Double Feature: "La Chinoise" and "The Dreamers"

In May of 1968, France saw Communist riots and revolts by students and the working class looking for drastic change after the occupation of World War II. Although the fighting was united in its stand against the De Gaulle rule (we all bleed red!), there was internal disagreement between the pro-Soviets and the Pro-Maoists. Because the Soviets were seen as capitulating to the US in order to be more accepted ("puppets"), many Communist supporters turned to Mao Tse-Tung as the true beacon of Marxism-Leninism. A generation that saw their parents fight valiantly against oppression in the war also watched as they entered old age and submitted to Capitalist rule and softened political views. The youth were not satisfied.

This double-feature will look at two films that take place in the same period in time, about the same age group, with the same attitude toward the students in the revolt. "La Chinoise" by Jean-Luc Godard debuted in 1967, just before the height of these student clashes. Godard lived among the Maoist revolutionaries of Nanterre university, experiencing their world through the college life of his girlfriend, Ann Wiazemsky, 10 years his junior and actress in the film. He was at once steeped in the action and apart from it, watching like a fly on the wall, or a cameraman. "The Dreamers" by Bernardo Bertolucci, however, was produced much later, in 2004. Bertolucci, though Italian, had a fascination with Paris. His expression of the student riots was more distant, and his film more strictly points out the hypocrisy of "acting out" revolution in a general sense as opposed to actually making or believing in change.

La Chinoise follows five French Nanterre university students living for the summer in an apartment leant to them, all too ironically, by a friend's wealthy parents. They never seem to leave the apartment, at most looking out the windows or shouting political jargon from the balcony to no one in particular. They take turns lecturing one another in Maoism, reading from the Little Red Book, and cleaning the apartment stringently while also painting the walls with bold communist messages. Out of the five students, there are two couples, so there is also plenty of romantic interaction, but it seems to be at odds with the main love of the students: the cause. The relationships fall apart as the group becomes more and more revolutionary, readying to channel what they've been studying into action.

This movie was made later in Godard's career, and as such is even more bold, disjointed, and unconventional than his earlier films. It is done almost mockumentary style, filmed with interspersed interview segments with each of the students, some of whom even speak directly to the camera. In one rather shocking shot, the camera "eye" swivels around completely and we see the camera and the man filming the student, and look directly into the lens. This is a movie in which a movie is being made and movies are being discussed. It's meant to feel like you are in the apartment among the action with the students, and yet the fourth wall is repeatedly broken, with improvised, genuine action and dialogue split by cuts from a clapperboard calling out takes. This emphasizes Godard's intended impression; that these students are acting out revolution rather than being revolutionary. The movie opens on a comparison between a successful revolution and successful theater, with everyone acting in their intended role to achieve a common goal. Henri, who is ousted from the group for contradicting their calls for violence, even states that Guillaume, an acting student, is simply performing another role. The movie is also edited together montage-style, having been filmed in non-consecutive single shots which Godard pieced together later on the cutting table. The montage style of editing was invented by the Soviets, who did not have access to blank film reel and instead created their own movies by editing together scenes from old film to create enhanced meaning. It makes sense that Godard sought to employ Communist art styling in this Communist film.

The Dreamers likely as not takes its title from La Chinoise. Often in the latter movie the revolutionaries are referred to as such. However, because Bertolucci is the director he is, and because he was still riding the controversial high of Last Tango In Paris, The Dreamers is steeped in sex. As if to top his previous efforts, this movie comes with a deserved NC-17 rating. In the film, two incestuous French twins, Isabelle and Théo, take in an American tourist named Matthew and while their parents are away on vacation, create a hedonistic dreamworld. All three are cinephiles and they act out scenes from their favorite movies for the other two to guess. If the others can't come up with the title, they have to perform an embarassing sexual forfeit. The Dreamers incorporates clips from many terrific older movies, and the characters' rooms are covered in movie posters (as a matter of fact, in the first picture below you can see Théo sits beneath a poster for La Chinoise in his bedroom). In a way similar to many of Godard's characters, they are romantics who like play-acting at being adults but fail to see the consequences of their careless actions. 

