01/09/2003 - Bernardo Bertolucci shows teenage initiation into adult life, set to the turbulent backdrop of Paris in May 1968, between eroticism and political passion

VENICE 2003 SPECIAL

One of the most striking aspects of Bernardo Bertolucci's cinema is its passion. And his new film, The Dreamers [+see also:
trailer
interview: Bernardo Bertolucci
film profile], is once again steeped in this trademark. It’s about three youngsters who shut themselves up in a large apartment in Paris, while the student riots of May '68 explode on the streets below them. A passion for films, for politics, for love. This latter sphere is shown with elegant and intense images that will block the film from being released in America in its complete version. So is Bertolucci back to scandalise, like in the times of Last Tango? Yes, but this time for his honesty. "Je ne regret rien", as Edith Piaf proclaims in film’s closing song. 
"It’s a drive towards a utopian vision, that brings together love for the cinema, eroticism, rock music and politics. The film is made up of these elements", says Bertolucci. And he jokes: "It’s such a personal film that I’m surprised I’m not here in costume. I am very intimately and profoundly connected to this film, because I lived very intensely during those years".

The Protagonists
"I took three youngsters and together we went on a journey back in time. I put them face to face with three youngsters from '68, and they were perfect contemporaries. And I enjoyed the ecstasy of a physiological flashback together with them".

Last Tango In Paris
"The only thing is common is the director. In that film, the atmosphere of the '60s led to it having a tragic ending. In The dreamers there’s a light heartedness that Last Tango didn’t have. That I didn’t have".

Nudity
"The enthusiasm of the three young actors was genuine. The film is at risk of being mutilated to gain a release in the United States. Someone thinks that the American public is still immature".

The Screenplay
"I’d already read the book by Gilbert Adair, 'Holy Innocents'. Then later I re-read it and I decided to do something about that historical period. I thought about making a third part to 1900, but that film had an ideological basis that doesn’t make sense to me anymore. Every night during '68 we thought we’d wake up the next morning living in the future. Is this still possible nowadays? No, History doesn’t allow this feeling of hope. Only a minority of people still dream. So why not tell today’s youngsters what happened back then? Especially given that their poor parents have censored the past because they feel their actions failed. But in a historical sense that’s not true, '68 was the foundation for a lot of the ways we behave now".

The Dreamers
"The whole things started when the director of the Cinémathéque Francaise, Henri Langlois, was sacked. But then there was trouble at Valle Giulia in Rome, in Germany, Berkeley, Columbia University. It all ended in 1978 with the death of Aldo Moro. The end of a dream".

Film Buff Quotations
"The film has a lot of obvious quotations, shown in clips from black and white films. Then there are hidden citations. The claustrophobic flat is a throwback to Buñuel’s film ‘The Exterminating Angel’. Then there’s a tribute to Truffaut’s Jules e Jim".

(Translated from Italian)