Sanjari

by Gilbert Adair

Knjiga o mladom americkom studentu, filmofilu, koji dolazi u Pariz 1968. Opsednut filmom, on se upoznaje sa dva strastvena ljubitelja filma, bratom i sestrom ciji se incestualni odnos otkriva i ukljucuje njega u deo igre. Zarobljeni u stanu, njih troje se neobicno zabavljaju istrazujuci sve dublje i dublje granice do kojih mogu ici...

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Contemporary, Queer, France, 20th Century

254 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Gilbert Adair was a Scottish novelist, poet, film critic and journalist. Born in Edinburgh, he lived in Paris from 1968 through 1980. He is most famous for such novels as Love and Death on Long Island (1997) and The Dreamers (2003), both of which were made into films, although he is also noted as the translator of Georges Perec's postmodern novel A Void, in which the letter e is not used. Adair won the 1995 Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize for this work.

In 1998 and 1999 Adair was the chief film critic for The Independent on Sunday, where in 1999 he also wrote a year-long column called "The Guillotine." In addition to the films made from his own works, Adair worked on the screenplays for a number of Raúl Ruiz films. Although he rarely spoke of his sexual orientation in public, not wishing to be labelled, he acknowledge in an interview that there were many gay themes in his work. He died from a brain hemorrhage in 2011.

(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Algernon · Rating 5 out of 5]

What have movies, love and politics have in common? They are all dream factories. Illusions churning machines that promise adventure, companionship or a better future. And what better age to succumb to their magic than eighteen? What better place than Paris in spring? The Dreamers are Matthew, Theo and Isabelle, one American expatriate and a pair of French twins brough together by common worshipping in the dark halls of the Chaillot temple:

Cinephilia, as it was practised here, in the very front row of the stalls, was a secret society, a cabal, a freemasonry.

when the high priest of the temple, Henri Langlois, "the dragon who guards our treasure", is exiled and the doors of his Cinematheque are padlocked, the three youths turns to each other in order to keep the dreams alive. A lucky circumstance make them the sole inhabitants of an apartment close to Place de L'Odeon. Here American Puritanism meets Gallic Decadence, and a different sort of education is taking place, a sensual journey ruled by the same fantasies and demigods of the silver screen. Pin-ups of Gene Tierney and Marlene Dietrich decorate the walls. Isabelle dresses up in her grandmother's old-fashioned costumes. Quiz games of movie trivia lead to 'dare me' chalenges that get ever more disturbing and deviant.

With the fleetness of foot of those scene-shifters who soundlessly rearrange the decor of our dreams, one setting would dovetail into the next. The bath, almost overflowing, would become Cleopatra's from the film by DeMille. For want of assess' milk a couple of bottles of the cow's brand were used, the contents of which Matthew poured into the tub ...

The whole world outside the apartment fades away, leaving the three youngsters marooned as on a desert island, alone with their febrile imagination. And, as on a desert island, the dreams slowly morph into nightmares, exploring the darker sides of the psyche. Matthew, Theo and Isabelle get a chance to escape from a labyrinth of their own making when reality reasserts itself, just in time to save them from starvation, with a brick through the window of their apartment. Quite literally!

What is the symbolic message here? First alienated youth seeking escape from reality in silver screen fantasies. Then rejection of the world in favour of a self-centered exploration of the senses - drugs, sex and rock-an-roll (since this is Paris, replace Elvis with Charles Trenet). And ultimately, rebellious youth deciding that they want the world and they want it now, on their own terms. The three friends end up caught in the revolutionary fervour of the spring of 1968, when for a brief moment it seemed like their dreams might change the world, after all. From the singing of "La Internationale", to strikes and street demonstrations, to grafitti on the walls, the flower-power generation is in full swing:

!La societe est un fleur carnivore!

!Prenez vos desirs pour la realite!

!Il est interdit d'interdire!

!Sous les paves la plage!

!Liberez l'expression!

!L'imagination au pouvoir!

We all know how the spring of '68 ended. A lot of dreams were crushed under the steel-toed boots and batons of the paramilitary police. But the dreamers will pass into history and inspire future generations to dare to believe in a different, more tolerant, more loving, more free world. As Jean-Pierre Leaud will remark at the re-opening of the Cinematheque with one of my favorite Truffaut movies ("Baisers Voles") :

Liberty is a privilege that isn't given, it's taken.

>><<>><<>><<>><<

This is true gem of a book, both history and romance and youthful enthusiasm with memorable characters and numerous Easter eggs for the lovers of French Nouvelle Vague ( a scene is taken wholesale from "Bande A Part" by Goddard), of Paris and especially Boulevard Saint Michel et environs, of 'chanson' and singers like Trenet, Piaf, Moustaki, Brasseur. The movie adaptation by Bertolucci is excellent - it differs in some parts from the book, but remains faithful to the original dreams and the original dreamers. Adair was directly involved in the script, so this faithful rendition is not surprising. I am glad I read the novel, because, frankly, I was a little distracted by the beauty of Eva Green while watching the movie, and might have paid less atention to the other characters and to some of the more subtle revelations.

