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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Dreamers (2003)

The Dreamers (2003)

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Released 19-Oct-2004

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama Main Menu Introduction
Main Menu Audio
Audio Commentary-Bernado Bertolucci, Gilbert Adair And Jeremy Thomas
Featurette-Bertolucci Makes 'The Dreamers'
Featurette-Outside The Window: Events In France, May 1968
Music Video-'Hey Joe' By Michael Pitt And The Twins Of Evil
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 2003
Running Time 110:15
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (52:27) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Bernardo Bertolucci
Studio
Distributor

Twentieth Century Fox
Starring Michael Pitt
Eva Green
Louis Garrel
Anna Chancellor
Robin Renucci
Jean-Pierre Kalfon
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Florian Cadiou
Pierre Hancisse
Valentin Merlet
Lola Peploe
Ingy Fillion
Case ?
RPI $39.95 Music Sam Andrew
Irving Berlin
Jean Constantin


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired
English Titling
English Audio Commentary
Smoking Yes, incessant - accurate to the times
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    This film appeared amidst a storm of controversy! Well, a teacupful, anyway. I suspect that the promoters were hoping for more controversy, but they didn't get it. This film has plenty of nudity, some of it full frontal (of both sexes), but it doesn't go as far as Intimacy (let alone Romance or Lies), nor does it have the celebrity value of Eyes Wide Shut. And that's just as well — this film deserves to be remembered for more than just its shock value.

    The story is set in 1968, in Paris. This was a tumultuous time in Paris. I won't go through a description of the history — it's covered in detail in the extras. These events are tangential to the story, though. We begin with a young American, Matthew (Michael Pitt), who has come to Paris to improve his French. He has become a cinephile, a fan of films. That's appropriate — this was the time of the swelling of the New Wave of cinema. Matthew is caught up in the start of the famous demonstration at the Cinematheque (you'll learn more about this in the extras), and it is here that he meets Isabelle (Eva Green), then her brother Theo (Louis Garrell). Isabelle and Theo are twins, and both are cinephiles.

    Isabelle takes to Matthew immediately. Theo invites him to dinner at their apartment, where he meets their mother (Anna Chancellor) and father (Robin Renucci). He is invited to spend the night because their mother doesn't like the sound of the student lodgings he is in. That night, after visiting the bathroom, he happens to see Isabelle and Theo sleeping together (yes, really sleeping, nothing more!). The following day, their parents leave for a month's vacation. Theo and Isabelle ask Matthew to stay for the month.

    The three of them spend a great deal of time in the apartment, getting more and more involved. Their shared love of film influences their behaviour, including racing through the Louvre, recreating the scene from Bande À Part. The twins play a game, quizzing one another, describing a scene and asking for the film from which it comes. Failure to identify the film requires the loser to pay a forfeit. The forfeits we see are surprising.

    This film was based upon a loosely-autobiographical story by Gilbert Adair (he wrote the screenplay, too). The book, he explains, made a lot more of the three-way relationship, but in the film the homosexual relationship between Theo and Matthew is implied, never acted upon. Here it is the relationship between the twins, and between Isabelle and Matthew, that is obvious. Matthew is shocked at the siblings' casual approach to nudity and physical intimacy. The twins are spoiled brats, and we get to compare the behaviour of an upright young American to this European decadence (odd that this film was made by an Italian director...) — this is probably the most interesting aspect of the film.

    There are signs that they were prepared to make a tamer version of this film. For example, there's an image in the menus of Isabelle's Venus de Milo pose with a piece of cloth concealing her breasts — in the film her breasts aren't covered. Or perhaps images like that were prepared for promotion? There was an R-rated version (~3 minutes cut) prepared for the US — the original (unsurprisingly) garnered an NC-17 rating — I don't know if the R-rated version was screened anywhere in the US (the NC-17 version was screened in at least some places), but it is the NC-17 version that was released on DVD. There is a small difference between the Region 1 DVD and this one (they are covered below). But then, the cover describes the film as "A steamy, erotic thriller" — hardly! This is definitely not a thriller.

