Fox Searchlight initially released an uncut, unrated version in 2004 to about 100 theaters in the United States. This version was withdrawn a few weeks later and replaced by a newly-edited version with an NC-17 rating. (By comparison, the uncut version when released in Italy later that year, was approved for those over age 14.) As an NC-17 rated movie, the film was refused advertising or promotion in most of the newspapers across the country. As a result, the filmmakers had to rely on word of mouth to spread the word. Ultimately, the film grossed only $2.5 million in the United States, about $15 worldwide, which covered its costs but not much else. Fox Searchlight's released the NC-17 DVD in early 2005 -- with the original uncut scenes among the bonus material.

The way the MPAA, the distributors, the newspapers, and the general public responded to this film once again refocused our attention on the issue of full frontal sexuality by both male and female actors in movies, and just "how far" was "appropriate" for the sake of "art."

To be completely vulnerable on the screen and let one's body be exposed to such intimate details is courageous, to say the least, but to pull it off with exceptional acting is brilliant! The relationship between the three main characters is very voyeuristic, and the director puts his three leads through some incredibly intimate moments. Which may have been his point, to again push the boundaries of what is permitted on screen to properly tell a story.

It is said when Eva Green saw a rough cut of the film, she said she was "quite shocked" and had to look away during the sex scenes; she later told an interviewer that for her, "it was as though I was wearing a costume while we were making the film. It was as if I had another story in my mind. So I was left speechless."

Since his three decades ago, film scene with full-frontal male nudity usually can be timed with a stopwatch while those with nude women can be measured with a sundial. Even in "The Full Monty," filmgoers didn't get the full monty -- not even for a split second. Pop-culture observers maintain that's because a de facto sexism still exists in Hollywood, where women can parade around in the altogether but men can't.

The instances of actors in mainstream American movies swinging in the breeze are still very rare: Harvey Keitel has let it all hang out at least twice ("The Piano" and "Bad Lieutenant"); Bruce Willis in 1994's "Color of Night;" Kevin Bacon in 1998's "Wild Things"; and Geoffrey Rush in 2000's "Quills." And then there was the prosthetically-enhanced Mark Wahlberg in 1997's "Boogie Nights." But few others. Meanwhile practically every major female star in America (Julia Roberts and Renee Zellwegger the very vocal exeptions) have at least flashed us a fleeting breast.

When NC-17 supplanted "X" -- mostly because it had been proudly commandeered by the porn industry -- it retained a smutty stigma. Time was, even an X rating wasn't a drawback: John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" won the 1969 best-picture Oscar despite it.

At the time of its release Bertolucci was quoted as hoping The Dreamers might be the watershed that re-opened the ability for major studios to take a chance on more adult fare and not be afraid of the NC-17 rating. Unfortunately, the weak box office of this film confirmed that the disasterous response to Showgirls (1995) was not a fluke. Alas, the American public is just not ready to grow up.