The Dreamers (Original Uncut NC-17 Version)

This is an amazing movie. If you have been reading any of these reviews I am sure it goes without saying that it is not for everyone so I won't dwell on that. I will address the nudity/sexual aspects of the film up front by simply repeating what many of the other reviews have said: there is certainly nudity, openly sexual scenes, and a variety of taboos explored in varying degrees, but they are presented rather matter-of-fact and not with strong eroticism (though, I admit that for any red-blooded, heterosexual male, even if she were just sorting socks or filling out a tax return, it would be hard to judge any scene with a nude Eva Green as "not erotic"). I believe that the sex primarily reinforces the innocence, or naivete, of the twins' -- Isabelle and Theo's -- private universe where they, as spoiled child-adults, endulge any desire or whim. This is in contrast to the anger and intensity which dominates their pretense at social-activism, driven by simple-minded reaction (war -- bad) to the turbulent times (the 60's). But they are just two sides to the same coin -- they truly are "Dreamers", detached from reality by a wall of denial. When anything happens which forces them to deal with reality, such as having the true nature of their relationship discovered by their parents, the results are not pretty. (Actually, it is a little ambitious to suggest that their parents discovered the true nature of their relationship when it isn't clear that even they understand the true nature of this confusing mix of polyamory, bisexuality, incest, voyeurism, fraternity, obsession, and just a hint of sadomasochism.) Matthew, the young American student whom they "adopt," is torn between the seductive nature of their universe (including his attraction to and love of Isabelle and Theo) and his own grounding in reality -- though he is as young as they are, he possesses a maturity and true thoughtulness which they lack. So long as they all remain primarily isolated in their apartment, their private universe mostly prevails, but in the end their differences in the "real" world is what tears them apart. The acting is superb throughout -- there is some very impressive work here. The cinematography is also excellent and the use of clips from classic films is brilliant, reinforcing not only the establishment of the characters' love of cinema but also the degree to which these "dreamers" are lost within their fantasies. The ending is amazing and rather abrupt. (mild spoiler alert) It will likely leave most viewers feeling a bit unfulfilled but that fits the movie. The ending likely would leave the characters feeling unfulfilled -- ultimately, no matter how much he wanted to be a part of Isabelle and Theo's universe, Matthew could never remain there. When reality came crashing through, the characters acted according to their nature and their differences severed the bond for good. Some have complained that the film is too slow. It is a bit slow but when doing a character-study, how much "study" is too much? How much is enough? I, personally, was riveted throughout. Those who were not riveted, likely weren't really connecting with the movie anyway and more aggessive editing likely would not have changed that. The movie is not for everyone. The only other Bernardo Bertolucci movie I have seen is "Last Tango in Paris" about which I was not very enthusiastic. It was an impressive film but ultimately I could not buy into the story -- I found the characters and situations ultimately unbelievable and that made all the good things in it difficult to appreciate. The same thing could have happened here -- these characters certainly are not like anyone I know or would even imagine but the acting, the script, and the directing drew me in -- I rather imagine that for many, that was not enough, and they wound up disliking the film as a result. I can't explain why it worked for me and I sure can't say whether it will work for you but the bottom line is, it worked for me. I enjoyed this movie.

