The Dreamers is a film by
Bernardo Bertolucci based on the novel
The Holy Innocents by Gilbert Adair. In the film, an American exchange student in 1968 Paris befriends an
unusually close twin brother and sister, and becomes involved with the sister. It is set against the backdrop of the 1968 student riots.
Tropes:
- Birthmark of Destiny: Theo and Isabelle use this to support their claim that they are identical twins.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Isabelle catches Theo masturbating to old pictures of actress Marlene Dietrich, and then has him do it in front of her and Matthew.
- A Date with Rosie Palms
- Ethical Slut: Theo.
- Europeans Are Kinky
- Everybody Has Lots Of Sex Scenes: It's a movie by Bernardo Bertolucci about The Sixties.
- Foreshadowing: If anyone finds out, she'll kill herself.
- Half-Identical Twins: Lampshaded by Matthew, who points out that since Theo and Isabelle are different genders their claim of being identical twins must be false.
- Hey, It's That Girl: Is that Vesper Lynd in the Sixties?!
- Hide Your Gays: In The Book Of The Movie, The Holy Innocents by Gilbert Adair, the sexuality between Matthew and Theo was just as developed as that between Matthew and Isabelle. In the movie, the two boys just indulge in a little Ho Yay, while Matthew and Isabelle actually have lots of sex onscreen.
- Hollywood Sex: Averted. Hence the NC-17 rating.
- Ho Yay: And how! There's even a little Erotic Asphyxiation thrown in there for good measure.
- Fetish Fuel: In-Universe: In a scene when Isabelle is wearing nothing but a sheet around her waist and white opera gloves, Matthew says "I've always wanted to make love to the Venus de Milo."
- Male Frontal Nudity: both guys. Theo even masturbates for the camera.
- Never Trust a Trailer / Does This Remind You of Anything?: Isabelle: "There's something we've always wanted to do but we've been waiting for the right person to do it with..."
- Porn With Plot: Or Plot with Porn, depending on your point of view.
- Retroactive Recognition: Eva Green.
- Shout Out: To lots of old movies starring the likes of Greta Garbo. The characters often reenact scenes from classic movies (the director then usually cuts to a clip of the original). Example: Matthew, Theo and Isabelle run through the Louvre in order to break the record set in the movie Bande à part (Band of Outsiders). Also, the twins play a game in which they later involve Matthew : you reenact a movie scene and the other person has to recognize that scene or else fulfill a usually squicky dare.
- The Sixties: the movie is basically a collection of everything that was cool about the sixties. It is an idealized vision full of the usual images : free love, weed all around, Janis Joplin records, and debates about Maoism, the Vietnam War, and the greatness of Eric Clapton vs. Jimi Hendrix.
- A Threesome is Manly
- Twincest: Of course
- Twin Threesome Fantasy: Subverted by the fact that one twin is male and the other is female.
- Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born
- The Vietnam War: discussed by Theo and Matthew.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: during the loss of Isabelle's virginity Theo cracks an egg, symbolizing the loss of innocence. Since the egg joins two others in a frying pan, it may also symbolize Matthew's induction into the a serious relationship with the twins.
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