I feel I got to the end of my review too fast, and I wish I could have spent more time discussing the feelings of alienation in Matthew (a father he wants to love and who rejects im for his homosexual inclinations) , Theo and Isabelle (an overbearing, pompous and selfish father with artistic pretensions and a nondescript mother).

He saw himself as the protagonist of the kind of film he detested, a sensitive outcast making his solitary way along sparkling, neon-lit boulevards amid cheerful, bustling crowds moving in the opposite direction.

It will be interesting to see how older readers react to the apparent perversity of the carnal scenes, how some can see innocence and tenderness in debauchery I found it telling that Isabelle was a virgin, despite hints of incest with her brother :

But couldn't it simply have been solace that Isabelle had sought in her brother's arms, solace from loneliness or insomnia?

There are autobiographical notes dealing not only with sexual orientation but also with religion, with the self-replicating circular argument of sin-confession-punishment-guilt:

Alas, the trouble with the flesh is not that it's weak but that it's strong

>><<>><<>><<>><<

I will add Gilbert Adair's novel to my favorite section of the library dealing with youth :Joseph Conrad ("Youth"), Marguerite Duras ("The Lover"), Dostoyevsky ("White Nights"), Turgheniev ("First Love"), Thompson ("Blankets"), Radu Tudoran ("Fiul Risipitor"), etc.
The choice of the theme song by Charles Trenet is a bittersweet reminder of those days where everything seemed possible:

Ce soir le vent qui frappe à ma porte
Me parle des amours mortes
Devant le feu qui s' éteint
Ce soir c'est une chanson d' automne
Dans la maison qui frissonne
Et je pense aux jours lointains

{Refrain:}
Que reste-t-il de nos amours
Que reste-t-il de ces beaux jours
Une photo, vieille photo
De ma jeunesse
Que reste-t-il des billets doux
Des mois d' avril, des rendez-vous
Un souvenir qui me poursuit
Sans cesse

Bonheur fané, cheveux au vent
Baisers volés, rêves mouvants
Que reste-t-il de tout cela
Dites-le-moi

Un petit village, un vieux clocher
Un paysage si bien caché
Et dans un nuage le cher visage
De mon passé

Les mots les mots tendres qu'on murmure
Les caresses les plus pures
Les serments au fond des bois
Les fleurs qu'on retrouve dans un livre
Dont le parfum vous enivre
Se sont envolés pourquoi?

[Ian "Marvin" Graye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cinema, Sex and Politics

Gilbert Adair was a Scottish writer, translator, critic and screenwriter, who lived in Paris from 1968 to 1980. However, Matthew, the chief protagonist in this novel set in the Paris of 1968 is an Italian-American from San Diego.

Many of Henry James' characters left America to discover the traditional values and social structures of the Old World. In contrast, Matthew arrives at a time of revolutionary ferment. He feels as "gauche as an alien from another planet". Ironically, he gravitates to the Rive Gauche and finds himself swept along by the energy of the political Left. His friends give him a whirlwind education in Cinema, Sex and Politics.

Matthew is 18 at the time, and his friends, the twins, Theo and Isabelle, just 17. He meets them as fellow members of the audience of the Cinematheque Francaise.

Matthew quickly becomes infatuated by both of them:

"In truth, what he had fallen in love with was some facet which was shared by both of them equally, something identical in them, even if as twins they were not identical, something which would dart to one face, then to the other, depending on an expression or a trick of the light or the angle at which a head was cocked."

In a way, the object of this subject, his love object, is a union of male and female. The integrated object has characteristics of both genders. As a result, his own sexuality has aspects of both hetero- and homo-sexuality. The fact that the object is in reality two people confronts Matthew with the choice of either or both. The risk is that, ultimately, "the insinuation of a third party" will fracture the unity of the object.

Paris student life turns political, when in February, 1968 the creator and curator of the Cinematheque, Henri Langlois, is dismissed by de Gaulle's Minister of Culture, the author and film-maker, Andre Malraux.

The protests take to the street, and transform into the more extensive student and worker protests of May, 1968.

This was Adair's first novel (originally published under the title, "The Holy Innocents"). It's economically written and contains some beautiful phrases ("the finery of their nakedness", the "tiny, pearly scintillae of light", "the fairy-tale forest of the pubis").

It's not as well crafted as his next two novels, but it still reveals considerable talent. He writes both realistically and romantically. Adair himself was dissatisfied with the novel, initially reluctant to grant film rights, until it turned out that the film-maker who wanted them was Bernardo Bertolucci. However, on both the page and the screen, it's a fascinating portrait of a world in which the personal and the political came together for a brief moment in time, before being quashed by the power of the State.

"Stolen kisses, uneasy dreams...
What is left of our love
What is left of these beautiful days...
A photograph, an old photograph of my youth."

Charles Trenet




"It is forbidden to forbid." (Paris May, 1968 slogan)



MISCELLANEA:

Gilbert Adair's Obituary in The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/...

