Reviews of the film "Dreamers" will be interesting to all fans of cinematic art. This is the cult chamber erotic drama of Bernardo Bertolucci, which was released in 2003. The main roles in the film were played by Eva Green, Louis Garrel and Michael Pitt. In this article, we will briefly talk about the plot of the film, the actors and the director who participated in its creation.
Creature
Reviews about the film "Dreamers" from viewers and critics came predominantly positive. It is believed that this is one of the best and most famous films of Bertolucci.
The Italian director filmed his erotic drama according to the script of the British writer Gilbert Adair. Adair laid the foundation for three of his own novels, one of which was called “Dreamers". It is known that when they were created, the Englishman was inspired by the work of Jean Cocteau, including his book “Terrible Children”.
In the center of the plot in the film "Dreamers" of 2003 are three young people. All this is the story of the sexual revolution in a single Parisian apartment, filled with cinematic allusions. It is important that events take place against a historical background. Outside the window are student unrest in France in 1968, which led to the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle.
The place where the film "Dreamers" was shot is Paris. For many, one of the most romantic cities in the world, which is confirmed by the characters that appear on the screen.
In the crew of "Dreamers" there were many professionals who helped Bertolucci to make an outstanding film. The operator of the picture is Fabio Chianchetta. The artists of the tape were Pierre Dubuyberranger, Jean Rabass, Louise Stjernsward, Jacopo Cuadri was responsible for the installation. The producer of the film is Jeremy Thomas.
What is the picture about?
According to the plot of the film "Dreamers", the action of the film takes place directly on the eve and during the May student unrest in 1968 in the French capital.
Viewers get acquainted with the American Matthew, who comes to Europe through a student exchange program between countries. His goal is to improve his knowledge of the French language.
However, he spends most of his time in Paris in Cinematheque. This is the largest archive of films and documents on the planet that are somehow related to cinema. He is surrounded by teenagers and students who, like him, are literally addicted to cinema, enjoy watching modern tapes and samples of world classics.
In Cinematheque, he meets his peers - Theo and Isabelle. Young people claim that they are close, since at birth they were fused twins. New buddies offer Matthew to move to their apartment while their parents are away.
Gradually, it becomes apparent to the American guest that the closeness between Isabelle and Theo literally balances on the verge of incest.
Student unrest is raging around, but they are of little interest to young people. They plunge into the abyss of psychological and sexual experiments that unfold on the territory of this small Parisian apartment.
Around the movie
The genre of the film "Dreamers" is an erotic drama. However, most of the scenes about sexual relations between Theo and Matthew were not included in the final version. The creators concluded that they were too provocative and defiant. This is an important difference between the picture and the literary source.
The famous episode in which the heroine of Eva Green's hair lights up appeared completely by accident. He was not in the novel by Adair, nor in the script. The actress's hair caught fire accidentally. The director decided that it looks so organic that he decided to include the episode in the film.
It is interesting that Matthew invited Jake Gyllenhaal and Leonardo di Caprio to play the role of an American student Matthew in the erotic drama "Dreamers". But Gyllenhaal refused because of the large number of overly explicit scenes, and DiCaprio chose to star in Martin Scorsese's military drama "The Aviator."
The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2003. True, he was shown out of competition.
The free interpretation by the creators of the picture of the youth sexual revolution of the 1960s was the reason why the film was actively criticized, for many it caused outright indignation.
Awards and nominations
Despite the general approval of critics, the film "Dreamers" of 2003 did not receive significant awards, limiting itself to prestigious nominations.
He was nominated for the Italian national prize David di Donatello, Bernardo Bertolucci and Eva Green were nominated for European Film Academy awards.
The film was also nominated for the Goya Prize as the best European film, but Wolfgang Becker’s German tragicomedy Goodbye Lenin! Received the award.
Bernardo Bertolucci
The director of the film "Dreamers" was Bernardo Bertolucci. He was born in Rome in 1941.
He began to engage in creativity in the 1960s, when he declared himself a follower of Paolo Pasolini and Jean-Luc Godard. It is noteworthy that at the same time he was fond of Freudianism and communism, managing to organically intertwine the intimate with the social in his paintings.
