re:mote voices

Title: Dreamers
Cast: Michael Pitt, Loius Garrel, Eva Green, Robin Renucci, Anna Chancellor
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

The Dreamers is somehow lacking, for me it doesn't seem to satisfy on either front. A film which combines a love story with a political background. Matthew is an American student in Paris in 1968, a time of upheaval. As a film buff he is there when a key cinema is shut down by the government, which is where he hooks up with the twins Isobel and Theo. The pair are an odd couple, with the suggestion that there is something deeper to their relationship. They draw Matthew into their web, but of course this third presence in their perfect pairing creates tension. However there seems to be something naïve and bemusing about these emotional interplays. The impressions of something incestuous going on seem to ring hollow. When presented with an opportunity to have sex with the gorgeous Isobel, Matthew instead runs away, inexplicably. The proposed jealousy felt be Theo seems to amount to little more than pouts and dirty looks. As for the politics, the threesome manage to exist in a bubble, which practically denies the events they would like to claim that they were heavily involved in. The one scene where Matthew and Theo actually discuss their opposing views only reinforces the sense of naivety, and the idea that the characters aren't quite in touch with reality. But then given the obsession with film, and the part that plays in the narrative, that may well be the idea. Curiously the part of Matthew was apparently going to be played by Jake Gylenhall (Donnie Darko), but it seems the nudity was too much for him, instead the part is taken by Michael Pitt, who is no stranger to controversy, with his role in Bully. As an idea The Dreamers probably could have worked, but in the end it is somewhat disappointing.