The Innocents is Bertolucci's nostalgic reverie of the Past, Present, and Future.

Bertolucci dreamily reminisces of youths who long to experience new sensations of freedom unknown to them.

Underlying his dream, The Innocents depicts youths imitating art imitating youths, a powerful, universal cycle which revolves without end, propelling the revolutions that fuel humanity forward.

Although Bertolucci stages the film in 1968 Paris, he allows the essence of the film to meander wistfully from the revolutionary past as we gleefully remember it, to the present life as we dolefully (and regrettably) live it, and forward to the unknown future that brims with exciting possibilities of new revolutions.

His gives us three innocent youths desiring to plow forward into a hypnotic New World that titillates their senses and intellect.

However, the inexperienced innocents become overwhelmed by the raging life encompassing them; they lock themselves away, creating a dream world which enables them to safely explore New World ideals without affecting their innocence.

Their self-exilement turns revolutionary as they act upon exactly what they feel; abandoning Old World traditions, they allow their innocence to transform itself into experience, and they leave their dream-world behind.

Bertolucci reflects upon these sensory moments by injecting into the film snatches of real breakthrough European films, music, and sexual explicitness that inspired European youths to break away from Old World traditions. These films and songs captured moments of pure sensory freedom unimcumbered by afterward consequences.

As youths do in reality, the three innocents on screen embrace these "controversial" films and songs, and delight in their awakening sexuality. They desire to "experience" the exuberance exhibited in the films and music, without a care for the real impact of their actions.

These films and songs capture sensory moments without definitive endings, and the three innocents capture sensory-sexual moments without being tangled up in the consequences.

The Innocents becomes a piece of revolutionary nostalgia for all viewers: viewers who delightfully consume the novelty of the cinematic experience and viewers who condemn the film; the ultimate consequence occurs: the film is pushed into the cycle of youths imitating art imitating youths...