The Dreamer is a beautiful French film I am stuck with. I remember I got into some random screen at BIFFES after being excluded from a long queue for a known film. But at the end of this small, well-crafted film I was so elated! I don’t know how could the subject matter and the characterization merge into one in a film as in Anaïs Tellenne’s debut feature The Dreamer. TD is a piece of art. I wasn’t surprised to know our hero Raphael co-wrote the script. Raphaël Thiéry’s full-on natural persona as Rahphel consumes The Dreamer as a whole. The plot is immaterial as The Dreamer hazes the borders of art and life.
Some people around us are invisible to the world. Raphael is no different. His old mother is a cynic. He bears her rants and attends to her. At 58, he finds himself a loser with a cyclopean physique and one-eyed eye. Apart from guarding the manor, he has a few things to do in life. One is music. His bagpipe rehearsals are very amusing. Next is a bit forced thing. He has occasional sex with the only post-woman in that lonely forest area. Marie-Christine Orry is the actress. A quick and witty presence. Can’t forget her expression when she proposes to Raphael. What a clean, honest reply was that! Raphael may be reserved but never acts.
The radical change comes to Raphael’s life with the entry of the mansion heiress and artist Garance (Emmanuelle Devos) goes beyond words. The moment he realizes he is her art inspiration The Blue Lady becomes his fantasy. His first, pure love. He is a dreamer. He grooms himself and turns possessive. He waits for Garance’s orders. She gets everything extra whether unnoticed love and care or white clay. Raphael now looks in the mirror and smiles at his new self. I can’t say how immersed we are with him. Every emotion of Raphael starts ruling us. I was never after the contemporary artist Garance until her object artistically and cleverly tempted her one night. In the next shot when Raphael wakes up from his dream, my eyes were moist.