Interesting Facts About The Dreamers

Leonardo DiCaprio was offered the part of Matthew but turned it down as he was in pre-production on The Aviator (2004). Michael Pitt, who bears a strong resemblance to DiCaprio, was cast instead.

To help the actors feel relaxed and natural in the film's nude scenes, the director Bernardo Bertolucci encouraged them to be entirely nude well before the actual shoot so they could become accustomed to being naked in each other's presence. Source: Director's commentary on DVD

Early drafts of the screenplay contained much more explicit sexual material between the characters Matthew and Theo, but those sequences were never filmed. Director Bernardo Bertolucci said the gay sex appeared in the first draft, though he felt it was excessive and ultimately redundant. Actor Michael Pitt said in an interview that it had been in the script and that he had signed up for it, but they were later told those scenes would not be shot.

Jake Gyllenhaal was originally cast to play Matthew and was screen-tested opposite Eva Green, but he ultimately withdrew from the film because of the explicit nature of the nude scenes.

Eva Green's first credited film appearance. She had earlier featured in Michael Haneke's La pianiste (2001), although she was uncredited.

To avoid getting 'overly excited', Michael Pitt said he would dunk 'himself' into a glass of iced water before filming his explicit love scenes with Eva Green.

Director Bernardo Bertolucci was so struck by how naturally the actors performed nude that he wrote an extensive, uncredited additional scene into the script in which all three lead actors were openly naked. It was ultimately cut from the film.

Asked about the controversy in the US over the film's nudity and sexual material, Eva Green said, 'It must be extremely shocking to the American public, but I can't understand their fixation on it. I don't see why one cannot show naked people on screen while a baby being killed can be shown. It's rather odd. They're far too puritanical, far too uptight.'

The film The Dreamers (2003) was rendered carbon-neutral by offsetting its emissions — the Carbon Neutral logo appears on the poster and on the DVD sleeve. It is likely the first carbon-neutral film ever produced.

It was the first picture since Orgazmo (1997) to be released in cinemas in the US with an NC-17 classification. Even with that NC-17 classification, major cinema chains such as Regal and AMC agreed to screen it.

Camera operator Luigi Andrei said he felt a little embarrassed shooting on this film: 'In one scene I had to bring the camera right up to the naked body of Eva Green or Louis Garrel, to within 20/30 cm, and I hesitated until Bernardo Bertolucci shouted, 'Run the camera over those bodies, don't be afraid!'. In another scene Michael Pitt kissed every part of Eva's naked body, starting from her feet. At that moment I was pressed up against her, running a dolly along her body at about 20 centimetres, and I could really see everything in minute detail, almost as if I were a gynaecologist.'

Anna Chancellor later went on to portray Eva Green's mother again in Closer Than Sisters (2014), whilst Robin Renucci once more took the part of her father in the film that followed, Arsène Lupin (2004).

Eva Green said in a 2016 interview that ever since appearing in the film she has often been asked about nudity. She suggested people are utterly fascinated by nudity and tend to assume it must be easy for her to undress because she is French, but she insists that is not the case. 'I dislike performing nude scenes; they make me feel very uncomfortable,' she said. She also commented that sometimes her being naked becomes the primary focus, particularly in America. 'Sometimes, as an actor you take it badly — you think, actually, I'm more than simply naked; I'm something else.'

During an interview in 2004, Eva Green said she is naturally very shy but accepted the extensive nudity and sex scenes because she wanted to work with Bernardo Bertolucci. She explained: "I've seen Last Tango in Paris (1972) and it isn't pornographic, vulgar or sick, so I trusted him. He's a master of love and eroticism, and that allowed me to stop feeling self-conscious. I felt as if I were on drugs or anaesthetised, because one has to be. You need to let yourself go and forget everything — even the sound recordist and the like... You don't say 'no' to Bertolucci."

Dominic Cooper was in contention for the part of Matthew.

Eva Green said that, as her mum is an actress, she has some understanding of nude scenes, but her father and sister were deeply taken aback when they saw her in the nude.

Eva Green's parents, Marlène Jobert and Walter Green, together with her agent, pleaded with her not to accept the part, worried she might suffer a fate similar to Maria Schneider after Last Tango in Paris (1972). Her mother reportedly loathed the film on seeing it and lost sleep afterwards, fearful that her daughter would be typecast in sexual roles. Green herself was deeply unsettled after being shown a rough cut of the picture.

Eva Green had met Michael Pitt only two days before filming began and felt apprehensive, as she had been keen to work with the actor who was originally cast, Jake Gyllenhaal, yet the two immediately struck up a rapport.

Credited as Jimi Pitt and the Twins of Evil, Michael Pitt recorded a cover of Jimi Hendrix's 'Hey Joe' alongside the Twins of Evil for the soundtrack to The Dreamers.

Louis Garrel later portrayed director Jean-Luc Godard in the biographical film Godard Mon Amour (2017), which features a scene in which his character encounters Bernardo Bertolucci, the director of this film.

Included in the festival's official programme — screened out of competition at the 2003 Venice International Film Festival.

The only one of Bernardo Bertolucci's feature-length films for which he did not write the screenplay or originate the story.

Isabelle and Théo's parents' flat is situated at 1 Place Rio de Janeiro, Paris, France.

Eva Green was approached to audition for the film by casting director Juliette Ménager, who recalled her from an audition Green later described as 'disastrous' for CQ (2001). Ménager felt Green had been too tragic for that picture but was the right fit for this one.

Addressing Matthew, Isabelle says: "There is no such thing as love, only proofs of love". The line is a well-known quotation taken from Robert Bresson's 1945 film 'Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne'.

Isabelle puts on sunglasses and a headscarf, adopting an expressionless stare as she emulates Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), in the scene where Joe Gillis (William Holden) enters the dilapidated mansion and is made to read the script Desmond has been writing for her intended comeback.

A scene that paid homage to To Catch a Thief (1955) and recreated the "cigarette-in-the-egg" shot was omitted from the final cut.

The actress who portrays Isabelle and Theo's mother is actually British in real life. The actor who plays their father is French, just like his character.

Early in "The Dreamers" (2003), Samuel Fuller's 1963 film "Shock Corridor" is being screened at a cinema, and it is at that moment that Matthew (Michael Pitt) notices Isabelle (Eva Green).

The hotel where Matthew stayed was the Hotel de Senlis, situated at 7–9 Rue Malebranche in Paris, France.

Matthew keeps a photograph of Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson from Ingmar Bergman's 1966 film Persona in his flat.

At the start of the film (Michael Pitt) crosses the "Pont d'Iéna" bridge in Paris, France.

The barricade outside the church was filmed on location at "Church of the Val-de-Grâce", 1 Place Alphonse Laveran, Paris, France.

A poster of the 1967 Jean-Luc Godard film "La Chinoise" is displayed on the wall of the twins' flat.

The film's dialogue contains inaccurate quotations attributed to both Jean‑Luc Godard and Andrew Sarris.