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The Dreamers (2003, Fr/It./UK)
In director Bernardo Bertolucci's NC-17 rated film
of sexually-explicit discovery and intimacy set in the summer in
Paris in 1968:
- the scenes of the growing closeness between uninhibited,
naturally buxom Isabelle (Eva Green) and her fellow cineastes -
her own possessive, brooding twin brother Theo (Louis Garrel),
and American cinema student Matthew (Michael Pitt)
- the memorable scene of the trio's 9:28 minute dash
through the Louvre (in homage to a similar scene in Godard's Band
of Outsiders (1964) (aka Bande à Part) with Anna Karina
and her two suitors) - beating the film's time of 9:45, followed
by Matthew's acceptance (with a spliced-in clip of the classic "One
of us" scene from Freaks (1932))
- with frequent total nudity during the trio's sexual
games in the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, interwoven with play-acted
homages and clips to classic moments in cinema (Queen
Christina, City Lights, Top
Hat, Breathless, etc.)
- the so-called
"blood-on-the-face" scene, Isabelle was - surprisingly -
shown to be virginal, when she stripped herself down, and was deflowered
(and bled) by Matthew on the kitchen floor - in Theo's presence; after
they finished having sex, Theo touched Isabelle's forehead and thigh
and brought up his fingers covered in blood - and then Matthew also
took some of the blood from her broken hymen/vagina and smeared it
onto her face as he ardently kissed her
- the threesome's sharing of a bathtub (with their
faces reflected in three separate mirrors), and the discovery of
Isabelle's menstrual blood seen on the water's surface (a symbol
of sexual awakening?)
- the twin's dare ("proof of your love") to
shave Matthew's pubic hair; he strenuously objected: "You're
both f--king crazy....This is what you call proof of love? Turning
me into a freak?..."; when the two called it just a game, Matthew
still refused: "Is this something you do to each other? You
want to shave my pubic hair? You want me to be a little boy for you?
A little prepubescent Theo at six, who you can play games with? You
can touch peepee...I'll show you mine. You show me yours"; although
he called his criticisms loving, he cruelly noted that he was through
with their game-playing, and that the two twins must grow more mature: "You
sleep in the same bed together, every night. You bathe together.
You pee in the john together. You play these little games. I wish
you could step out of yourselves and just look...I look at you, and
I listen to you and I think - you're never gonna grow. You won't
grow like this. You won't. Not as long as you keep clinging to each
other the way that you do"; he proposed to take Isabelle on
regular dates - something she had not experienced before
Isabelle's Failed Group Suicide Attempt
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- at the end of the film, they were sleeping together
nakedly-intertwined in an indoor tent, and unbeknownst to them,
Theo's and Isabelle's parents briefly entered the apartment and
found the disturbing sight, but did not wake them; a concluding
self-destructive streak was exhibited by Isabelle (in homage to
Bresson's Mouchette (1967, Fr.) about an abused girl)
after she realized her parents had seen them - it was an unsuccessful
attempt to commit group suicide by connecting a hose to the gas
outlet, and extending the hose into the bedroom
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The Trio's Dash Through the Louvre
(Excerpt from Freaks (1932))
Sex Games
"Blood on the Face"
Threesome Bathing
Confrontation
Threesome in Living Room Tent
The Shocked Parents
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