You know what move I fucking hate? "The Dreamers."
This weekend my room mate got two movies in the mail, La Chinoise and The Dreamers. Let's start off by saying that the whole concept of The Dreamers is inspired by La Chinoise. The latter was directed by Jean-Luc Godard and is said to have inspired the student protests in France in 1968, as well as those at Columbia University against the Vietnam War. The film is about five teenagers, college students, living in some chick's parent's flat over the summer and studying Mao.
Now, this is the premise of The Dreamers, for those of you unaware: three teenage "revolutionaries," a French brother and sister and an American, live in their parents' flat over the summer and fuck each other silly while the revolution goes on literally outside their windows. Instead of studying Maoism/Communism/Marxism/etc, they stroke each others' film-knowledge egos and bathe together and masturbate in front of each other and eat bananas out of the trash even though they're spoiled rich brats.
There is an over-the-top suggestion that the female protagonist of the film has sexual relationships with both her father and brother to the point of the American protagonist finding brother and sister naked in bed together. But they are never shown actually getting busy and it turns out that -- SURPRISE! -- she's a virgin all along. Even though she loses her virginity in front of her fucking brother while he makes eggs.
What really bothers me about this is that there is a suggestion of this incest being "cultural." The film is, ultimately, an exploration of sexual relationships (with a shallow political affiliation tacked on -- fuck you). However, it also is an exploration of cultural differences between the French and the Americans. I feel there is a suggestion that this overt intimacy between family members is supposed to be chalked up to French intimacy ("supposedly they touch hundreds of times during conversation"), which is why the American protagonist is constantly put into situations of intimacy while his French friends don't bat an eyelash (ex: French brother washes his crotch while American protagonist is in the bathroom -- he shades his eyes from this). Further, since the French sister turns out to be a virgin, it is suggested that what the American protagonist sees is all that's going on -- just really fucking creepy intimate touching.
I find this to be a bit xenophobic. Yeah, the French have more intimate terms of body language -- most cultures that aren't North American do -- but that doesn't mean that their morals also completely transcend that of the rest of the Western world, that incest is expected or okay enough to make a display of in front of a house guest.
Further, WOW FUCK YOU, LET'S SET A FILM DURING THE STUDENT PROTESTS IN FRANCE AND PLAY IT OFF LIKE IT ACTUALLY HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING IN ORDER TO ADD A TOUCH OF "EDGE." LET'S PREMISE THIS WHOLE FILM WITH GODARD'S POLITICAL MASTERPIECE AND THEN MAKE A FUCKING MOCKERY OF IT BY PUTTING THREE OVER-SEXED TEENAGERS IN A FLAT TOGETHER WHILE THEY PISS THEIR LIVES AWAY WITH PRETENTIOUSNESS AND A COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR RESPONSIBILITY.
LIKE COME ON. YOU HAD SO MUCH OPPORTUNITY FOR A THICKER PLOT LINE. YOU FUCKING SET IT DURING THE PROTESTS THAT LED TO THE OVER THROWING OF AN ENTIRE FUCKING GOVERNMENT AND THIS IS THE MOVIE YOU MAKE??? A FUCKING CIRCLE-JERK OF FILM KNOWLEDGE AND A PERVERSION THAT IS SUGGESTIVE OF RACIST?
WHAT
THE
FUCK.
The end! :D
