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Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel, Robin Renucci, Anna Chancellor ... see more see more... , Florian Cadiou , Jean-Pierre Kalfon , Jean-Pierre Léaud

Veteran Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci directs the erotic drama The Dreamers, adapted from the novel The Holy Innocents: A Romance by Gilbert Adair. American student Matthew (Michael Pitt) is s... read more read more...tudying in Paris during the politically turbulent late '60s. The story begins in 1968 with the firing of Henri Langlois, the founder of the French Cinémathèque. At a protest demonstration, Matthew meets cinema-obsessed Isabelle (Eva Green) and her twin brother, Theo (Louis Garrel). When their Bohemian parents (Robin Renucci and Anna Chancellor) leave for the summer, the twins invite Matthew to live with them. While the revolution rages on outside, the three young people stay in the comfortable flat playing decadent sexual games. Bertolucci incorporates clips from classic films like Queen Christina, Band of Outsiders, and Breathless. After showing at several European film festivals, The Dreamers made its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

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154 critics

NC-17, 1 hr. 56 min.

Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci

Release Date: February 6, 2004

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DVD Release Date: July 13, 2004

Stats: 3,057 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (3,057)

  • SirPant
    March 5, 2012
    SirPant
    Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers is a love letter/tribute to the 1960's New wave cinema, the political movements and of the era in general (although it actually cheapens the work of the activists that it tries to acknowledge). I liked the interweaving footage of classic films a... read morend how the characters reenacted them but that's pretty much as far as my enthusiasm goes for this film. It doesn't come close to the films it tries to emulate, the script is far from intelligent, the acting is OK but the characters are unlikable and actually quite unbelievable - I think this is down to bad direction, the actors were pretending, almost mimicking but not acting and it is neither erotic or sensual. Just because you see Eva Green's genitalia, does not make it sexy - If erotic is bathing in someones period blood and shagging ones own sibling then I'm quite happy to report there is nothing erotic about me. Seriously though, I'm no prude - there is story here but it's not 'Ultra sexy' films it's been hailed as. The Telegraph is quoted as saying 'Sometimes forbidden fruit is the most delectable' - dirty newspaper, I mean really, boobs are great but not when they belong to your sister! This film is as fake as it comes, maybe it's 40 years too late but then not all of the New wave was credible. For me It was like like a bad Godard, but worse.
  • fb1216165431
    October 5, 2011
    fb1216165431
    Wild and ambitious, The Dreamers is a Bernardo Bertolucci masterpiece that candidly declares an erotic affection for cinema with references to Breathless, Band Of Outsiders, and other classics. For cinephiles, The Dreamers is a daring and nostalgic exploration of cinema, sex, and... read more politics with equally daring performances from the talented ménage à trois - Michael Pitt, Eva Green, and Louis Garrel. Strictly for mature audiences only.
  • bookmunki
    December 20, 2010
    bookmunki
    'Strange, beautiful.....and you'll never hear surf music again.' The soundtrack aptly begins and ends with the Hendrix tune, serving both as testament and summary.
  • aliceinpunderland
    September 11, 2010
    aliceinpunderland
    It's artistic and political and psychological and sexual, but I can't say all those themes really jived. The filmic commentary helps to establish the trio's friendship in fun and moving ways, but it doesn't have much to do with the political payoff. The social unrest bookends t... read morehe historical relevance of the movie, but there's no definitive extolling or damning of Matthew's pacifism. Isabelle and Theo's twisted codependence and Matthew and Isabelle's sexual awakening are equally awkward and titillating, but the film seems to treat these issues as face value quirks. There's no subsequent discussion after Isabelle breaks down at Theo's door. There's no revelation of Isabelle's attempted suicide. There's no consequence to their parents finding out.

    Michael Pitt has the most interesting face. It's so naive yet bold. He does have beautiful lips.
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    June 4, 2010
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "I don't believe in God, but if I did, he would be a black, left-handed guitarist."

    A young American studying in Paris in 1968 strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister. Set against the background of the '68 Paris student riots.