The twins worship the Little Red Book and have posters and sculptures of Mao all over their bedroom. However, at the protest where the three dreamers meet, Isabelle is only pretending to be chained to the gates of the Cinematheque Française, and runs away freely when the riots get too rowdy. She is also acting the role of the coquette, but, as Matthew finds out later, is actually a virgin. Théo preaches a "books not bombs" ethos, but all Matthew can see is a lot of talk and no action. There is even a scene in which the twins' father aptly tells Théo "Before you can change the world, you must realise you yourself are part of it. You cannot stand outside looking in." Appropriately, the revolutionary focus of the twins' political lives takes a back seat in the movie to shocking sexuality, and the point Bertolucci seeks to make about these young people is cemented.

When the twins' parents return from vacation, they find the three asleep in a child-like sheet fort Isabelle has built in the living room, naked and entwined. Uncomfortable with the scenario, they leave a check for the kids and head out so as not to disturb them. When Isabelle wakes, she finds the check and, realizing her parents have seen she and Théo together, becomes so ashamed that she resolves to kill herself and the two boys with a hose hooked to the gas tank. She is laying down, ready to die, when a brick suddenly crashes through the apartment window breaking the spell; the students and workers protesting in the streets have turned to violent riot against the police. All three of the dreamers wake and quickly dress to join in the riots, but Matthew loses the twins in the mayhem. Théo and Isabelle have taken molotov cocktails and run to the front lines to confront police, and Matthew turns his back on his heady vacation. 

These last few minutes of the film really give it its true meaning. The twins live in a world of play. As Matthew aptly says in the beginning of the movie "The screen was really a screen. It screened us... from the world." They seem to have been raised by silver-screen adventures rather than lived experience. Matthew is seduced by this time out of time, a hedonistic wine-drunk romp, until the hangover sets in and he realises Théo and Isabelle aren't really as cutting-edge as they claim to be. While revolution often comes hand in hand with revolutionary sex, the twins seem to gravitate only to sex, convincing themselves they are radicals in their own little sphere since they have appalled Matthew easily enough. When real world problems, like hunger and lack of money, begin to encroach on their perfect world, Isabelle creates an even smaller safe house within the safety of the apartment, the sheet fort. Instead of confronting problems and fixing them, she pulls her insular world in even closer. She would rather die than have to confront threats of real life, like her parents' admonitions about her and Theo's relationship. Finally, the troubles of the outside world literally crash in upon her safehold, and she realizes that instead of confronting the problems of tomorrow, she and Théo can instead burn the world down, and possibly die for a cause in the process. The minute the three venture outside, it becomes apparent that they never could have been friends outside of the apartment; their worldviews are simply incompatible.

La Chinoise also reaches its climax when the five student revolutionaries venture outside the safety of the apartment for the first time, intent upon acting upon their ideas instead of just studying them. Despite warnings from a mentor, Véronique wants to commit an act of terrorism upon the university they attend to inspire others to open their eyes to their condition and join the revolution. Her mentor tells her that you cannot just create a revolution, it has to be joined and have more than just five members who support the cause. Nevertheless, their friend Kirilov commits a martyr's suicide and writes a letter claiming responsibility for the assassination Véronique plans to carry out. When it comes to the actual deed however, she actually botches the job, kills an innocent man, and has to go back into the building again to assassinate the Soviet "puppet" she meant to kill in the first place. The rest of the movie shows the group going separate ways when summer ends and school returns to session. Véronique cleans up the apartment with her friend, wiping their Communist graffiti off of the walls and disposing of hundreds of Little Red Books that were never successfully dispersed, so the space can return to the possession of the friend's wealthy parents.

The Dreamers is a movie based upon La Chinoise. The Dreamers takes place in the same time period and references other French New Wave films of the time, especially Godard's. These films are particularly relevant today as we all struggle to find the balance between personal comfort and the desire to create tangible change in our social and political spheres. The idea of "armchair activism" has been scorned throughout history, but both stories also emphasize the importance of well-considered action rather than reckless terrorism. We are asked to look at our lives holistically and see what we are actually doing to create change versus sharing ideas in an echo chamber with only others who agree with us. Primarily, these films focus on the admirable idealism and romanticism of young people, a favorite concept of Godard's throughout his career. The youth possess the inspiring energy to create change but there is necessity for the balance of wisdom from older people with lived experience to guide us towards our visionary future.