|
COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
The most interesting character in the new Bernardo Bertolucci movie, "The Dreamers," is a Paris flat--a worn but beautiful bohemian version of an appartement grand bourgeois, with olive walls, high-ceilinged corridors, many pictures and books, and, here and there, a secret corner. An American college student named Matthew (Michael Pitt) wanders into this preserve of Old Europe and almost never makes it out again. The year is 1968 and Matthew, who is blond and has blue eyes and a thickly sensual upper lip--a good-looking, unawakened boy--is in Paris soaking up as many movies as he can. Suddenly, an event from French history intrudes: the government fires Henri Langlois, the founder and director of the extraordinary Cinematheque Francaise--the state-sponsored film archive--and changes the locks at its home, the Palais de Chaillot. Demonstrations erupt; major figures of the Old and New Wave make outraged speeches and sign petitions. At the entrance to the Palais, a dark young beauty in a red beret, a cigarette dangling from her lips, defiantly chains herself to the gates. But the chains, it turns out, are not locked. Isabelle (Eva Green) is only playing at protest. She's much more serious about flirtation, and she has a partner in crime, her twin brother, Theo (Louis Garrel), who has a mop of black hair and the severe brow and crooked smile of a debauched medieval priest. These two Parisian orchids are the spoiled children of the educated bourgeoisie--their mother is...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