"The Dreamers" is a 2003 erotic period drama directed by Bernardo Bertolucci from a script by Gilbert Adair who adapted his own novel "The Holy Innocents". The film was notable for being released in the United States uncut with a NC-17 rating due to graphic nudity and explicit albeit simulated sex. The film is mostly a three character study starring Matthew Pitt, Louis Garrel and the stunningly beautiful and sexy Eva Green who was 23 years old at the time of filming. It is a period piece set in 1968 France during student protests featuring silky smooth direction, lush cinematography, a memorable score and potent eroticism throughout. "The Dreamers" received a mixed critical reaction at the time of its original release with some critics accusing Bernardo Bertolucci of exploiting Eva Green and being too focused on sex/nudity at the expense of narrative. The focus on incestuous ambiguity pertaining to the twin siblings portrayed by Louis Garrel & Eva Green also left some viewers feeling icky. The film features both graphic female & male nudity from its three stars with the sex being explicit while stopping short of being pornographic. Eva Green is absolutely hypnotic in this film delivering a nuanced layered performance that is equal parts mysterious and smoldering sensuality. Fans of the gorgeous lady will find a lot to like here as her multiple graphic nude scenes leave absolutely nothing to imagination. "The Dreamers" won't be to everyone's taste but it is one of my favorite films of the last 25 years and one of Bernardo Bertolucci's best in my opinion. Icon Film Distribution brought "The Dreamers" to 4K UHD on May 13, 2024 in a beautiful collector's edition region free 4K/bluray release featuring the uncut and uncensored 115 minute version of the film. It is presented in its original 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio in both HDR10 and Dolby Vision on the 4K disc and SDR on the included remastered bluray. I watched the film in 4K Dolby Vision finding the grading to be tasteful in its application and the transfer as a whole to be true to the original cinematography looking wonderfully filmic with a natural layer of film grain present. Flesh tones look accurate which is important considering the sizeable amount of bare flesh on display throughout the film. The framing of the movie with this release has been the subject of some controversy with some people feeling the transfer is off center and not true to the original 1.85:1 theatrical matting. I didn't find anything to be incorrect or odd with the framing. While the widescreen framing of the 4K restoration is notably different than the widescreen DVD that I had owned for several years, I found the new 4K release to be more properly framed than the DVD release but opinions on that may vary. I think fans will be pleased with how wonderful the film looks in 4K. The HDR10 encode looks fantastic in its own right however those who can watch the film in Dolby Vision will be treated to an even more improved & nuanced picture quality than the HDR10 version. This release contains the following information regarding the restoration itself: "The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003) was restored in 4K by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with Recorded Picture Company. The image was restored from the original camera negative preserved at CSC - Cineteca Nazionale. The soundtrack was restored from original masters made available by Recorded Picture Company. The restoration was supervised by Fabio Cianchetti, Director of Photography. The restoration was carried out under the aegis of the Fondazione Bernardo Bertolucci by L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in 2023." Sound is presented in a choice of lossless 5.1 and 2.0 lossless audio. I thought both tracks sounded clean and balanced. English and French subtitles are included for the hearing impaired. Extras are as follows: - Cinema, Sex and Politics: Bertolucci makes The Dreamers and The Making of The Dreamers - Across two in-depth featurettes, experience how the film was brought to life from script to screen and uncover the real events of 1968 that inspired this remarkable story. Featuring extensive behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with cast and crew - Feature commentary with Bernardo Bertolucci, writer Gilbert Adair and producer Jeremy Thomas - Interviews with Bernardo Bertolucci, Eva Green, Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel, Gilbert Adair and Jeremy Thomas - B-Roll - take a step behind the camera to witness the filmmaking process and iconic sets from a unique perspective - Original trailer and 4K remastered trailer - Also included are four exclusive art cards and an A3 print of the film’s original poster Fans of "The Dreamers" should pick up this 4K release without hesitation. The film has never looked or sounded better than it does here in true 4K. Fans of the luscious & talented actress Eva Green will also find a lot to like here as her extensive graphic nudity leaves all details of her amazing body and perfect face on full display to appreciate and enjoy. As stated earlier, some will find the film to be too focused on the sex and nudity, however I have always found the balance between potent eroticism, character study and narrative to be expertly balanced. Highly recommend!

I will say it again, this is a devastatingly beautiful movie! I love Michael Pitt on principle, so I had to get it but I wasnt entirely sure of how it would pan out once I actually started watching it. But I was pleasantly suprised as I realized, that from the opening scene I was completely engrossed. Paris is beautiful, the cast is beautiful, the dialauge is beautiful, and not to mention witty and intelligent. Matthew(Michael Pitt)is a wide eyed, slightly shy, charming young man who meets Isabelle(Eva Green) and Theo(Louis Garrell) purely by happenstance. Isabelle has mock chained herself to the gates of the cinamatique(the movie theater housed inside a palace) as a riot about the theater is going on outside. She and Matthew immidetly strike up a conversation and when her brother Theo happens along after speaking to the lead rioter, a noticable spark is ignited between the three of them. Within the course of the next few days he has dinner with them, spends the night at their house and then eventually moves in because of the invitation issued to him by Izzy and Theo. The first night he spends there he walks by Theos room and sees them naked in bed together, asleep. He is shocked and confused, as you can tell by the look on his face, but he says nothing about it the next day. Other odd behaviours arise from the Izzy and Theo, such as Izzy licking the sleep out of Matthews eyes, them tag teaming matthew while trying to shave off Matthews pubic hair, and Izzy making Theo jack off in front of them after losing a game. Most people would be repelled by their strangeness, but some how, for some reason, Matthew is drawn to it like a moth to a flame. We find out later that there is a sort of reason behind the Izzy and Theos closeness, the reason being that they are siamese twins. I will say and spoil no more and only encourage you to be open minded and watch this film!! It is definetly on my top ten movies to watch!!

