This is the first movie in a long time (since Swimming Pool, actually) that I couldn’t have a reaction to immediately. Instead, I wanted to do research and read more about the film and actually engage in some discussions with others. As it turns out, I don’t have a usual place to go for such things and so I went straight to IMDB - the usual go to place for all things questionable in film. In all of the threads there, I only found one remotely interesting discussion and everyone else was just concerned with the nudity and sex scenes. There is so much more to this movie.
I don’t know that much about the turmoil in France in 1968, or anything about the cinema of the day, but that is the back drop for this movie. Based on the novel, The Holy Innocents, it’s not as much about the actual politics of that time, but the raw emotion that everyone was experiencing. And the politics do serve as the framework for conflict and discourse amongst the students.
There are so many things that I would like to talk about with regards to this movie - Bertolucci presents a number of diametrically opposed elements that are still so tightly entwined with each other…it is nearly impossible to sort through. Overwhelmingly, innocence and love are the strongest themes, juxtaposed against a darker deeper sense of knowledge and selfishness.
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It’s now been quite some time since I saw this film, and I haven’t come to any more conclusions. I am going to have to watch this again and process, and potentially try to read the book. I think, though, the visual adventure is what has haunted me and so I’m looking forward to further clarifications through viewings. I am sure that this will not be my last post and I certainly haven’t stopped looking for good conversation about The Dreamers.
i was looking also for a kind of comment because this movie controversed me very much and it’s that kind of delicate thema, remembering me about marguerite yourcenar …short storry “Anna Soror”, about the perfection, the harmony developed in a relation which damn! it’s not at all ortodox when you wake up…i would like to talk more about this. I have no idea how i can contact you, if you exist indeed..:-)…anyway, you know how you can contact me now…so…if you’re still in mood for more words about this…just give me a sign.
Comment by mihaela — June 22, 2005 @ 6:31 am