The Dreamers (Original Uncut NC-17 Version)

The bestest movie ever!!!!!!

In The Dreamers, Matthew, Theo, and Isabelle live their lives immersed in cinema. Isabelle, twin sister of Theo, professes being born into the world in "Breathless". Matthew, the American student studying in France, describes a world of obsessive cinephiles who sit in the front to receive the images first, in their untouched austerity. Theo theorizes about Mao being not so much a dictator as a director, filming a real life epic. Together, the three are allowed the luxury of pure joy as they recreate their cinematic ideal through moments like running through the Louvre in efforts to beat the record set by `Bande a Part'. As this film follows these beautiful trio as they analyze, argue about, and act out their lives on film, they are allowed an independent summer to actually experience what true freedom can be. With the twin's parents gone and Matthew staying in the flat, the three embark into a season filled with what appears to be simplistic transgressions that are instead the true essence of living to their youths to the fullest.

When the three are faced with the possibility of their cinephilic passion being in jeopardy, they face revolution. Film is their source of reality, their teacher, their parent, their lover, their best friend. They may talk politics, but cinema is worth actually fighting for, and if that fight is a riot, so be it. Until the adult world tries to accost them into responsibility, until they are given a forceful fulcrum by society to rid themselves of hedonistic desires, their politics are cinema. Their passion isn't work, its leisure, their beauty, sex. They isolate themselves in a boudoir of passion, where they celebrate the beauty of the flesh and their human nature as seen through the filter of a theatre screen.

Alone in a sixties flat, a place so sublimely vintage its forever stylish, the trio lives out a pleasurably hedonistic lifestyle discovering and indulging in sex, art, and politics. Perpetually unclothed, always ready to engage in passionate arguments regarding their true love of cinema, these three youths cover the screen with irresistibly alluring romanticism, eroticism, and beauty. Steeped in alcohol and sex, these enchanting characters volunteer to live a life in comparative squalor, with all efforts to avoid dullness, disregarding societal responsibilities for sake of being critical commentators of it. Actors here, while not delivering studied performances, allow these characters to be beautiful, and to reach the essence of their being, an essence of what it is to be a passionate youth, and a burgeoning aesthete in every sense of the word.

Bertolucci provides these youths with the proper respect in their beautiful transgression, allowing the camera to breathe in their skin with the utmost appreciation for the natural beauty of it. Shot choice remains close but never claustrophobic, and the camera is allowed to drift smoothly through the apartment, giving the viewer the affect of gliding upon air while following along this whimsical summer. The film is photographed in a most beautiful manner, with rich tones of olive, rust, and complete black, shot seemingly natural enough but so artfully composed colors are vibrant and each frame teems with breathtaking clarity. Footage from films discussed are often edited into the actual film, and the soundtrack is filled with sixties rock standards serving to accentuate the unflinching style of these Parisian romantics. Here is a film that appreciates film yet also provides a sublime addition to the art form, one that, while not perfect, fully comprehends the grace spilling from world of these holy innocents.

The Dreamers is neither pornographic trash nor a cinematic masterpiece. Rather, it is a film seen as controversial by many and most likely appreciated by those with an already existing and indelible appreciation for film. It is an exploration of decadence, a film which allows youths to be young enough to be devoid of adult cynicism and close enough to maturation so as to be constantly immersed in discovery of the world around them. Allowing themselves to succumb so fully to the pleasures of art, these characters romp about onscreen in an idealized form of youth, a state where discovery is constant and strong opinion the rule. Their time is a time of appreciation for the flesh, it's a time when the idea of film being revolution isn't so much na�ve as it is the absolute rule of life. These aesthetes indulge in decadence with such unforgiving passion they allow the beautiful dream of youth, of artistic luxury, and of their own blissfully tragic humanity, to seem, for a blessed moment, eternal. The Dreamers is a lovely journey into the purity of artistic revolution, the pretty palate that is human skin, and the luxurious pleasure of youth, making for a film very easy to appreciate for aesthetes, decadents, and cinephiles alike.

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