At the end of The Dreamers, I was not sure what to think. What had played out before me was at once sensual, sexual, erotic--but not overly so--sinfully voyeuristic, and politically charged. It was a study in excess, of youthful indulgence and sexual exploration, of idealistic fervor both realized and unfulfilled. It was beautiful and ugly, titillating yet repulsive. And in the end I was drawn to the movie, a voyeur peering in on the lives of three humans as their world narrowed to just the three, where nothing else matter but the pleasure and pain they could inflict on one another in the name of love. The Story Based on the novel The Holy Innocents: A Romance by Gilbert Adair, who also wrote the screenplay, The Dreamers is the latest film by renowned and controversial Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci; it is in fact his 22nd offering in a long and distinguished career. Bertolucci has described The Dreamers as being about three utopias centered on his memories of May 1968: political, cinematic and sexual. The Dreamers open on Paris, beautiful, sensual, romantic Paris, in 1968 when it seemed the whole world was on fire. The month is February, and a young American, Matthew, portrayed by Michael Pitt, meets French twins Théo portrayed by newcomer Louis Garrel, and Isabelle portrayed with soft sensuality by newcomer Eva Green, at the Cinémathèque Francaise during the Langlois Affair a demonstration against the firing of its leader, Henri Langlois. The Langlois Affair was widely heralded as a forerunner of the May uprising by French students. In a wonderful elegiac tableau, Bertolucci splices together archive shots of French director Jean-Pierre Léaud giving a passionate speech in defense of Langlois, with his own shots of Léaud today reproducing the same event. Matthew, a regular at the Cinémathèque has had his eye on Isabelle for quite some time. He has been watching her almost daily through the semi-dark of the packed auditorium. So Matthew is thrilled with the pair invite him to dinner in the family apartment, where he meets their English mother (Anna Chancellor) and French father (Robin Renucci), a noted author. The twins are taken with Matthew and after their parents leave for places unknown, they invite him to stay in the apartment with them, and the new three friends begin a life of reclusive bohemia. At first they just discuss politics and play games like film-buff, but increasingly as Matthew is drawn deeper into their world, the twins begin to play sexual games as well. Matthew discovers that the twins sleep nude together and during a round of film-buff in which Théo loses, Isabelle makes him masturbate in front of her and Matthew, who is taken aback. Later, during another round of film-buff, Théo wins and sensing Matthew's barely masked attraction to Isabelle, orders the two to have sex in front of him. At first Matthew resists; his American sensibilities can't imagine such a thing, but the sight of a now naked Isabelle excites him and he gives into temptation, making love to Isabelle on the kitchen floor, while Théo fries eggs. At the end of their coupling Matthew discovers Isabelle was a virgin, or was she just experiencing her time of the month? The blood doesn't tell. The die is cast, and the two make love all over the apartment taking pleasure from each other in long stretches, heedless of the now forgotten Théo. Before long Matthew falls in love with Isabelle and her with him, but he cannot have her all to himself, because while Isabelle may well be in love Mathew, she is deeper in love with Théo; the twin may have never consummated tier attraction in the old fashioned way, but they are engaged in a every thickening dance of emotional incest... A lighting rod for controversy Bernardo Bertolucci is nonetheless one of the world's foremost directors. His predilection for exploring the carnal side of human nature in his films has brought him much ridicule and acclaim, but none can deny his brilliance as a director. Much criticism was heaped upon the cinematic shoulders of The Dreamers before its release because of the often raw depiction of nudity, sexuality and its underlying current of incest. Quite frankly after the initial titillation, I found the movie hardly erotic or proactive at all; it was in the end a film about exploration and awakening, both of sexual and political awareness. But all-n-all there was surprising little sex in The Dreamers. It is interesting that only Matthew seems to have any sense of morality, or common sense for that matter. It is the twins that draw him into their web of sexual gamesmanship and depravity; it is Isabelle who instigates the first sexual game, and it is Théo who cajoles Mathew into having sex with Isabelle; and it is the twins who seem to knock down all barriers in pursuit of pleasure to the exclusion of all else. Matthew is just along for the ride, the proverbial wide-eyed innocent and ignorant American. The performance by the three principle characters was nothing short of suburb. At first I did not care for Michael Pitt's portrayal of Matthew, but as the movie progressed I warmed to him. Eva Green's portrayal of Isabelle was masterful and brave, and all three actors deserve a round of applause for portrayals of characters that must have been hard to embrace given the morally charged material. If I have one criticism about the movie, it is that we really never gain a firm understanding as to why the twins are the way they are. Why the deep emotion connection; from what well did it spring? Is it their shared love of the cinema, or is it the close bound all twins share taken to a new level, flirting with physical incest, while fully embracing emotional incest? The ending coming abruptly as it did, let me feeling strangely unfulfilled. It's as if I wanted more; the voyeur in me wanted to continue to stare through the window of the trio's lives and see what came next. That to me is the measure of how good The Dreamers was and I suppose is.

