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The Dreamers

Posted by rhizomatic (A) on March 18, 2004 at 13:28:34

I liked it. I liked it better than I expected to.

I don't think it's a great film, I don't think it's a film befitting a 'master,' but truthfully from what I've seen of Bertolucci I think he's the least of his generation's particular eschelon of directors. The sex scenes--the 'Bertolucci' in the phrase "Bertolucci film"--are mostly clinical, and there's a certain generic, workmanlike feel to his films.

Here, though, the lack of heat in the sex scenes seemed to serve a point, notably that the only real, reciprocal passion was between the sister and brother, and since they 'couldn't' consummate their weird love, she had to settle for the American...At least that's one way to take it.

Never mind the sex. The bits I liked about it were a handful of conversations where Bertolucci seemed to capture the awkward, ad hoc feel of young intellectuals with more feelings than ideas. And I think that he also did a good job of conveying the faux radicalism of the aesthete brother. In my opinion, the character of the sister was herself, as a character, a nod to the mystery girl in 8 1/2.

The acting was...um...something. There's the whole question of whether or not they're acting like they're acting or not; I'm not sure they were quite up to the task, although I think the casting was pretty right on, the brother and sister looking like throwbacks to Godard.

Does it work as a love letter to film? Sort of. I felt like it was at once too obvious in its considerations and not persistent enough with them. Does it work as a piece about May '68? Eh, not really; the action being held at bay was necessary and a nice touch, given that the group is holed up throughout the film in a great Parisian apartment. But the outfits and period touches were all too clean looking, too neat and 'Late Sixties'; pulled off the rack in wardrobe.

I don't think there's anything shocking about it, and I don't think there's meant to be, really. Matthew, the American, deals with the brother and sister's incestuousness in a straight-forward, rational way--another well-played part of the film. So for me there wasn't the whiff of debauchery that critics have smelled hanging around the proceedings. It was more a group of confused, excited kids, playing games, with Matthew coming around to the idea that maybe some games are a bit too warped to play, and maybe they have lasting damage. That aspect of the film is left unconsidered in any treatment I've seen.

It's a good, flawed film, with nowhere near the flagrant nudity I'd been led to expect (which isn't to say there isn't a good deal of nudity, just that it isn't so demonstrative and 'shocking'). Not a great film, nothing that'll change your life...but in my estimation most of those films have already been made, and whatever of that caliber that might still be forthcoming is few and far between.

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