Film "Dreamers": reviews, plot, director, actors and roles

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Reviews of the film "The Dreamers" will be of interest to all fans of cinematic art. This is a cult chamber erotic drama by Bernardo Bertolucci, which was released in 2003. The film stars 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.

Creation

Reviews about the film "The Dreamers" from the audience and critics were mostly positive. Considered to be one of Bertolucci's best and most famous films.

The Italian director filmed his erotic drama from the script of the British writer Gilbert Adair. Adair based three of his own novels, one of which was called The Dreamers. It is known that when creating them, the Englishman was inspired by the work of Jean Cocteau, including his book Terrible Children.

Three young people are at the center of the plot in the 2003 film The Dreamers. All this is the story of the sexual revolution in a single Parisian apartment, filled with cinematic allusions. It is important that the events take place against a historical background. Outside the window student unrest in France in 1968, which led to the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle.

The place where the film "Dreamers" was filmed is Paris. For many, one of the most romantic cities in the world, which is confirmed by the characters that appear on the screen.

The crew of "Dreamers" turned out to be many professionals in their field who helped Bertolucci make an outstanding film. The cinematographer is Fabio Chianchetta. The artists of the tape were Pierre Dubuyberrange, Jean Rabasse, Louise Stjernsvord, and Jacopo Quadri was responsible for editing. Film producer - Jeremy Thomas.

What is the picture about?

According to the plot of the film "The Dreamers", the action of the tape takes place immediately before and during the May 1968 student unrest in the French capital.

Viewers get acquainted with the American Matthew, who comes to Europe on a student exchange program between countries. His goal is to improve his knowledge of French.

At the same time, he spends most of his time in Paris in the Cinematheque. This is the world's largest archive of films and documents that are somehow related to cinema. He is surrounded by teenagers and students who, like him, are literally obsessed with cinema, enjoy watching modern films and examples of world classics.

In the Cinematheque hemeets his peers - Theo and Isabelle. Young people claim that they are close, since at birth they were conjoined twins. New buddies offer Matthew to move into their apartment while their parents are away.

It gradually becomes apparent to the American guest that the intimacy between Isabelle and Theo literally teeters on the brink of incest.

Student riots are raging around, but they are of little interest to young people. They plunge into the abyss of psychological and sexual experiments that unfold in this small Parisian apartment.

Around the movie

The genre of the film "The Dreamers" is an erotic drama. At the same time, most of the filmed scenes dedicated to the sexual relationship between Theo and Matthew did not make it into the final version. The creators came to the conclusion 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 Eva Green's hair catches fire appeared quite by accident. He was not in Adair's novel or in the script. The actress's hair caught fire by accident. The director decided that it looked so organic that he decided to include the episode in the film.

Interestingly, Jake Gyllenhaal and Leonardo DiCaprio were invited to play the role of American student Matthew in the erotic drama The Dreamers. But Gyllenhaal refused because of the large number of too explicit scenes, and DiCaprio chose to star in Martin Scorsese in a military drama"Aviator".

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2003. True, it was shown out of competition.

The creators' free interpretation of the youth sexual revolution of the 1960s was the reason why the film was actively criticized, which caused outright indignation among many.

Awards and nominations

Despite general critical acclaim, 2003's The Dreamers did not receive significant awards, limiting itself to prestigious nominations.

He was nominated for Italy's national award "David di Donatello", Bernardo Bertolucci and Eva Green were nominated for the award of the European Film Academy.

The film was also nominated for the Goya Award as Best European Film, but Wolfgang Becker's German tragicomedy "Good Bye Lenin!" won the award.

Bernardo Bertolucci

The director of the film "The Dreamers" was Bernardo Bertolucci. He was born in Rome in 1941.

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 Godfather". In it, the police investigate the murder of an aged prostitute 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 topics of human sexuality, social injustice, vicissitudes of fate.

In many of his works, Bertolucci turns to forbidden and even taboo topics. He is interested in various forms of human sexuality - triolism, incest, homosexuality.

Triumphant were two of his works of the early 1970s. In the drama The Conformist, the film takes place in Rome in 1938. The main character, aristocrat Marcello Clerici, enters the service of the Nazis, plans a wedding with an unremarkable girl, Giulia, a classic representative of the middle class. From his memoirs it becomes clear that he feels like a victim of severe heredity due to the fact that his father was in a psychiatric hospital, and his mother was a morphine addict. At the same time, as a teenager, he was sexually abused by the driver Lino. Marcello is convinced he killed him when he was 13.

In 1972, Bertolucci shoots the erotic melodrama "Last Tango in Paris". It tells about a 45-year-old American named Paul, who has his own hotel in Paris. His wife commits suicide when her husband meets 20-year-old Jeanne, with whom he begins an affair the same day.

In 1988, the Italian director becomes a 2-time Oscar winner for the historical drama The Last Emperor, filmed according to his script. This is a biography of the ruler of China, Pu Yi, who ended the monarchy in this country.

His last tape was the drama "Me andyou", which appeared on the screens in 2012. This is a story about an introvert Lorenzo. When his classmates go skiing in the mountains, he secretly stays in the basement of his own house for all this time. His loneliness is interrupted by the appearance of a mysterious girl, whose story turns out to be close to him and his family.

In November 2018, Bertolucci died in Rome. He was 77 years old.

