Let them eat cake.

Bring on the ’68 Comeback Special: no, not Elvis in black leather but the most recent French Revolution, where students, artists and the working classes rose up in a spirit of liberté, egalité and fraternité.

Adapted by critic Gilbert Adair from his novel, Bernardo Bertolucci re-runs these turbulent times through three cinephile kids: fresh-faced American Matthew (Michael Pitt) and two restless juvenile natives, Matthew (Louis Garrel) and twin sister Isabelle (Eva Green). Holing up in their absent parents’ Parisian apartment, the unhealthily close siblings draw the naïve Matthew into a hermetic world where film is king – the trio re-enact movie scenes from Freaks to Breathless – and sex is the new politics.

Despite Bertolucci’s protests that “it’s not a period film about costumes, it’s about the present”, much of the pleasure derived here is the recreation of an era that, despite explosive social unrest, appears totally seductive. Playfully arguing the merits of Buster Keaton vs Charlie Chaplin, or sprinting through the Louvre à la Jean-Luc Godard’s Bande À Part, are a film buff’s dream. Likewise, casting three pretty young things as your leads doesn’t hurt a film liberally decorated with erotic exploits.

Naysayers will grumble that for a Nouvelle Vague-inspired tale there’s little here that’s novel and plenty that’s vague. Aren’t sixtysomethings Adair and Bertolucci simply getting their kicks disrobing the gorgeous Green at every turn? And aren’t the supposed sexual politics merely sex instead of actual political engagement?

Au contraire. The unaffected nudity will only offend prudes and Americans. And surely the film’s point is how the threesome avoids direct confrontation with the real world by taking refuge in fantasy - until the revolution literally comes crashing through the window. Less a wake-up call to today’s apathetic youth, more a ravishing trip down memory lane, it’s dreamy stuff, nonetheless, and Bertolucci’s best in decades. Leigh Singer 06 February 04

The Dreamers, on selected release 06 February 04.

useful link: www.the-dreamers.com