His debut directorial work was the detective drama "Bony Kuma". In it, the police are investigating the murder of a prostitute at an age whose body was discovered on the outskirts of Rome. In this work, the young director captivates the viewer with a criminal plot, touching on the themes of human sexuality, social injustice, and the vicissitudes of fate.
In many of his works, Bertolucci addresses forbidden and even taboo topics. He is interested in various forms of human sexuality - triolism, incest, homosexuality.
His two works of the early 1970s became triumphant. In the drama "Conformist," the film takes place in Rome in 1938. The protagonist, aristocrat Marcello Clerici, enters the service of the Nazis, plans a wedding with a little girl Julia, a classic representative of the middle class. From his recollections, it becomes clear that he feels a victim of severe heredity due to the fact that his father was in a psychiatric hospital, and his mother was a morphist. However, in adolescence, he was sexually abused by the driver Lino. Marcello is convinced that he killed him when he was 13 years old.
In 1972, Bertolucci directed the erotic melodrama Last Tango in Paris. It tells of a 45-year-old American named Paul, who has his own hotel in Paris. His wife commits suicide when her husband meets the 20-year-old Jeanne, with whom he begins an affair on the same day.
In 1988, the Italian director became the 2-time winner of the Oscar for the historical drama The Last Emperor, shot in his script. This is the biography of the ruler of China, Pu Yi, which ended the monarchy in this country.
His last tape was the drama "You and I", which appeared on the screens in 2012. This is a story about the introvert of Lorenzo. When his classmates go skiing in the mountains, for all this time he stays secretly from his parents in the basement of his own house. His loneliness is interrupted by the appearance of a mysterious girl, whose story turns out to be close to him and his relatives.
In November 2018, Bertolucci passed away in Rome. He was 77 years old.
Eva Green
Among the actors of the film "Dreamers", the audience immediately remembered the Frenchwoman Eva Green, for whom this role was her debut on the big screen. At that time she was 23 years old. She was nominated for an Academy Award, but did not receive the award.
Eva Green in "Dreamers" plays a charming Parisian, who is in a strange relationship with her brother. Her mysterious and captivating image interested not only critics, but also directors who actively began to invite her to star.
World-wide popularity for the star of “Dreamers” Eve Green came after the role of Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem in Ridley Scott’s historical drama “The Kingdom of Heaven” and the James Bond girl in Martin Campbell’s adventure movie “The Royal Casino”.
Since the mid-2000s, he mainly works in independent cinema. She can be remembered from the drama by Jordan Scott "Cracks", the tape of Benedek Fligauf "The Womb", the fantastic drama by David Mackenzie "Last Love on Earth".
At the same time, Green is actively involved in the series. For example, for the role of Vanessa Ives in the mystical television series Scary Tales, the actress was awarded the Golden Globe Award.
Her latest work at the moment is the psychological drama by Roman Polanski, Based on Real Events, and the drama by Lisa Langset, Euphoria.
Louis Garrell
The role of brother Isabelle Theo in the film is played by Louis Garrell. "Dreamers" for this French actor is not a debut film, as for Green, but the first, after which they begin to pay attention to him.
Garrel was born in Paris in 1983. His father was a director, in his paintings Louis began to appear from the age of 6. It was the role of Theo that brought him real popularity and success. She ideally approached his charismatic image of a stern intellectual and nervous handsome.
In 2005, he starred in his father’s drama Constant Lovers, playing the young man Francois. His affair with a new acquaintance Lily unfolds, as in "Dreamers", against the backdrop of student unrest in 1968 in Paris. For this work he was nominated for the Cesar Award as the most promising actor.
In the tape of Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, “Last Night's Dream,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, played the lover of a 40-year-old actress. In the musical “All songs are only about love” he creates the image of a young Parisian who lives with two girls.
In 2017, Garrel plays the title character in Michelle Hazanavicius’s biographical melodrama Young Godard. The film tells about the relationship of the cult French director with actress Anna Wyazemsky, who originated on the set of the drama "Chinese Woman" in 1967.
Michael Pitt
Michael Pitt in "Dreamers" creates the image of an American student Matthew, passionate about France and world cinema. Pitt is truly an American by birth, born in New Jersey in 1981.