    ... read more="Century Schoolbook">REVIEW
    For most of its run time, "The Dreamers" is a stunningly beautiful and effectively seductive tale of three youths (one American, two French) who intermingle in a love affair sparked by their love of movies. As tales of foreign dislocation go, this runs circles around "Lost in Translation," and ups the erotic ante to a place so casual that some mentalities may be downright uncomfortable with the lack of sensationalism present. In what is essentially a scaled-down variation on Truffaut's "Jules and Jim," director Bernardo Bertolucci places American student Matthew (Michael Pitt, full of marquee-icon beauty) in Paris, where he meets up with Isabelle (the luscious Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel), whose ambiguous relationship runs the gamut from siblings to twins to lovers; the trio become enmeshed in a love triangle that extends for a month, in the midst of the escalation of military operations in Vietnam and a Communist uprising in France. Bertolucci opens with images of outcry against a blacklisted filmmaker, and concludes with a less-than-convincing paralleling of political protest (the axiom that "all art is political" given an overly literal connotation). The at-times distracting political aspect, however, is a minor complaint in what is, at heart, a hypnotically engaging account of three mysterious teens in the midst of their sexual awakening. "The Dreamers" is, as another critic has already stated, a wonderful valentine to love--and to cinema itself.
  • djdemersseman
    April 19, 2010
    djdemersseman
    Yeah, it's probably a bit pretentious and full of itself. But I enjoyed it.
  • ythelastman89
    November 18, 2009
    ythelastman89
    The concept is really unique and the acting was really great, especially for the subject matter and content. It has a lot of interesting questions about what is normal and what love really is. I enjoyed the 60s look of the film and thought it really matched the tone of the plot. ... read moreMichael Pitt and Eva Green were amazing and definitely put in a lot of effort.
  • romy861
    July 31, 2009
    romy861
    Have just re-watched this one again and honestly never get tired of it, although I can acknowledge it is not a film that would appeal to everyone. This is beautifully filmed and cast - especially Michael Pitt and Eva Green.
    Despite the topic, this film manages to have an inno... read morecence to it, which slowly turns to tragedy by the end. Impressive.
  • groaningbitch
    July 28, 2009
    groaningbitch
    "the dreamers" is classic new-wave director bernardo bertolucci's smashing hit in 2004 to anchor a tribute to the ultimate flaming passion of cinema and, of course, its dreamers that could include anyone of us who dedicate ourselves in flixster for sure. but the audience has to a... read moresk himself one question: have you watched any of those movies referred within this flick as its protagonists mimc in their oblivious existence fabricated by the fragments of the cinema.

    a hippie-orientated american student of tumultuous 60s, the cynic period of vietnam war, on his cinematic crusade to paris, then he meets a pair of french twins who are also movie buffs, the edgy IT type with leftist politic tendency, who worship mao's cultural revolutions, deranged with their intense daring trials of sex. so the fresh-faced young american college student falls head overs heels in love with their charismatic allure of avant-gardist thinkings as well as their provocative sensuality when he sees the twins's naked sleeping poise. they dare each other to guess scenes of movies and the loser pays the price of punishments which strays an exhibitionistic masturbation and freewheeling intercourse.

    undeniably sex is a massive attraction of this movie like one quote of cinema notebook mentioned within the movie that filmmaking is an art of voyeurism, like peeping your parents have sex thru the key hole, you feel guilty but rapturously aroused, and filmmaker is like a criminal who philander the audience this forbidden desire, audience naturally takes the spot of michael pitt's coy american who covets eva green and louis garrel who shamelessly dangle their lovely youthful fleshes in front of you as if it's nothing big deal, then a phallic dream is granted as pitt's got to make love to eva green and deflower this gorgeous french apphrodite, this crazy but quirky ingenune of guileless seductiveness. which gentleman in the seat wouldn't crave for that, huh? but the sex is nothing gratuitous, it torches the supremacy of lustrous passion and tender affections, especially the scene when pitt and green embraces harshly after lovemaking, and the girl's face is smeared with tears and her own virginal blood at first time. (quite touching, indeed.) the sex looks nothing dirty but innocent like kids who toy with their newly experimented genitals.

