20 Essential Coming Of Age Movies That Changed Your Life

17. The Dreamers

Whereas Lindsay Anderson took the Parisian student protests in May 1968 as a guiding influence for If..., Bernardo Bertolucci places his steamy, evocative film The Dreamers directly in the heart of France's capital. Starring Michael Pitt as an American student who meets up with twins (played by Louis Garrel and Eva Green), The Dreamers takes the concept of sexual liberation to the next level. Bertolucci already shocked audiences with his portrayal of unbridled sexuality in 1972's Last Tango in Paris, and with The Dreamers he appears to be covering familiar territory, albeit one which draws the sexual taboo of incest into the milieu. Eva Green was apparently shocked by the footage of her own nude scenes, but fortunately she didn't meet the same fate as Maria Schneider after Last Tango in Paris - rather than sink into obscurity, Green's career has been on the up ever since.