Eva Green

Among the actors of the film "The 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 a European Film Award but did not win.

Eva Green in "The 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 act.

The Dreamers star Eva Green became world-famous after playing Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem in Ridley Scott's historical drama Kingdom of Heaven and James Bond girl in Martin Campbell's adventure action movie Casino Royale.

Since the mid-2000s, he has mainly worked in independent films. It can be recalled from Jordan Scott's drama Cracks, Benedek Fliauf's film Womb, David Mackenzie's fantastic drama Last Love on Earth.

At the same time, Green is actively involvedin serials. For example, for the role of Vanessa Ives in the mystical TV series Penny Dreadful, the actress was awarded the Golden Globe.

Her latest works so far are Roman Polanski's psychological drama "Based on a true story" and Lisa Langseth's drama "Euphoria".

Louis Garrel

The role of Isabelle's brother Theo in the film is played by Louis Garrel. "Dreamers" for this French actor is not the 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, Louis began to appear in his paintings from the age of 6. It was the role of Theo that brought him real popularity and success. She perfectly matched his charismatic image of a stern intellectual and nervous handsome man.

In 2005, he starred in his father's drama Constant Lovers, playing the young man François. His romance with a new acquaintance, Lily, unfolds, as in The Dreamers, against the background of student unrest in 1968 in Paris. For this work, he was nominated for the Cesar Award as the most promising actor.

In Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi's "Dream of the previous night", which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, he played the lover of a 40-year-old actress. In the musical "All songs are only about love" creates the image of a young Parisian who lives with two girls.

In 2017, Garrel plays the title character inbiographical melodrama by Michel Hazanavicius "Young Godard". The film tells about the relationship of the cult French director with actress Anna Wiazemsky, which originated on the set of the drama "Chinese Woman" in 1967.

Michael Pitt

Michael Pitt in "The Dreamers" creates the image of an American student Matthew, passionate about France and world cinema. Pitt is indeed an American by nationality, born in New Jersey in 1981.

From the late 1990s, starred in the series "Law &Order". He made his debut on the big screen in Mark Christopher's drama "Studio 54" in 1998.

He broke through as the lover of a transgender rock star in John Cameron Mitchell's comedy musical "Hedwig and the Bad Inch". After the release of this tape on the screens, he began to be regularly invited to minor roles in big Hollywood projects. For example, in Barbe Schroeder's thriller "Murder Count", Larry Clark's drama "The Sadist".

After working with Bertolucci, he starred in Gus Van Sant's biographical drama The Last Days. His character is a grunge musician who uses heroin and is suicidal. In his image, you can see clear references to musician Kurt Cobain.

In 2007 he starred with Keira Knightley in Francois Girard's melodrama "Silk" about a French smuggler who sells silk.

He starred in the series "Boardwalk Empire". Among his latest works, it is worth noting the thrillerAriel Vromen's "Criminal" and Rupert Sanders' thriller "Ghost in the Shell".

Film allusions

According to reviews of the film "The Dreamers", he attracted many with his involvement in the global film process, a large number of various allusions.

The artistic canvas of this tape is simply imbued with cinephilia. In the course of the story, the characters of the film repeatedly recreate scenes from their favorite works of cinematography, often repeating the gestures inherent in their favorite characters. 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 an episode from Jean-Luc Godard's 1964 crime drama The Outsiders. When Theo and Isabelle say "We accept him. He's one of us" right after a run, it is a reference to Tod Browning's Freaks from 1932.

In some cases, Bertolucci accompanies these allusions with scenes from the films to which they refer. For example, during a suicide attempt, viewers see an excerpt from Robert Bresson's 1967 black-and-white drama Mouchette.

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 Charlie Chaplin's tragicomedy City Lights, Luis Buñuel's comedy The Golden Age, Billy Wilder's drama Sunset Boulevard.

Impressions

Most viewers have left positive feedback on the film "The Dreamers". Critics noted that unrest on the streets of Paris, which some consider the next French revolution, plays a big role in this tape. Theo becomes her incarnation. He supports the dissatisfied, but at the same time he thinks a little more than they do.

The actors of the film "The Dreamers" deserve special praise. All three characters are carefully worked out, their images are revealed as fully and in detail as possible. 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. At the same time, she herself does not know how it can be felt. The girl has a good idea of what love looks like in the movies, but does not understand what it means in real life.

Characters quickly find themselves in the spotlight of both the audience and the director. They perform shocking deeds for many, embody their secret sexual fantasies. They serve as the epitome of nihilism and recklessness, which are so inherent in all young people.

Great value in the "Dreamers" is their serene demeanor, which seems naive, romantic and unconscious. They think high, which seems not to be the case for most young people.

As critics noted in their reviews, Bertolucci in The Dreamers produced three independent film stars at once, who still remain popular, after deathdirector. For each of them, this was the first significant role in their careers, and for Eva Green, it was 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 the creator of the picture had. At the same time, many drew attention to the fact that this was precisely what was lacking in his works of the 1970-1980s. Despite all its external sickness and claustrophobia, the film turned out to be very energetic, cheerful and young, full of symbols of eroticism.

At the same time, someone criticized Bertolucci for excessive frankness, passion for filming naked heroes, arguing that real romantics and dreamers will not find anything for themselves here and will not endure. The picture has remained one of the most controversial works in the director's career, it means a lot for understanding his creative method and ideas.