A near-great movie for 6.50? Who would pass that up? I loved all the sex scenes (but only as a voyeur), and no, it is not a "virtually" incestuous relationship--it is an incestuous relationship. I think my favorite scene is when the twins' parents arrive unexpectedly, and all three young people are sleeping in a happy naked pile in the tent they've set up in the livingroom (probably because their sheets are to dirty to use--in addition to the fact that sleeping in tents is fun). The parents look with horror at the way their house has been trashed, discover that their childrens' morals are ditto, and then one of them writes a check for them, and puts it under a candle on the table (which is then blown out). The wife starts pulling on her husband's sleeve, and when he looks indignantly at her, she says "Did you want to stay for dinner?" But: what I liked best about this movie is that the American is right about everything! Jimmy Hendrix is better than Eric Clapton, Chaplain is better than Keaton, Mao is not a very creative or humane way to go, all wars are for shit, and breaking and burning other people's property in the streets of Paris isn't going to make anyone agree with you....and incest, although it may be fun, will eventually "make you forget your friends, homework, to fall in love and to brush your teeth." (quote from me in..a story I, um, can't publish). Anyway, usually, the Americans are WRONG about everything. How refreshing! As always, Bertolucci is very beautiful.

Bertolucci's revolutionary film takes place in the tumultous summer of 1968 in which a young American, Matthew (Michael Pitt) has come to Paris to study French. He becames a cinephile and a frequent patron of the Cinemateque Francais, the breeding ground for the New Wave movement. Shortly after the firing of Langlois, he meets fellow cinephiles Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Cassel) and scores an invitation to dinner. That's how it begins, but this movie isn't linear and it cannot be deciphered merely by the order of events. Quite frankly, I was amazed by Fox Searchlight releasing what may be one of the most revolutionary and sexually progressive films of recent years. In the streets, the young and old found their revolutionary voices in 1968 and fought to institute governmental changes, but inside this chic apartment another revolution is taking place as well only this one involves fewer persons. Matthew is clearly enamored of Isabelle and Theo (though this latter relationship isn't as developed as in "The Holy Innocents", which I found took away from the storyline) but he is not transfixed by them. He realizes that though they observe the world, they purposely keep themselves outside of it. Theo's father correctly observes early in the movie that to understand the world and change it, you have to become part of it. This is a lesson Matthew is constantly aware of and tries to pass on to his new friends. The first inkling of how grounded he is in this reality comes with the Zippo scene (my favorite) in which his casual observation of how a simple lighter fits into every possible place. Life allows us to fit into many possible spaces as we constantly change and constantly search for the ideal spot, but the cosmic lesson in it is that we will fit into them and consequently, will fit ideally into the one we pick out. We must allow ourselves to inhabit the spaces and become part of them in order to test the waters all the while and we do this by leaving the comfort of our original spot and become part of the overall world. The sexual relationship between Isabelle and Matthew was passionate, realistic and completely believable. We live in very hypocritical times where nudity has become more taboo than violence and it was a pleasure to see young people making love with all of the intimate gestures that take place between lovers. It obviously takes a great director to pique our cinematic memories and remind us that it takes two nude bodies to make love. The nude scenes between the brother and sister were a bit troublesome to the audience I saw this movie with, but the incestual nature of their relationship in the book has been erased. To me, they just seemed dangerously, asphixiatingly bound to each other, the nudity being just part of said obsession. All three actors do a fine job, but it takes a brave director to end a film with a police action about to take place to the sounds of Edith Piaf's "Je Ne Regrette Rien". Bertolucci understands his young protagonists and knows the many errors they will continue to commit before they pick and choose what is right and what is wrong because he has been there himself. And he regrets nothing. We should all be so lucky.

I’ve never seen this before, but when it came across my radar, I found this 4K import copy. I wasn’t totally sure it would play on my player in the U.S., but I’m watching it now on my Xbox Series X. This transfer was clearly done with care and it looks absolutely fantastic! I’m really enjoying the experience. The only question I’m left with is why Michael Pitt’s character has a penchant for peeing in sinks. lol If you’re a fan of this movie, or have never seen it and are curious, I would say this 4K import is well worth it.

I don't wish to rehash the accurate reviews which have gone before. I enjoyed this movie. I did not expect much from it, bought it because I was intrigued by the reviews and I wanted to see the new Bond girl. Since I did not expect much I was relaxed into it and was caught up in the slow progress of the movie. This is not a quick hit in entertainment. It slowly builds using nudity to maybe pique the viewer's interest, but I do not think this is a film about nudity. In some respects parts of this movie are quite gross. That said the movie is only pleasant and interesting, not a movie where I could say "I really enjoyed that", and maybe that is not what was intended. Maybe the true value of this movie is it's very slowness, no rush to get anywhere and with a pleasant cast and scenery. I must say though that I could not identify with the plot, not being British or French. I think their mores are foreign to our understanding here in the US. Humorously, this morning I turned on the telly (I can use that term, I am married to a Brit!) and the news was showing Paris police quelling rioters, both sides using the same methods as were shown in the movie! I would also like to recommend Stealing Beauty by the same director. I bought it only to see Liv Tyler and had a similar experience being caught up in the artsiness. Quite pleasant.