An open love letter to the cinema It isn't surprising that many people have been thrown off or wierded out by Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers. This is the man who directed the great 1972 film, Last Tango in Paris, which threw out the rule book concerning what could be talked about and shown regarding sex in a non-pornographic film. The Dreamers isn't as revolutionary or shocking for it's day as Last Tango in Paris was, but it's every bit as daring and provocative. It is Bertolucci's homage to the movies themselves and the people that spend an infinite amount of hours in darkened rooms watching them. For us psychopaths out there where movies are more than a religion, myself included, The Dreamers lets us know we are not alone, however it also informs us just how alone we might be. Film is the greatest art form because it can be the most collaborative with many people's vision or the most individual. It combines music, sound, photography, acting, politics, religion, entertainment, fun, and everything into one package. What else other than the movies allows the beauty of a person who's been dead for a hundred years to shine forever? Long after all the Presidents are dead and long after the frescos of Michaelangelo have tarnished away, and long after the pyramids have eroded, we'll still have film. We'll still be able to watch Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, and James Dean as though they were still alive. In fact as long as people watch their movies, they are alive. It's this sory of mentality and obsession that Bertolucci both praises but also warns the dangers of in his film The Dreamers. Michael Pitt (Matthew), presumably summoning up Leonardo DiCaprio with his performance, plays an American exchange student in Paris in 1968 during the student riots. He is pretty much a loner, an outcast, and misfit - both free and restrained by his undying love for film. In Paris he meets a pair of French siblings, a brother and sister played by Eva Green (Isabelle) and Louis Garrel (Theo), who share his affections towards the cinema and immediately befriend him and adopt him as one of their own. It's ironic that they choose to coronate him with the lyrical quote "He's one of us! He's one of us!" from Freaks. Perhaps they see themselves as freaks. It's a deep movie and it throws many curves at the audience which will push people's ideas of what is morally correct and incorrect to the extreme. The Dreamers breaks many taboos. Mostly the incestuous relationship between a brother and sister, who feel as though one another are their only true companions in life. It doesn't shy away from nudity, both male and female. Together the three of them, Matthew, Isabelle, and Theo form an emotional and sexual bond through their love of movies and their common feelings of being misplaced in the world. The Dreamers is a damn fine movie that might be difficult to appreciate because of its content. Something I really enjoyed was seeing the clips of the different movies in the film when the characters talked about them and played games revolving around the films. Breathless, Top Hat, City Lights, and Scarface are a few of the movies that are featured in The Dreamers.