The Dreamers follows the story of Matthew (Michael Pitt), an American student studying French in Paris in 1968. At a protest, he meets twins Théo (Louis Garrel) and Isabelle (Eva Green) and, in next to no time, is sharing a house with them whilst their parents are away. The twins introduce him to their world, a place where sexual liberty and nudity is far from taboo and nothing is more important than cinema and revolution. The films first screenplay was written by Gilbert Adair as an adaptation of his own book, The Holy Innocents. Director Bernardo Bertolucci made a number of changes to this first draft, including removing the storys homosexual content by erasing sex scenes between Matthew and Théo, choosing instead to focus on the sexual relationship he shares with Isabelle. This off-beat love story is set at a time of real historical importance. In the 1960s, Paris was a hotbed of student protest - this was a time when it was fundamentally believed such action could truly make a difference in the world. Over the course of the film, we see Matthew have his eyes opened in many ways - to the idea of fighting for ones rights, to new ways of exploring and expressing his own sexuality and to the city of Paris itself. Its a small story told against the huge backdrop of an important period in recent French history, a time when Paris was seen as an epicentre for real change in the world.