'At the Cinémathèque Française, he found not just a spiritual home, but also became both "politicised and eroticised".

'As he recalled: "It was a very sexy thing, and romantic, being with these young people watching old American movies, or being in the streets arm-in-arm …The whole thing was like a collective orgasm."

'Amazingly to those of us who knew Adair as a gentle, fastidious, bookish wit, the young Gilbert threw stones at the police. "I had to be slightly careful, like Matthew [Michael Pitt's character in The Dreamers], because I was a foreigner, I taught at the university, so I was also employed by the state, and would have instantly been deported if I had been caught."

'That said, he was politically ardent – for a few weeks. "I truly believed that the world was going to change."'

Roger Ebert's Review of the Film of "The Dreamers"

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the...

Roger describes his experience of May, 1968.

Henri Langlois: The Auteur of the Cinémathèque Francaise

http://www.thecine-files.com/past-iss...

"Langlois’ film world seen with rose colors"

A sceptical, anti-Langlois account of these times by Cynthia Grenier

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2...

A response by Gene Stavis, School of Visual Arts, NYC

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!top...

Roberto Bolano's "Amulet"

Bolano's novel deals with student protests in Mexico at the same time.






Photo of Henri Langlois (1967) by Henri Cartier-Bresson

In the late 80's and early 90's, I jointly founded Queensland Cinematheque and was its President for several years, before it was merged into Pacific Film and Television Commission. Its retrospective film program is now delivered by the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA).


SOUNDTRACK:

Charles Trenet - "Que Reste-T-il De Nos Amours"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_uvgm...

Lyrics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Que_rest...

The phrase "Baisers Voles"（"Stolen Kisses") from this song forms the title of a Truffaut film from this period and is mentioned several times in the novel.

François Truffaut's "Baisers Voles"（"Stolen Kisses") - "Que Reste-t-il De Nos Amours?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpcBix...

Stacey Kent - "Que reste-t-il de nos amours?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-4NHQ...

The Triffids - "A Trick of the Light"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFoD2L...

The Stone Roses - "Bye Bye Badman"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3WkIE...

Ian Brown refers to "citrus-sucking sunshine" in this song.The students in the May, 1968 protests bit down on lemons and smeared their faces with lemon juice in an attempt to minimise the effects of the police tear gas. John Squire's artwork on the cover of the first Stone Roses album also includes sliced lemons as a tribute to the students.

"The Dreamers" (2003) (Trailer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHaoi6...

"The Dreamers" (Extracts with Patti Smith Soundtrack - "People Have the Power")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujyWQW...

"The Dreamers" (2003) (30 Second Spot)

http://vimeo.com/62289652

This video contains an amazing illusion sequence at 0.20 - 0.22.

The Making of the Film of "The Dreamers"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5K7y...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOjEo0...

"The Dreamers" (Full Movie) (2003)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obj05-...

Paris Uprising May, 1968

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUJZgk...

[Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful novel, written with the kind of self-conscious brio that I adore. Transposing (‘transtemporising’, I suppose) the action of Cocteau's Les Enfants terribles to a more revolutionary 1968 – when Adair himself had been in Paris – it re-examines the same themes of juvenile sexuality and death-wish in a closed environment, here with a restricted cast of just three: fraternal twins Théo and Isabelle and American student Matthew.

Like Cocteau's closeted siblings, they live in ‘a misrule of isolation and disorder’, with an atmosphere that's claustrophobic, sexually-charged, prey to shifting power dynamics and random impulses. Free from adult supervision, they give way to what Adair identifies as ‘the licence of the masturbator to do, inside his head, whatever he pleases with whomever he pleases for as often as he pleases, a licence that must lead to ever more extreme fantasies’.

As it does. If you've read Cocteau, you know how things are likely to end. But all the joy here is in Adair's precise and inventive prose. Here is a writer who is not at home to M. Cliché. His similes are sometimes long and a bit fussy, but I loved them: when we meet Isabelle, for instance, she is wearing a cloche hat and a white fox boa – but, we're told,

she was as far from the sort of mutton-headed misses for whom such accessories represented a fashion statement as would be two athletes running side by side, shoulder to shoulder, one of whom has lapped the other.

Often again the writing is succinct and exact and surprising. When Théo is made to undress in front of the other two, he stands naked and shivering ‘like some arrowless Sebastian’ – how I love that – ‘free from the grubby chrysalis of his clothes’. (The writing is particularly sensitive to the male nude, and later an ejaculating penis is described unforgettably, if rather off-puttingly, as ‘a purple-complexioned homunculus spitting gobs of sperm from its tight, lipless mouth’. Delightful.)

Sometimes I couldn't even work out how he did it. There's a description of Isabelle asleep in bed that I loved, and re-read three or four times – but it seemed on the face of it so unremarkable that, despite underlining it, I still don't understand why it works so well.

