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strategy to protect the three protagonists (and ultimately himself) from the harshness of real
life. This is a condition already depicted in Tango where Paul is saved from his own
destructive desperation after his wife's suicide, and in The Sheltering Sky where Kit - as I
will discuss later - is protected against self-abandonment and annihilation after her husband's
death. This process reflects Weitman's consideration that sexual pleasure entails "experiences
of erotic inclusion' in which lovers cease to feel isolated 'in a largely indifferent [...] or
hostile world' (Weitman, 1999: 85). Viewers are easily aligned with all three characters'
desires and uncertainty, and although there may be intellectual frustration at the way the
narrative disconnects itself from its socio-historical context, it is likely that most viewers'
emotional and cognitive engagement with the narrative will converge into a desire for the
characters to attain a sense of harmonious fulfilment.
The incongruousness of decadent style
Cas Wouters' analysis of the evolution of human relationships since the 1960s' sexual
revolution indicates how, in the 1960s, 'for the first time, women themselves actively took
part in public discussions about their carnal desires and a more satisfactory relationship', and
how the 'emancipation of women ran in tandem with changes in public morality as well as in
individuals' codes and ideals regarding love and sex' (Wouters, 1999: 188). By contrast, in
The Dreamers, the protagonists' sexual experimentation is characterized by a secluded
bourgeois 'privacy' in the cavernous apartment which is nevertheless rendered claustrophobic
by the way Bertolucci frames the protagonists within it. Combined with the elements of
incest implied in the narrative, this depiction is arguably inappropriate for the social context
of the late 1960s, and is partly responsible for the film being perceived as unconnected to real
events. This conceptual dissonance extends to the mise-en-scene, which casts an aura of
decadence on the visual experience. Above all, the potentially arousing qualities of the film's
sexual sequences are frequently transmuted into uneasiness, as they reflect John Reed's
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