Release Date: February 6, 2004
MPAA Rating: NC-17 for explicit sexual content
Directed by: Andy Cadiff
Starring: Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel, Eva Green, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Jean-Pierre Leaud

Plot:
An American college student, Matthew (Pitt), pursuing his education abroad in Paris in 1968 becomes friends with a French brother, Guillaume (Garrel), and sister, Danielle (Green), through a shared love of the cinema, while the May, 1968 Paris student riots (which eventually shut down most of the French government) are happening in the background.

Review:
Passion for Film, what a lovely thing it is. In the 1960's, it was especially a great time for film, where the creativity and originality was almost non stop. Three young humans in The Dreamers have a passion for film and know most movies like the back of their hand.

Louis Garrel who plays Theo and Eva Green who plays Isabelle are siblings. Yet, their relationship as brother and sister is very different than that of a normal one. They have no shame in seeing each other nude, sharing thoughts, playing sex games and sleeping together in the same bed. Both of their lives enhance when Michael Pitt who plays Matthew enters their world.

Matthew is an American man who has gone to France for education in film, just like the others. He meets Theo and Isabelle and things unfold from there. Its a very interesting factor in how Matthew as a character thinks and reacts. As innocent as can be he was, and later on as the film progresses Matthew has changed because of the people he has hung around with.

All three of them had very different and interesting roles. They lead us on into what turns out to be a well crafted sexy adventure of a film. The Dreamers combines the likes of friendship, sex and knowledge all together coherently. Many good features of this film is the fact of it unfolding as it continues to stroll along in a steady pace. At times you think you have everything interpreted, but you might be second guessing the images.

The images in this film range from intriguing to downright disgusting. Director Bernardo Bertolucci perhaps went over the top with those features, but the odd relationships these three had isn't your everyday relationship. That's easily what makes this film so intriguing and interesting to continuously grab each of its points that it is trying to make. The screenplay for The Dreamers is good as well, but Bernardo's vision is clearly what stands out.

Bernardo Bertolucci has a great sense for directing. The sets are beautiful and the quick but memorable signs of genius with the camera is present. It almost runs like a painting. Its a slow process, but once it has been completed you can see how well it was made and how original it was.

When we get down to the screenplay, it was a rather good one, but it could have actually been even better. The mixture of Bernardo's direction and the screenplay written by Gilbert Adair combined didn't make as much as a powerful film as this could have lead to be. I was definitely surprised that Bernardo had not written the screenplay for this film because he has for most of his other feature length films.

Without writing the screenplay, he still has aspects that no other Director would actually think of injecting the film with. The Dreamers has many instances in which one of the three characters would act out a scene in a movie and the others would have to guess what film its from. Bernardo took his creativity to another level and placed clips of the movies they were acting out from, right as they were doing it and it showed how similar they acted it out compared to the actual scene in the film.

Bernardo Bertollucci is no stranger to an R rating or even NC-17 like The Dreamers received. There is plenty of full frontal male and female nudity in the film. An erotic story is usually a hard task to overcome and the results are always varied. There are risks taken with these types of films, but Bernardo knew exactly what he wanted and his experience shows in The Dreamers.

Basically, The Dreamers had enough interesting elements and spiced up scenes to end up as a very good film. It plays with your reactions and emotions throughout the running time and that is always a great thing. If a film can get you thinking or visually stunned, then the film has done a pretty good job to its audience.

Without a doubt The Dreamers is a solid film. Its a visually great and entertaining film that surrounds the odd life of three young people. The Dreamers can be an odd film if you are witnessing it with the wrong intentions. However, if you see the inner beauty and meanings that this film hands over to the audience, then you will see that The Dreamers is a well balanced and creative motion picture.