(2003; English and French) Cineaste Bernardo Bertolucci's NC-17 film, adapted from Gilbert Adair's novel, takes place in Paris during the political upheaval in the spring of 1968. An American university student and cinemaphile, Matthew (Michael Pitt), becomes involved with Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel), French hedonistic twins.

Matthew watches films from the front row of the cinematheque in order to see the images fresh and first; the motion-picture screen, he admits to himself, "screened us from the world." The French cultural revolution, erupting over a debate as to whether or not only French films should be shown in theatres, eventually explodes into the streets as massive political demonstrations, strikes and confrontations with police, against the government's policies and war. However, three dreamers remain inside their rooms discussing and arguing artistic abstractions: Chaplin vs Keaton, Hendrix vs Clapton.

Isabelle and Theo - Theo says they are Siamese twins joined at the mind - invite Matthew to leave his hotel room and stay in their parents' apartment while their parents are away. Before they leave, Isabelle and Theo's father George, a poet, and mother share a dinner with Matthew, of whom they approve for his philosophical turn of mind in discussing "the cosmic harmony of shapes and sizes." "Everything fits together," George agrees, when viewed from God's vantage point. Theo, taking this as meaning one should accept the status quo, criticizes his father for having refused to sign a petition against the Vietnam War, to which George throws back his son's own words: "A petition is a poem, and a poem is a petition."

In imitation of a film, the three youths race through the Louvre in record time, after which Theo and Isabelle sing in chorus: "We accept him, one of us." Isabelle (who says the first words she spoke were "New York Herald Tribune" from Breathless) re-enacts other scenes from her favorite films, asking the boys to "Name a film or pay a forfeit." When Theo fails to identify Blonde Venus, she demands he masturbate in front of his poster of Marlene Dietrich. When Matthew fails to recall a scene from Scarface (1932), Theo exacts a price of Matthew's making love to Isabelle in Theo's presence. Following Matthew's astonishment of discovering that Isabelle was a virgin, they become lovers.

Matthew asks Isabelle, what if you're parents ever found out. At first she refuses to consider the possibility, but replies to his persistent questioning: "Kill myself." When Matthew says that cinema is like "a keyhole to your parents' bedroom," Theo says his parents only had intercourse once.

Matthew and Theo argue over the Vietnam War and Maoism. Mao is like a film director, says Theo, with a cast of millions carrying books instead of guns; only one Little Red Book, not books, Matthew corrects him. Theo then asks why Matthew isn't fighting in the war; Matthew, a pacifist, questions Theo's idealistic principles since he isn't out demonstrating in the streets.

After Isabelle discounts Matthew's compliment of calling her beautiful, by observing, "You're drunk," he orates a parody of a Churchillian anecdote: "Yes, but in the morning I'll be sober and you'll still be beautiful." Matthew's efforts to separate Isabelle from complete dependence on Theo ultimately fail.

The parents return to find the apartment a mess and their two children lying naked together with Matthew under a makeshift tent. Isabelle wakes up to find the check her parents have left for them before quietly departing again. Her impulse is for a tragic, emulative conclusion, but reality finally breaks through the window.

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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