The Dreamers (2003)
Sexual exploration for the dreamers and romantics.
Presentation:
The film is quite intimately shot. Utilizing an American university student studying in France during their cultural revolution to frame its western perspective, the film has political commentary, sex and naivety and everything encapsulates French sensibilities. Eva Green is distractingly sexy with extremely explicit scenes. There are constant references through the characters dialogues that make this film feel like a love letter to music and film. I personally found the conversations more interesting than those of the Sunset Trilogy but they cross the line of pseudo intellectual naivety, which i didn’t find inappropriate for their age. Has the association of an indie film that should be a favorite mood-piece for hipsters.
Story:
Like most French films, you have Viva La Resistance as the backbone of any conversation, but this revolution takes place inside while the revolution escalates outside. These basically teenagers drink, have sex, conversing with confident ideals of the world while not even being able to take care of themselves. Even Matthew states that Theo is all talk about revolution yet never leaves the home and make real change. They are the purest definition of idealistic dreamers under the ridiculous safety of a fort of blankets. Matthew serves as a great balance to the ridiculous fantasy of the French siblings, offering a nuanced question rather than dogmatic commentary. A real critique is that the film is borderline pornography with extremely perverted elements due to the ambiguously incestuous elements. But the script acknowledges it’s perversion, Matthew quoting a director that films are like a peephole into your parents bedroom. It’s disgusting, but humans are perverted, and if you like this film then you prove its point that filmmaking has a certain perversion. The sexual exploration that the 3 go through is comparable to the actual revolution going outside. But I found the incestuous aspects while intriguing to be far too ridiculous just for the sake of setting up for such an explicit story. Still, I enjoyed the premise partly due to the foreign charm of Isabelle and Theo.
Conclusion:
If taken too seriously, this film should be considered even offensive to many and borderline pornographic. But ultimately it is a fun escapism for young romantics and dreamers, or anyone wanting to revel in the innocence and luxury of naivety we have as young adults. The film admits its perversion and proudly fantasizes a wet fever dream of the American perspective toward the French openness, but like the inconclusive ending, the director doesn’t allow this dream to end. This film is never meant to conclude, to stay inside away from all responsibility of the real world, protected inside a home paid for by parents. But it’s an innocent albeit shameful fantasy that has beauty and charm in spades.
Recommendations
Makoto Shinkai’s most beautiful anime.