The book is much more explicit in how it can develop its themes than was Cocteau's novel: this opens up some interesting avenues but also closes others off. (Bertolucci's film adaptation keeps the explicitness, but strips away much of the homoeroticism.) Adair idolised Cocteau, even modelling his signature on that of his hero, and this book (his first) was clearly a labour of love. Sure enough, I loved it.

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was delighted, and somewhat surprised, to learn that Gilbert Adair was responsible for writing The Dreamers. I saw the film a few years ago and recall the shock I felt at its erotic content, but the story stayed with me.

This book, which Adair insists is more like a pair of matching grey trousers than a novelisation, was rewritten from the screenplay and his original version, The Holy Innocents. It's obviously a text that has come to dominate Adair's professional life and reputation, and has been his career's biggest success.

The story is one of perverse friendship and a deep love of cinema, and despite the characters having less room for expression in the novel, having seen the film it is easier to immerse yourself in the world of these romantic students.

As a novel, the prose is fast, frenetic and passionate, though not entirely free from the occasional clunky phrase. Recommended along with the movie.

[Kaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had such high hopes for this book and was disappointed immensely. The movie is one of my favorites, so my expectations were high, though now I realize that the two differ so much, especially in the second half. This is one of those rare situations when the movie is so much better than the book.

The plot takes place in Paris during student's uprising. The three main characters Henry, Theo and Isabelle isolate themselves in their own world of disturbing obsessions, games and sex in an empty apartment. In theory, this is a great base for fantastic story, but the reality isn't even close to it. There is something so flat about the book, like the reader's total indifference towards the characters, their abusive relationship and especially the ending. I felt literally nothing. I should've loved the book because it touches all those interesting topics like cinematography, rebellion and sexuality, but instead, I was utterly bored.

I was really interested in how this dreamy incestuous threesome will work out but then suddenly the characters were eating cat food, spouting vomit at each other and smudging poop on themselves like Indian war paint and all of that was something I really couldn't swallow. The author did so much better job with the ecranisation of the book. In the screen adaption, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, extraordinary actors like Eva Green, Michael Pitt and Louis Garrel are simply remarkable. The book is hopelessly empty, detached and dull.

Henry's whole personality, even though he's our narrator, was that he's bisexual and he was afraid to get out of the closet. We know far more about the twins than him, despite the fact we spent entire book in his head. That's quite depressing and makes it really hard to feel attached to both him and the plot.

The relationship (the threesome essentially) between Henry, Theo and Isabelle started out as rather fascinating and captivating but turned out to be gruesome and sick. It wasn't even remotely fun to read about it. Besides, their bond was written about without any real depth, so it turned out to be quite boring and repetitive.

[Steven Godin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I much prefer the original title, The Holy Innocents, but I assume this is a movie tie-in copy, so hence The Dreamers. (The Dreamers being Bernardo Bertolucci's 2003 Adaptation)
The three young intellectual and passionate cinephiles at the centre of the novel were well thought out, capturing in an impressive luminous prose their sexual innocence and perversions - including incest - against the backdrop of 1968 Paris in revolt. (Paris and riots just can't seem to keep away from each other). Despite being Scottish, Adair spend many years living in the city, and it truly shows. The style is more akin to that of a European writer.
Decent, but it's not one that will hang around in my mind for long. I certainly admired it more in regards their love of cinema - in particular viewings at the Cinémathèque Française, before the curator is removed - rather than their sexual antics, which turn somewhat darker later on.

[Cecily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gilbert Adair wrote The Holy Innocents a few years ago (which I haven't read). When Bertolucci wanted to film it, Adair wrote the screenplay and rewrote the novel as The Dreamers, although in an epilogue he explains that the book and film are deliberately different. It’s a quick read (borderline novella), but twisted and interesting.

The story is set in Paris in the riots of May 68 and concerns a young American student who befriends twins at an arthouse cinema they regularly attend. A knowledge of classic cinema helps, but the films and riots are really just a backdrop to a tale of game playing, manipulation, obsessive relationships, triangular relationships, confused sexuality and crossing boundaries. Parts of it are beautifully written and parts embarrassingly banal. The book is less ambiguous than the film and has a very different ending, though I'm not sure which I prefer.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've long held affection for Adair's sexy, cinema-saturated short novel, though revisiting it now now I found it functions more than anything as an aide-mémoire to a younger version of myself. In the 15+ years since my first read I've encountered a lot of literature that Adair is drawing from both overtly & impicitly, which made the depiction of transgressive sexuality feel not just a bit hollow, but sometimes downright silly. It rather reminded me of softcore film adaptations that use Sade or The Story of O as a justification to show copulation & lots of flesh but dispense with the deeper implications of sex, desire, & power those texts grapple with. Even Cocteau, though nowhere near as explicit, ultimately gets to something more kinky & feral, even depraved.

What does hold up, however, is the celebration of cinema, & the intensity of the pious cinephile life. The opening pages, nestled within the storied Cinémathèque Française of the 1960's, is tour-de-force, & gets at the religious fervor & ecstasy film can inspire in a way I still have never really encountered elsewhere. And the trio of American innocent abroad Matthew + the worldly twins Théo & Isabelle are tremendously appealing. Meanwhile, Adair's prose vacillates between feeling both overwritten & underwritten, sometimes within the span of a single page.

