The Dreamers

After a day of revision today, i finally did something, though not as much as i could have done. but let's not be greedy and over-ambitious. i know it's not entirely justifiable, but i rewarded myself by going to watch The Dreamers . Bernardo Bertolucci has outdone himself again. Most might remember him for his memorable Last Tango in Paris casting the ever-famous Marlon Brando in a role very different from the mafia Godfather i'm studying right now.

Anyway, here's a handy little review of The Dreamers if you're too lazy to plow through it's official website and its plug-ins. though i must say it's worth the effort. I am proud to say that this is the first time in my life that i have ventured to a theatre to watch a film alone, and i'm well proud of myself. it didn't matter whether i had company... the film was brilliant to watch alone or otherwise. I was incredibly excited when the film unfolded itself before my eyes and my newly-acquired intimate knowledge of the French New Wave freshly vivid in my mind leapt to equip me with identifying with the multitude of references Bertolucci weaved into the film. I was so excited to a point that i automatically fished for my notebook and started penning the references in the dark, oblivious to the fact that i couldn't really even see my own writing. it was so much like film screenings where we scribble our notes illegibly, only so much more fun. everytime any member of the trio of Theo, Isabelle and Matthew made a reference to a film, or everytime Bertolucci juxtaposed the narrative with black and white images drawn from cinema history, i joyfully exclaimed in my head, "that's Hawk's Scarface! That's Garbo's Queen Christina!"

The trio Theo, Isabelle and Matthew was obvious reference to Francois Truffaut's Jules et Jim . Even the sleeping together, exchanging partners thing was kept faithful. Godard's A bout de souffle haunted the beginning with the use of its main themes non-diegetically. Theo, Isabelle and Matthew walk exactly like Jules, Catherine and Jim (the sequence just before Catherine jumps into the river) along the banks of Champs Elysses. And then belle poignantly relates the moment she first said 'New York Herald Tribune!' along the streets of Paris, exactly how Patricia (Jean Seberg) does in A bout de souffle. Bertolucci even cuts to my favourite moment of the film when the Seberg character is introduced with soaring strings soundtrack and Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) finds her selling the American newspaper on the streets.

Right, i've got to stop doing the actor/actress name in brackets thing. it makes me feel like i'm writing one of my film academic essays. sigh.

But anyway, Theo and Isabelle's house reminded me so much of the french film i watched in the first year (which was not part of the New Wave) called Le Captive with its green hue and confined, meandering spaces. Theo watching out on the balcony, the composition of those frames were obvious references to Truffaut's Antoine Dionel character from his first feature Les Quatre cent coups. Bertolucci's use of jump cuts bring Godard's experimental editing up another level by randomly cutting to bits of other films at different points in the film. Matt's letters to his mother, and the presence of the candlelights, Theo's motorcycle, their illicit parties with alcohol and sexual activity.. obvious extractions of Chabrol's Les Cousins.

I love Michael Pitt's semi-soliloquy on the lighter, its dimensions, how it fit with the table patterns, the inexplicable cosmic harmony of things around us, of the world.
I love Theo and Isabelle's father and his attempt to explain French existentialism, while his character apprently portrayed with a certain 'American-ness'.
I love the classic rock sountrack, simultaneously out of place in this feel of european art cinema, but so brilliantly underscoring the film's narrative, giving it just the right touch.
I love the discussions they had of Keaton and Chaplin, of Clapton and Hendrix, of Fascism and Communism, of the violence of the student's French Revolution and America's Vietnam war.
I love the sitting about, discussing intellectual ideas, elaborating ideologies..not for its pretentiousness, but that's what the French intellectuals and elite, much like the New Wave filmmakers sat around doing, during the late 60s.
I love the cinephiles.
I love the French's fascination with the cinema, with American cinema... and its references to the stars that were Garbo and Dietrich.
I love the fake death Theo made in reference to Hawk's Scarface . I loved the clip Bertolucci picked out of that film, with one of Tony's men shot dead, with the sign of the cross juxposed on the dead figure.
I love it when they ran through The Lourve trying to break the record set in Godard's Bande a part.
I love it when the film had its little musical-esque moment when Theo and Belle sings "we accept you one of us" as Bertolucci once again jumps cut in reference to American cinema.
I love the siren sounding outside the apartment, exactly like how siren sounds randomly while Michel and Patricia have their bedroom talk in A bout de souffle.
I love the little sisha tent Isabelle built for them.
I love the composition of frames and camera movements of her attempted suicide with the long tube filling with gas.
I love how the revolution prevented their deaths at the crucial minute.
I love how the siblings dependence on each other are portrayed with such intensity.
I love the beauty of Eva Green.
I love the spectacle of the riots (albeit not its motivations in theory).
I love the fade to black and white from the burning colours of the mise-en-scene.

There are, however, moments of the film where it turned slightly pornographic. It would be understandable how someone who either haven't been brought up in a culture to accept such images on screen, or someone who doesn't have cinematic knowledge of the theories behind the motivations of such images, would label it 'disgusting' and 'fucked-up'. Still, Bertolucci justifies these acts by revealing how this is just part of growing up. a sexual re-awakening. Case in point, Theo calmly fries some eggs while it goes on - Bertolucci detaches the act for us. It is just part of life. Who can say it's not?
(I do agree though, to be fair, that the blood smeared across their faces was slightly distasteful and wasn't all that necessary.)

Cahiers du Cinema - as Pitt quotes...
A film-maker is like a peeping-tom. A voyeur. It is a spy; you look and are disgusted, guilty... but you can't look away.

A lovely phrase i keep turning over in my mind.

I know The Dreamers has nothing to do with the exam i'm sitting this friday. but to hell with that, i would have regretted it if i missed this out (for the third time). As a funny note, i stayed to watch the whole closing credits, and right at the end i was rewarded for my patience and efforts when i saw this phrase included at the end of the credits:

"Indigenous trees have been planted to off-set the carbon dioxide produced by this film."

That just made my smile, while i was walking out of the theatre, just slightly bigger.