Synopsis

In Paris during the spring of 1968, American student Matthew meets twins Theo and Isabelle, fellow devotees of cinema. After inviting him into their family apartment, they create an increasingly insular world built around film games, intellectual arguments, sexual experimentation, and emotional dependency. Outside, student unrest and political upheaval intensify, forcing the trio to confront the widening gap between their private fantasies and the real revolution beyond their door.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film adapts Gilbert Adair's 1988 novel The Holy Innocents, which was itself influenced by Jean Cocteau's Les Enfants terribles and Jean-Pierre Melville's 1950 film adaptation.

• Adair wrote the screenplay from his own novel, while Bernardo Bertolucci reshaped the material and incorporated references to films from classical Hollywood and the French New Wave.

• The story begins during the real 1968 controversy surrounding the removal of Henri Langlois from the Cinématheque Francaise. This historical event helped connect the characters' personal cinema obsession to the political atmosphere of the period.

• Clips from films including Breathless, The 400 Blows, Bande a part, Scarface, Freaks, City Lights, and Pierrot le fou are used throughout the film. The characters also recreate scenes and gestures from movies they admire.

• Bertolucci filmed in Paris from July through September 2002, using locations that included the Palais de Chaillot, the Trocadero Gardens, the Sorbonne area, Rue Malebranche, and Place de Rio de Janeiro.

• Two principal versions were released in the United States. The uncut version received an NC-17 rating, while the R-rated version was approximately three minutes shorter.

• The film marked Eva Green's first credited feature-film appearance and became her breakthrough role.

• The original soundtrack does not include every song heard in the movie. Music by Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, Bob Dylan, and The Doors appears in the film but was omitted from the soundtrack album.

• Bertolucci's official filmography describes the picture as one of his most autobiographical works, particularly in its depiction of cinema as a formative way of life for a generation.