But even if I won't hold it up in such high regard now, it's still a fun, quick read that I quite enjoyed & will likely return to again at some point. It's been even longer since I've Bertolucci's adaptation, & now I'm curious how it will hold up.

If they chose to sit so close to the screen, it was because they couldn't tolerate not receiving a film's images first, before they had to clear the hurdles of each succeeding row, from spectator to spectator, from eye to eye, until, defiled, second-hand, reduced to the dimensions of a postage-stamp and ignored by the double-backed love-makers in the last row of all, they returned with relief to their source, the projectionist's cabin.

[Temz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Макар филмът да е много по-близък до сърцето ми, тоталното оголване в „Мечтатели“ на Гилбърт Адеър преди екранизацията (по чийто сценарий рабо��и самият той) ми се струва много по-близък до първоначалното заглавие и вероятно корена на идеята: „Блаженни са невинните“.
„Присъждам“ 4 звезди, защото в момента книга и филм за мен стават едно неделимо цяло. разделен от своята филмова реализация, романът навярно би останал някак гол, но в конкретния момент ми се струва, че същото би важало и за шедьовъра на Бертолучи.

[TAP · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Holy Innocents is a meditation on the obsession of flesh and living a dream, disregarding reality for a moment of pleasure.

Matthew, Danielle, and Guillaume are cinephiles always on a mission for a new fixation. The source of their new drug is each other.

After reading The Holy Innocents I read The Dreamers, a revised version of the text. The revised version is more concise, but in the end I prefer the original.

[Stella · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit wordy (unfortunatelly not available on Kindle and its great dictionary feature) Read it the old fashioned way, in a matter of few hours, so yes, definitely a 5 star book for me.

It's better than the movie, I think.

[Ipsita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatever the approach, one ends by descending a flight of steps to the Cinémathèque’s foyer, whose intimidating austerity is relieved by a permanent display of kinetoscopes, praxinoscopes, shadowboxes, magic lanterns and other naïve and charming relics of the cinema’s prehistory.

What else were these rats, these fanatics, these denizens of the night, but vampire bats wrapping themselves in the cloak of their own shadows?

There was once a faun that came to a mountain pool but was incapable of drinking any water because it would turn aside, again and again, to reassure itself that no hostile presence lurked nearby. It finally died of thirst.

He forgot that true friendship is a contract in which there can be no small print.

There is fire and fire: the fire that burns and the fire that gives warmth, the fire that sets a forest ablaze and the fire that puts a cat to sleep. So is it with self-love.

Sleep is a spirit which comes to depend, like most spirits, on the trappings of the séance: the veiled lamps, the drawn curtains, patience and silence. It depends, too, on the sleeper’s gullibility, on his willingness to believe that, within a few minutes, if he puts his house in order prior to his departure, he will enter a self-induced trance. Only then does it consent to spew the opaque and terrible ectoplasm of dreams.


For the person who waits, Zeno’s paradox, which denies the completion of all movement, is less of a paradox than a lived experience. Matthew was living the paradox.

Unhappiness may lie in our failing to obtain precisely the right sort of happiness.

The world at large, meanwhile, the world whose average, upright citizens they shunned and were shunned by, the world which came to a halt at the flat’s bolted front door as though no longer daring to put a foot inside, that world too, for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear, was treading air.

As in a dream, as in a snowdrift, as in an avalanche of cocaine, the longueurs of eternity had already blanketed each of the occupants of this first-floor flat near the place de l’Odéon.

An extravagant and splendid novel about three hedonist teenagers and the natural denouement of their narcissism. The prose is elegantly fluid and debonair with some introspective passages about human nature. A brilliant read about depravity, alienation and adolescent ebullience.

[tiff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having watched The Dreamers first, I'm riddled with expectations and presumptions, which is unfortunate. But if having not watched the film first, I most likely wouldn't have read this novel. The Dreamers is one of my favourite films ever and I didn't know whether this book would live up to my expectations or not. But it's not surprising that it did if Gilbert Adair wrote the screenplay to the movie as well. I have to say this book is now one of my favourites too. I love Gilbert Adair's way with words. He describes thing in excess, and though at times it can be tiresome, some of his written imagery is just beautiful. Unfortunately though, some of the french words and places got in my way. I'll definitely need to reread and lookup all the words which confounded me. I don't do it the first time around because I'd rather read the whole book through uninterrupted, and then go back and reread.

The first half of the novel was pretty much perfect. I don't know whether it is because it replicated the movie exactly or if I just liked it better. As for the last few pages of the book, I don't know why I was just as surprised reading it was I was reading Les Enfants Terribles. I didn't expect it because it differs from the movie. I do like it's impact but perhaps it was a bit too inspired by Les Enfants Terribles. That being said, I don't hate it, I just prefer the movie's ending more. Overall, I'm looking forward to rereading this and also I have to get my hands on The Holy Innocents too.

