Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



The Dreamers (2003)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

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Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
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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
  • 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

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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