1 When Oedipus Wins: Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers” as Cinematic Critique of Ideological Agnosticism LARASATI OETOMO The most radical form of agnosticism is not oblivion but ignorance. THE UNHOLY INNOCENTS THÉO: I told you something else, remember? That Isa and I are Siamese twins? MATTHEW: Yeah. THÉO: I wasn’t joking. As nonsensical as it sounded to his American friend Matthew (Michael Pitt), Théo (Louis Garrel) was in no mood for anecdote when he said he and his twin sister Isabelle (Eva Green) are Siamese—even without the presence of any physical evidence. The peculiar siblings of The Dreamers had never been separated since birth; there’s nothing about the other half they knew nothing about (and, yes, their masturbation fantasy is no exception). They slept on the same bed, reasoned with the same mind, talked with the same mouth, and they loved each other like they would themselves. They are Siamese—not in a way that they are inseparable—but in a way that they are crippled together. The Dreamers (2003), like most cinematic depictions of the French, is disturbing. Sure thing I haven’t read the novel the film is based on—The Holy Innocents—but I have at least three sound arguments for that. Firstly, the author of the book, Gilbert Adair, also wrote the screenplay for Bertolucci’s work. Secondly, let’s just admit that comparing books to films is only for 12-year old Harry Potter fans. Last but not least, the ―disturbing‖ image I mentioned before precisely refers to Bertolucci’s perverted way of storytelling, which I’d like to break down in the following paragraphs. The Italian director knew for sure what we’d expect from a film set in Paris 1968 and led by two Parisian cinephiles slash students. We can already imagine a hypothetical storyline using that fact only, combined with Bertolucci’s overt political tendency towards Marxism. One may think of an anarchic love story of cinephiles trying to find a way to hack the ever-oppressive system of capitalism. That, I’m afraid, is the hegemonic fantasy most of us had about the film. This judgment crossed my mind when I noticed that the most quoted words from the film are Théo’s heroic phrases: ―Books, not guns. Culture, not violence.‖ Yet the truth is less romantic. The words simply blurted out when Théo was day-