[clarenina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tale of loved-up cineaphiles living in Paris in the '60s that utilises the lyrics of Charles Trenet's "Que Reste-t-il de nos amours" (one of my favourite songs) as a motif and features an appearance by my beloved Jean-Pierre Léaud? It was inevitable that I was going to love this!

[M. (they) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Que reste-t-il de nos amours?
Que reste-t-il de ces beaux jours?
Une photo, vieille photo
De ma jeunesse.

Que reste-t-il des billets doux,
Des mois d' avril, des rendez-vous?
Un souvenir qui me poursuit...
... un souvenir qui me poursuit...
... un souvenir qui me poursuit...
... un souvenir qui me poursuit...”

Un disco incantato, tre ragazzi con una relazione morbosa, la Parigi rivoltosa del Maggio francese. Aggiungiamoci un'interminabile lista di citazioni di imperituri capolavori d'arte, musicali e cinematografici, et voilà.

Due gemelli in intimità, il cui equilibrio viene spezzato dall'entrata di un giovane studente americano. La comune passione per i film d'autore, i vestiti fuori moda, le teorie ribelli sulla vita. Iniziano un gioco che diventerà pericoloso (ri)mettendo in scena uno per volta un certo frame di una qualche vecchia pellicola, sfidandosi a colpi di “In quale film?” — e chi non indovina, paga penitenza. Si chiudono in casa, dimenticandosi di mangiare, lavarsi, di dormire. Non importa più che sia giorno o notte, o che le settimane passino: e man mano che il gioco va avanti, se di gioco si può ancora parlare...

«Proprio come una gerarchia di prove, sfide e ordalie avrebbero trasformato in liturgia e sacramento un gioco iniziato in maniera tanto innocua tra scherzi e risolini infantili, anche le pentenze avrebbero dunque acquisito un significato del tutto nuovo».

E dunque, nel letto si trova posto in tre, almeno fin quando «all'improvviso, come Peter Pan, la strada volò dentro dalla finestra»: dopo esser rimasti isolati per mesi i ragazzi si trovano spiazzati davanti a una rivoluzione vera a propria che gli scorre fra le mani, sotto il naso, perfino dentro casa. E l'epilogo è meraviglioso.

Mi aspettavo il raccontino sfacciato, che vuole buttare lì tre personaggi che covano il germe dei rivoluzionari aspettando l'occasione per fare la propria mossa; e mi sbagliavo.
Adair ha uno stile fresco, giovane, impertinente: uno stile che si confà perfettamente ai nostri protagonisti, delineando un romanzo gioviale e divertente che strappa sorrisi e meraviglia, dolcezza e ammirazione per l'uso sapiente delle parole. Le descrizioni hanno il magico potere di inserirti nell'ambiente descritto, e spesso mi son trovata col fiato corto per paura di disturbare: Adair sa come usare il potere di suggestione per coinvolgere in una narrazione senza tempo, in cui in realtà la politica entra nella fatale promiscuità dei gemelli-più-uno del tutto inaspettata, facendo terminare tutto nel giro di mezza giornata nella maniera più tragica, mentre un Charles Trenet dalla voce chiara accompagna la vicenda dall'inizio alla fine.

Non capita tutti i giorni di leggere un libro con la colonna sonora, men che meno di trovarsi una storia come questa. La prima metà mi ha ri-trasportato nelle descrizioni giovanili di Mishima, la seconda parte è una lotta alla sopravvivenza degna del Golding de Il signore delle mosche. La terza e ultima parte è caratterizzata da una frenesia che pone la storia di nuovo in prospettiva: alle vicende personali si sovrappone qualcosa di più alto, che prende il sopravvento e segna i nostri personaggi per sempre.
Avendo poi già visto il film di Bertolucci, non potevo non pensare a Matthew con la stessa voce indifesa e il volto sbarbato di Michael Pitt, Isabelle con la medesima sicurezza di gesti di Eva Green e Louis Garrel che semplicemente era Théo. C'è tuttavia da dire che, a parte i personaggi, la vicenda nel film è trattata in modo esponenzialmente diverso, e in qualche modo nel romanzo troviamo una certa "radicalità" che mi sarebbe piaciuta vedere anche nella trasposizione.
Per questo dico di aver preferito il libro. Si legge molto bene, e ho apprezzato l'uscire dalle convenzioni dei soliti triangoli amorosi per approdare in qualcosa che nel '68, come nel 1988 e nel 2008, è comunque rimasto un tabù.
Da rileggere in lingua originale.

[Alejandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

What did I just read???? Alright, at the beginning the writing was beyond gorgeous (there are certain points throughout the book when I still think the prose is gorgeous) it had inmaculate vibes, love the setting, the themes, it was original... But honestly wtf.
I will never read it again, not because i felt uncomfortable reading it (as I have said before, s*x scenes don't make me uncomfortable at all and depending on the story and context I can enjoy them... Shhh) but because it wasn't very memorable overall.
It's definetly a thought provoking book but I felt kinda disconnected, I was not invested in the characters.

