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Old Wave Dreamers
A new film that smacks of the now old "New Wave"cinema reminds us what it was like to be French in the '60s. You know, for those of us who were there.

Starring: Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel , Eva Green, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Anna Chancellor
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Screenwriter: Gilbert Adair

Reviewed by Kevin Cunningham

THE PITCH: An American film buff living in Paris in the 1960s becomes close (as in nakedly intimate) friends with a set of French twins who have their own beliefs and ways of doing things. IN OTHER WORDS: Moulin Rouge, the old HBO series Dream On, the naked bits of Eyes Wide Shut and the French New Wave in a blender.

It's really hard to come up with words to describe The Dreamers. I mean, there are plenty of adjectives that would apply, but none are comprehensive in representing the film. In the end, you can only say, "It's French."

And it is certainly that. Set in France in the '60s, it resembles much of the New Wave of cinema that was sweeping the film world of the time, particularly the European end of it. It's mostly a slice of life without a real resolution. It focuses on an American film buff (Michael Pitt) who has gone to Paris to 'practice his French,' but instead meets up with a French set of twins who are also film buffs, but also appear to be much more.

This film got most of it's infamy and press because of some of the in-your-face sexuality and themes in the film. And to be entirely honest, it's earned it's NC-17 rating. The guys are naked just as much as the girls, and I mean full frontal nudity. The sex scenes are more realistic than your normal Hollywood glamour sex (as one would expect from a New Wave film), and though it's never explicitly discussed, the air of incest hangs around this film, never allowing you to really get comfortable with it.

The acting in the film is good, especially when one takes into consideration the level of exposure (not just physically) the actors put into this film. Particularly good are Eva Green, whose seductive French revolution-ette may seem to puff on her cigarette confidently, but who also has some dehabilitating vulnerabilities, and Louis Garrel, whose portrayal of the brother slips and slides pretty well between creepy, aggressive and genuinely friendly. They carry the movie around Pitt, whose main attribute seems to be that he looks like Leonardo DiCaprio without actually being Leonardo Dicaprio.

Of course, the acting is an aside in this film. This is Old School New Wave, so it's all about the layers and the meanings. The characters all have journeys, but not all of them actually do much traveling. The main character does the least journeying of all, and only one of the twins advances to where they're going while the other retreats back to the self-destructive behavior that holds both of them back. And that's just the foreground. In the background, they sit in a world that is backlit by the Parisian student uprisings of the late '60s. One of the better parts of the disc extras describes the world they are a part of, and it's rather amazing to think of how similar France and America were at that time socially, and how far apart they are now.

Of course, the 'French' side of this film is a bit of a problem for American viewers. The French have a different way of doing things, and everything is very subtle in this film. The humor, the poignancy, it's not shoved in your face like American movies will do: they wait for the viewer to realize what's funny and what's not. Of course, this is more of a result of the modern culture and the role that film partakes in it. For the subjects of this film,, film buffs whose eyes rarely turn from the screens and who don't watch television because they're 'purists,' this isn't a problem. But most people these days watch movies while doing something else: making or eating dinner, doing household chores, or (as the characters ironically do during their first 'date') making out.

And there, again, are the themes that, while subtle, are so numerous throughout this film that they are almost in your face: the film focuses on a group of kids who enjoy watching life more than partaking of it, but they only enjoy watching the movies where 'life' is well rehearsed and very controlled, and not the TV where life is more completely (and uncensoredly) documented. They dream and live their lives as scenes from their favorite movies (which are cleverly edited into the important scenes).

In the end, though, you'll likely be left with a very unresolved feeling, whether it's our cultrue's movie-viewing habits that are to blame or simply the writers. But this is a movie that isn't here to tell you a story, it's here to get you to discuss it long after it's over. So, whether you talk over tea and croissants or over a Denny's Grand Slam breakfast, and whether you're talking about the culture of protest in the '60s, the importance of living life rather than dreaming about it, or simply talking about having good sex like those onscreen, that's what this film is really here for.

Rating	Film:(3 out of 4 stars)
	Extras: (2 out of 4 stars)
	Overall: (3 out of 4 stars)

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