The Dream(ers) of Revolution: A Guest Post by Azzurra Nox

The Dreamers, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, is a provocative film set in Paris at the height of the May 1968 protests in France. A cinephile’s fever dream, it follows three students—equally obsessed with cinema—who retreat into a private world of films, games, and sexual experimentation while revolution rages just beyond their apartment walls.

In my mind, I had always idealized the Sexual Revolution of 1968, a cultural upheaval that challenged traditional authority and championed sex beyond reproduction. At last, sex was being embraced as something to enjoy and explore between two—or more—people, valued for pleasure rather than solely for procreation.

But while much of Europe seemed to embrace this newfound liberation, Sicily felt untouched by it. There, sex remained something reserved strictly for husband and wife, and primarily for the purpose of having children. Even as a new millennium approached, attitudes hadn’t shifted much. When I was a teenager, anyone who had sex risked being labeled “easy” or a “slut.” Virginity was treated like a badge of honor—something to guard fiercely and surrender only after marriage.

In the town where I spent my teenage years, dating came with an unspoken contract, it was meant to lead to marriage.

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