I may watch the movie tho.

[Tamara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea.

[Makis Dionis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Η επιτομή της αλητειας κ του γιατί λατρεύουμε την λογοτεχνία.
Παρίσι/ Μάης του 68

[Selena · Rating 5 out of 5]

i found out about the holy innocents because michael pitt is my favourite actor. this means that i did indeed watch the movie before the book but to be fair i didn’t realize there was a book before watching the movie. a conundrum! the movie was brought to the screen under adair’s writing, but to suit the movie, he changed the story and re-released the book under the title the dreamers.

i fell in love with the movie and it’s message after i watched it and i needed to get my hands on the book, the original and un-screenplay version-ed book. it was nigh impossible to get a copy of the holy innocents without paying $200 for its first edition copy but somehow, i managed even that.

i’m hesitant to recommend the book because i had such a strange connection to it. let me explain. the year is 1968 and a french brother and sister, guillaume and danielle, true cinephiles, meet an american cinephile named matthew who is studying abroad. he’s seen guillaume and danielle before at the theatre, noticed how pretty danielle is and how “cool” the pair looks. in no time at all, danielle strikes up conversation with matthew and they develop a strange friendship. they find they have a strange love for old black and white movies, often playing with each other and testing their knowledge.

the book takes place at the time of the french uprisings but our three characters for the most part in the book, stay to themselves in since danielle and guillaume’s parents are gone most of the time. they’re mostly watching movies, re-enacting scenes of them together and quizzing each other on them (like a strange truth or dare where if you get the answer wrong, you suffer the punishment of the other person). but the book is difficult to recommend because of the strange incestuous relationship that guillaume and danielle have, and then later, due to the sexual relationship that begins between danielle and matthew.

i fell in love with this idea of three like-minded, curious about life kids learning about life with a revolution as the backdrop. the made-up rules that govern the life of the three characters are taken so seriously but when you consider that this life is something they’ve so accidentally came to live, it’s almost childlike and endearing.

in no way is the whole novel perfect, and in fact, i’ve been told that the reworked version the dreamers is much better since it cuts down on some of the meanderings that adair allows his characters, but the “banal parts” of the novel contrast so well for me to the graphically described sexuality and the violence of the uprisings near the end. having this part missing from the movie made it less believeable and i wanted to believe this story.

it’s quickly become a favourite of mine, though i’ve never recommended it when people have asked because it’s one of the rare books where the kind of person you are and the kinds of dreams and ideas you have, will impact your reading of it. i don’t think i know anyone well enough to be able to guess at all of that.

[Galina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Красива и чувствена книга, която оставя усещането за леко, ненатрапчиво, небрежно писане. Едва в обяснителните бележки става ясно, че това не е истина и че до читателите достига втори, доста преработен вариант.
Фактът, че филмът на Бертолучи със същото име е толкова популярен, не вреди на романа - напротив. За разлика от 90% от случаите, не е проблем ако първо сте се запознали с кино лентата, а след време ви попадне написаното от Гилбърт Адеър. Филмът и книгата успяват някак в пълна симбиоза плавно да вървят заедно, ръка за ръка. Героите, описани с много любов и топлина, оживяват на екрана пълнокръвно, избрани повече от чудесно, за да успеят с други изразни средства да предадат вълнуващите си преживявания.

Като цяло, романът е потопен в особена, плътна атмосфера. Развиващи се в Париж, в края на шестдесетте години от миналия век, действията ни свързват с персонажи, които се намират в началото на ексцентрични търсения. Матю, Изабел и Тео са в гранична възраст, която ги поставя някъде между любопитството на юношеството и изискванията на зрелостта. Водени от обща страст и склонност към експерименти, те бързо се озовават в свой малък, капсулован от действителността свят. В тази отделена от външното ежедневие действителност, има място за общуване, което понякога се нуждае от вербално изразяване, а друг път разчита единствено на плътските нужди. Дните и нощите се сливат в безкрайно сега, поведението им се колебае между театъра на абсурда и полусън-полуистина. Падналите задръжки може и на пръв поглед да смущават, но носят нетрадиционна идея за любовта - лишена от самоличност, вплела в себе си три тела; любов с неприлично проявление, но и с чиста същност.
Отделно от това, авторът вади на преден план идеята, че изкуството е нужно, че то има силата и възможността да влияе и променя. То е способно да направи хората дръзки мечтатели, да ги предизвика в двубой със скритите им самоличности, с онези непознати, други нахални "ние", които стоят погребани зад маските на обикновеното и благоприличното. Когато някой, насилствено отнеме свободата да се обръщаме към изкуството, отделните личности се преобразяват в безкомпромисна, помитаща вълна. Париж не за първи път ще бъде декор на революция. След края на тази, очите на всички ще блестят от осъзнаването, че винаги извоюваното право е стъпило върху тежки, нелепи и излишни загуби:
"В изкривените черти на лицето му те прочетоха страшната истина, че човек не само умира сам, а умира жив".

