may not be a film for the light-hearted or reserved individual, Bertolucci's film making skills and cinematography were very well done. The scenes in the apartment feel like another world, in stark contrast to the streets below. The colors are warm the lighting is dim and sensual; he creates the feeling that what happens in this apartment is not quite real. Some people relate this film and this apartment to scenes from Bertolucci's other controversial film Last Tango in Paris which was also a sexually driven film, taking place partly in a Parisian apartment.

Bertolucci also has quite a fixation with Paris as a backdrop for his films. The city in itself is often related to ideas of free thinking and sexual freedom and the era that it takes place in, the 1960's, was at the height of sexual liberation throughout the world. Therefore, it seems that The Dreamers could not take place in any other place but Paris.

As far as characterization, Bertolucci uses Matthew as a reflection of the viewer. While Matthew may engage in actions that we could never dream of doing, the core of his charter objects what he sees; he knows that what he seeing and experiencing is wrong, yet his love for Isabelle keeps him there in the belief that he can separate her from Theo, until he realizes that his actions are futile. Matthew is the only person who stays "true." While he explores his sexuality he overall is the voice of reason in the film. Even Matthew liberal spirit cannot accept Isabelle's and Theos "kinky fairy-tale world." (A.O. Scott).

I found The Dreamers to be somewhat a modern neo-realist film. It's film hovers around the periphary of an "idea," esplorino, but never actually concluding anything about it. The characters are literally "dreamers." They live in their own idealized world, outside of reality. Theo and Isabelle glamorize the world outside while Matthew at the end walks away, finally accepting that Theo and Isabelle are still dreamers, unable to grow up and accept reality.


http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-dreamers-2004
http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CEFD7133BF935A35751C0A9629C8B63