Since the late 1990s, starred in the series "Law and Order." He made his debut on the big screen in the drama of Mark Christopher "Studio 54" 1998.
A breakthrough for him was the role of a shemale rock star lover in the comedy musical John Cameron Mitchell "Hedwig and the Unfortunate Inch." After the release of this tape on the screens, they began to regularly invite him to secondary roles in big Hollywood projects. For example, in the thriller Barbe Schroeder's "Countdown", the drama by Larry Clarke "Sadist".
After working with Bertolucci, he flashed with Gus Van Sant in the lead role in the biographical drama "Last Days". His character is a grunge musician who uses heroin and is suicidal. In his image, you can see explicit references to the musician Kurt Cobain.
In 2007, he starred in the melodrama of Francois Girard "Silk" with Kira Knightley about a French smuggler who sells silk.
Starred in the series "Underground Empire". Among his recent works, it is worth noting the thriller Ariel Vromen "The Outlaw" and the action movie Rupert Sanders "Ghost in the Shell."
Film allusions
According to reviews of the film "Dreamers", he attracted many by his involvement in the global film process, by a large number of a wide variety of allusions.
The artistic canvas of this tape is simply imbued with synephilia. The heroes of the film during the story repeatedly recreate scenes from their favorite works of cinema, often repeat the gestures inherent in their favorite heroes. To understand all these references, you need to have a good and deep understanding of world cinema.
For example, the scene in which Isabelle, Theo and Matthew run through the Louvre is a repeat of the 1964 episode from Jean-Luc Godard's crime drama Outsiders. When Theo and Isabelle immediately after a run say the phrase: “We accept it. He is one of us,” it is a reference to Tod Browning’s 1932 Freaks tape.
In some cases, Bertolucci accompanies the allusion data with scenes from the films to which they relate. For example, during a suicide attempt, viewers see an excerpt from the black and white drama The Muskete by Robert Bresson in 1967.
Interestingly, all the music that can be heard in the film is taken from other films. Viewers and critics saw references to several dozen famous paintings. Among them are the tragedy of Charlie Chaplin's “Big City Lights”, the comedy of Louis Bunuel “The Golden Age”, the drama of Billy Wilder's “Sunset Boulevard”.
Impression
Most viewers left positive reviews for the film "Dreamers." Critics noted that a major role in this film is played by the unrest in the streets of Paris, which some consider the next French revolution. Theo becomes her embodiment. He supports the dissatisfied, but at the same time thinks a little more than they do.
The actors of the film "Dreamers" deserve special praise. All three characters are carefully designed, their images are fully and fully disclosed. It is important that in many ways they are contradictory. For example, the realist Matthew is a real romantic at heart, who is used to immersing himself in other dimensions with the help of cinema.
Isabelle becomes the embodiment of love. Moreover, she herself does not know how she can be felt. The girl is well aware of how love looks in the movies, but does not understand what it means in real life.
Characters quickly find themselves in the center of attention of both the audience and the director. They commit shocking many acts, realize their innermost sexual fantasies. They serve as the personification of the nihilism and recklessness that are so inherent in all young people.
Of great importance in "Dreamers" is their serene behavior, which seems naive, romantic and unconscious. They reflect on the high, which, it seems, should not be characteristic of most young people.
As critics noted in their reviews, Bertolucci in “Dreamers” immediately produced three stars of independent cinema, which are still popular after the director’s death. For each of them, this became the first significant role in his career, and for Eva Green, she made her debut in cinema. At the same time they look like experienced and mature artists, which indicates their high professionalism.
In this picture, the audience especially clearly noticed the drive that appeared with the creator of the picture. At the same time, many paid attention that this was precisely what was missing in his works of the 1970-1980s. Despite all its external soreness and claustrophobicity, the film turned out to be very energetic, peppy and young, being overwhelmed with symbols of eroticism.
At the same time, someone criticized Bertolucci for excessive frankness, a passion for filming naked heroes, arguing that real romantics and dreamers will not find and will not endure anything for themselves here. The film remained one of the most controversial work in the career of the director, it means a lot to understand his creative method and ideas.