The Dreamers is a 2003 erotic romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci from a screenplay by Gilbert Adair, based on Adair's 1988 novel The Holy Innocents. An international co-production by companies from France, Italy and the United Kingdom, the film tells the story of an American university student in Paris who, after meeting a peculiar brother and sister who are fellow film enthusiasts, becomes entangled in an erotic triangle. It is set against the backdrop of the 1968 Paris student riots. The film makes several references to various movies of classical and French New Wave cinema, incorporating clips from films that are often imitated by the actors in particular scenes.

Plot

In 1968, Matthew is a shy American exchange student who has come to Paris for a year to study French. While at the Cinémathèque Française protesting the firing of its director, Henri Langlois, he meets free-spirited twins Théo and Isabelle, the children of a famous French poet and his English wife. The three bond over a shared love of film. After dinner with their parents, Théo and Isabelle invite Matthew to stay with them while their parents leave town for a month. Matthew accepts, considering them his first French friends.