Rating of
4/4
A Personal Favourite
Franz Patrick - wrote on 04/30/08
Most American audiences consider this film as pornographic and I cannot disagree more. It's art like no other. I don't want to get started on how Americans shy away from naked bodies and sexuality, yet the United States has one of the biggest pornographic industries in the world. If that isn't hypocrisy at its finest, I don't know what is. I guess violence is easier to swallow and digest than sexuality. Although the film has a plethora of depictions of carnality, it is more about the love/"love" between three people and the films that connect them. It also works as a statement regarding the loss of innocence through interactions between other human bodies and the way those interactions serve to protect the owners of such bodies from the political revolution that was happening at the time. I've seen this film with many different kinds of people (mostly friends) and it's a shame that most of them fail to see the big picture. Instead of focusing on how much the three main characters embody the films they try to mimic (and its impact on their psyches), audiences tend to focus on the sexual acts because it's "shocking." I guess it's hard to appreciate the film if one does not have some sort of a historical background about May 1968 (see "Revolution" by The Beatles). I guess it's also difficult to see beyond the sexual acts if one has not seen naked bodies many times. I strongly believe that if one can overcome those two main hurdles, one will have a greater understanding of what Bernardo Bertolucci, the director, is trying to get across. This is one of the first movies (if not THE movie) that made me fall in love with all kinds of movies--good, bad, old, new. Michael Pitt, Eva Green, and Louis Garrel delievered amazing and daring performances; I will always remember them as passionate cinéphiles. Trivia: the book had a threesome and explicit gay scenes where Matthew and Theo had sex. Keep that in mind while watching the film. It'll enhance one's understanding of certain scenes and get rid of some distracting implications. In my opinion, the director should not have cut those scenes out. Still, for me, this is nothing short of excellent cinema.