    The French pronunciation of Theo sounds like "Tao", the Oriental philosophy that involves the union of opposites. But Theo and Isabelle are not opposites — they are too much alike.

    Our perceptions are altered by our past experiences. Having watched Steve Martin's L A Story makes it impossible to hear the song La Mer without seeing images from that film — that makes it difficult to watch the scene where Isabelle strips to the song...

    This film has good points and bad; for me the good outweighs the bad. This film will not be universally liked, but that's no crime. I suggest you see the film and decide for yourself.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    This DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. That's the original aspect ratio (they used Panavision cameras, but with spherical lenses).

    The picture is sharp. Shadow detail is good. Film grain is no problem. There's no low-level noise in the movie.

    Colour looks natural and accurate (the Region 1 disc falls down here). There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are no film artefacts in the film proper, but there are plenty in some of the "quotes" from other movies.

    There is some minor aliasing, but it's minimal. There is no moiré, which is surprising, given some of the 1960's patterned fabrics. There are no MPEG artefacts.

    There are three subtitle tracks, all in English. The first (which is engaged automatically) gives English subtitles for those lines in the film which are in French (the dialogue is a mixture of French and English). The second is a set of English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles, including audio cues (and the titles of songs). The last is a set of subtitles for the commentary. I watched all three sets of subtitles. They are quite accurate (although the French is a little simplified), easy to read, and well-timed to the dialogue.

    The disc is single sided, dual layer, formatted RSDL. The layer change appears at 52:27, and is fairly obvious, but not hugely distracting.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks, both in English. The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, at 448kbps. The other audio track is the audio commentary.

    Dialogue is mostly clear and easy to understand; there are a few lines that are less than completely clear (mostly in French). There are no audio sync problems.

    There is no score as such; the music is all music of the era, much of it pop / rock by Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, but there are exceptions, including Edith Piaf's je ne regrette rien.

    The surrounds are used subtly, but never draw attention to themselves.

    The subwoofer is not used to any significant extent during the bulk of the movie. That's fine - it's not missed because this is not an action movie.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

    The menu is static with music. The music clip is over-loud, and rather short. Even so, the menu is easy to operate.

Audio Commentary

    This commentary has three participants: director Bernardo Bertolucci, writer Gilbert Adair, and producer Jeremy Thomas. It's hard to judge if they were recorded together or separately: they don't interact. They have quite a bit to say, and there are no long gaps. It's quite an interesting commentary, and I recommend giving it a listen.

Featurette: Bertolucci makes The Dreamers (50:21)

    This is very long for a "featurette". It is a BBC production (2003), probably shot as a one hour special. It explains some of the background to the film as well as providing an insight into the filmmaking. Much better than the usual fluff piece.

Featurette: Outside the Window: Events in France, May 1968 (13:50)

    This provides more detail about the history taking place outside the apartment. It's a fairly dry depiction, and a little light on motivations, but it suffices to explain.

Music Video: Hey Joe — Michael Pitt and the Twins of Evil (3:42)

    I'm not a huge fan of music videos, and I prefer both the Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple versions of this song, but this is the version they used in the movie. This is the only song in the film that was recorded after 1968.

Censorship

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 DVD of this film was released in both R-rated and NC-17-rated versions — I looked at the NC-17 version. It is essentially the same as this Region 4 disc (although it receives an Australian R rating — our R allows more than theirs), including the same extras.

    I noticed one slight change in dialogue on the Region 1 DVD: at 50:34 the word "sweat" has been substituted for "spunk". So much for their "original uncut NC-17 edition"! The subtitles on the R1 mention when there are songs, but the R4 subtitles identifies the songs (that's nice).

    The Region 1 transfer has a distinctly orange cast in places, with bright reds coming out more orange. The Region 4 transfer looks better, but the difference is not huge: if you have the Region 1, don't feel obliged to run out and buy the R4.

Summary

    A movie capable of inspiring contradictory feelings, given a very good transfer to DVD.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The extras are good, substantial and interesting.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-S733A, using Component output
DisplaySony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left, Centre, Right: Krix Euphonix; Rears: Krix KDX-M; Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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