Препоръчвам!

[Sanja · Rating 2 out of 5]

Očekivala sam više od ove knjige.

S obzirom na sinopsis knjige, očekivala sam da će biti više prikazan incestalni odnos brata i sestre i Metjua koji se nekako nađe tu, a to je, kako se čini, nešto što je usputna radnja knjige. Psihološki profil junaka poprilično odsustvuje.

Nakon što je završen opis incestalnog odnosa, knjiga se bavi događajima u Parizu 1968. Nekako mi to malo zbrda sdola pisano i objašnjeno, te se stvara zbrkana i nepotpuna slika onoga što se desilo.

Kraj mi je bezveze. Nekako na kraju nisam stekla utisak kao da je bilo šta napisano u knjizi bilo važno za knjigu, pa se prosto pitam šta je pisac hteo uraditi sa njom?!

Za kraj, nije mi se svidelo što u knjizi ima dosta francuskih reči, nekih izraza i tekstova pesama za koje, ako ne znaš ovaj jezik, nećeš razumeti značenje (osim ako ne uzmeš rečnik/ne proguglaš). Mislim da je trebalo tu ubaciti fusnote, ako je već želja autora bila da piše na francuskom.

Davno sam odgledala delove ovog filma, za koji sam pročitala da je sam autor rekao da se njegovom voljom razlikuje od knjige i nadala se da će biti nečega što će mi se svideti u knjizi. Film mi tada nije delovao loše, za razliku od knjige. Ali planiram pogledati ceo film i uporediti utiske.

Sve u svemu, ovo je knjiga koja se može zaobići.

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is a finely made sandwich with a piece of rotten meat in the middle. Adair's prose is solid and beautifully crafted enough that it got me through even the most self serving, pompous parts of the story. I was all on board for the dreamy, incestuous threesome part of the book (which is much better than it sounds, trust me) but then suddenly the characters were eating cat food, spewing vomit at each other, before finally smearing poop on themselves like Indian war paint and I had to admit that a level of art house funk had been achieved that I couldn't swallow.

[Eloise McCrohan · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, this book is a must-read classic, an absolutely wonderful piece of literature. It's my go-to when I'm feeling homesick for Paris. Not that the events that transpire here are the ones of your average Parisian day (and thank god) but the characters are exactly the type of wonderful looneys you can meet here. Their particular idiosyncrasies stick with you, and you'l find yourself getting nostalgic about them before the novel is finished.
Prepare yourself to be shocked, disgusted, and to start putting out cigarettes while screaming "He won't die!! He's a Rasputin!!!"

[erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

a testament to the power, in one's heart, of cinema as one of the highest art forms for the modern imagination. brimming with all the elements i like the most in literary fiction, such as illicit relationships, sexual taboos, hedonistic lifestyles and a love for poetry. also, how perfect are actors michael pitt, eva green and louis garrel? they're the reason this novel was written the way it is now.
"They were miracle-prone as others are said to be accident-prone."

[Jelena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prvi slucaj da mi je film bolji od knjige. Mozda zato sto je film rezirao jedan Bertolucci, ne znam... ali nikako da se odbranim od naleta scena iz filma i onda sam ih - naravno - cijelo vrijeme nesvjesno poredila s knjigom, i ispade mi cijela ta prica kod Adera nekako mlaka.

[Pax · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whimsical is a way. Can't explain it but it really drew me into the three main characters lives. Not my usual fare, but well done in a way only certain books are.
If that makes sense.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first incarnation of what would become Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial film The Dreamers, for which Adair wrote the screenplay and then later reworked into a novel of the same name. So basically this was my third experience with this story--I've both watched the film and read the novel several times--and The Holy Innocents is certainly the least of the three, and there's no getting around the fact that in a lot of ways this feels like the first draft of the story. Its best moments (namely, the first third of the novel) are retained in the later versions and many weaker elements were rightly discarded, including a long interlude at the twins's grandmother's estate in Normandy filled with Ouija boards and pretentious aristocratic relatives. Wearing its indebtedness to Cocteau's classic Les enfants terribles on its sleeve, the main problem is that the first act, brimming with cinema, sex and revolutionary politics is so vivid that Adair has nowhere to go but down (Bertolucci was unable overcome this flaw in the film version as well). Not essential reading in any way, and not of any interest to those not already interested in the material, but I quite enjoyed it.

"He was also terrified that he had not properly read the small print of their relationship. He forgot that friendship is a contract in which there can be no small print."

[Ekaterina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Интересна разница между книгой и фильмом. Не так часто, когда читаешь книгу, послужившую основой для фильма, посмотренного перед этим много раз, представляешь героев иначе, чем актеров в экранизации. Хотя Тео, ��ожалуй, сохранился.

[tomlindrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

representación literal del white people are crazy

[Levan Shakulashvili · Rating 4 out of 5]

მე მეთიუ ვარ.