    the most interesting parts would be michael pitt's philosophical dialogues with louis garrel, the angry youth who resents his highly proper and dignified father, who despises the bourgeois hypocrisy of cold war despite he's a descendant of middle class. they debate over keaton and chaplin, and the awestruck cultural revolution and its fundamental contradictions. you see posters of chairman mao hung in garrel's bedroom and he's reading the little red book so sincerely like it's a sacred bible. garrel takes it so literily that he even goes on street with a bomb to protest against the facsist french police (as he claims) while michael pitt strives to hold their faces for a quick smack of kisses to demonstrate his notion "an orgasm is better than bomb" (this slogan appears in the t shirt pitt wears in the premiere of "dreamers" as well) just like the highly welcomed hippie's idea of "free love" in 70s america: if we make love to each other instead of using our fists, the world would be in peace forever. i suppose frenches were more militant to resort to communism and sweeping revolutions while americans were more self-indulgent with their naive hedonistic beliefs. whatever happens in the world is all silmultaneous and contagious, china of the orient was going thru cultural revolution with a little mao book while the occidental country like france had various riots to echo that. meanwhile my country, taiwan, was dozing itself with a non-existent fancy pushed by governmental proganda that chiang kai-shek could retrieve mainland china, along with his american conspirators to perform his oriental "mccarthyism", which was just like mao's cultural revolutions, had all costed more real bloodshed than the occidental side of the world.

    as roger ebert remarks in his professional review of "the dreamers" that the people who really change the world are not those who watch movies but those who have money and power. "the dreamers" showcased the most fascinationg period of cinematic worship when moviegoers do have a sense of political involvement with the worldwide conditions and project a true absorption of culture to the movies they watch without discriminations like "i cannot accept silents" or "black and white screen is blurry"or "oldies are intimidatingly boring"...it was the time when filmviewing was taken very seriously like the air they inhale and breathe out...but today audience watches movies with an easy expectation to "amuse himself to death" (a pun to the book witten by neil postman), there's nothing too idealstic but simply cheap fun-seeking..i wonder whether i should rejoice over this apathy even i deeply realize that dreamers truly cannot the world. somehow, in the end, does it really matter anymore? youth is a like a budding flower of frivolity and naivete, a fair blossom of dreams and hopes, you're the most beautiful when you smile with hope or frown with purist idealism because it's a utmost expression of your non-speckled humanity.
  • fernandorafael
    April 4, 2009
    fernandorafael
    THE DREAMERS is a feast for the eyes in every sense of the word, but it doesn't make much of a statement. However, it's a movie about film buffs for film buffs, and should not be left unwatched.

    Twins Theo & Isabelle are two trainwrecks you need to see to believe, and the per... read moreformances by Eva Green and Michael Pitt are the highlight of a somewhat dull (but incredibly sexy, if you look past the incest, and that scene with the blood) film.

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Critic Reviews

Peter Rainer
August 7, 2004
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine

Exhilarating. Full Review

Jay Boyar
March 5, 2004
Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel

Swept away by the intensity of the characters' movie debates and sexual games, Bertolucci often recaptures the film-besotted spirit of the period. Full Review

Chris Vognar
March 4, 2004
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

Ambitious and uneven, visceral and pungent. Full Review

Rex Reed
February 26, 2004
Rex Reed, New York Observer

A film about youth and passion that seems old and passionless. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
February 20, 2004
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Its nostalgia and narcissism are ultimately two versions of the same thing, and neither can reopen cross-cultural channels. Instead they keep this story stuck in the past, frozen and intact and irrele... Full Review

Eric Harrison
February 20, 2004
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle

It is a well-made film in many ways, but I found in the callowness of these youths nothing to admire. Full Review

Richard Nilsen
February 14, 2004
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic

The Dreamers makes its point with clips of old films. And yes, there is quite a bit of sex and nudity.

Richard Roeper
February 13, 2004
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

[A] provocative, sensual feast. Full Review

Michael O'Sullivan
February 13, 2004
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

It is both a love song to escapism and a warm embrace of the real world -- a wake-up call that one place, without the other to occasionally return to, would make life for us (who are the real dreamers...

Desson Thomson
February 13, 2004
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

Do these characters really care about the collected works of Godard? Not for one Parisian minute.

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The Dreamers Trivia

  • In the movie dreamer, what is Dreamer's registered name?  Answer »
  • Wich were the three actors in the movie "The Dreamers" also known as "Innocents" made in 2003 by the director BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI ?  Answer »
  • In which film does the new 'bond girl' Eva Green star with Michael Pitt?  Answer »
  • In which movie did Eva Green play the role of an incestuous sister?  Answer »
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