The Dreamers (2003)

(In French, On TV, May 2019) No matter which culture you’re from, Paris exerts this irresistible pull as a travel destination, or better yet as the place to go for a coming-of-age experience. I’ve now seen movies from countries as far away as America and China purring over French culture, and Anglo/French/Italian co-production The Dreamers certainly plays into that trend. Our initial anchor is a young American man travelling to Paris to study French in the late 1960s, during which he gets involved with very close twins that invite him to stay at their apartment, the arrangement eventually becoming a form of romantic triangle. They don’t do a whole of formal classroom study during the course of the film, going instead for lengthy discussions about life, love, cinema, politics and runs through Le Louvre. Right at the moment when it seems it won’t end well, the 1968 Paris protests begin and the film ends on a thoroughly romantic note. This heavily romanticized vision of studying in Paris has attracted a lot of attention for its copious nudity (much, but not all of it from Eva Green, who has since made it one of her trademarks) but is most interesting for its portrayal of three young cinephiles exchanging classic cinema references (many of them illustrated by clips) and living life in 1960s Paris. Writer-director Bernardo Bertolucci clearly wanted to create a belated French Nouvelle Vague movie, so specifically does it associate with this movement and quote its inspirations. The result does seem in the same vein, although (cinema having changed since the 1960s), some elements of The Dreamers would appear closer to titillation than homage. But that’s Bertolucci for you…