Alarm bells should start ringing when we spot a beret-clad femme, a cigarette dangling from a rouged sneer, chained to the gates of a cinema.

She's one of the student revolutionaries outraged at the right-wing French government's sacking of Cinematheque Francaise boss Henri Langlois in early 1968.

The heavy-handed move by a reactionary regime was the catalyst for the French student rebellion - but our heroine's participation in the conflict, for the moment, ends here.

Instead, Isabelle (Green) introduces gauche American Matthew (Pitt) to her moody brother Theo (Garrel), her bohemian English mum (Anna Chancellor) and poet dad (Renucci).

When her parents tootle off to the country, Isabelle and Theo invite the fresh-faced Matthew to move out of his seedy hotel and stay with them at their labyrinthine apartment.

Once installed, the brother and sister, who are closer than you might think healthy, embroil the hapless youngster - a sort of naughty Leonardo DiCaprio - in their sexually charged game play.

One plays out scenes from films and if the other doesn't guess the right movie they have to pay a forfeit.

However, the emotional and sexual temperature is raised when Matthew has to sleep with the incestuous Isabelle when he fails at a game of cinema charades.

Silly rather than sensual, the increasing acreage of firm young flesh on offer is not - as some have claimed - Bertolucci's First Tango in Paris but Melrose Place-plays-naked-Twister.

Painfully self-regarding, the trio are the sort of culturally wacky trustafarians you wouldn't mind being in the middle of a riot police baton charge.

Intercut into the narrative are clips from movies including Robert Bresson's Mouchette and Rouben Mamoulian's Queen Christina which prove a welcome diversion from the self-absorbed protagonists.

Unsurprisingly, their company becomes pretty wearying as they drift around the apartment only vaguely aware of the rioting outside in the street.

Since The Last Emperor, Bertolucci's output has been patchy to say the least and perhaps its time to disappear to that bungalow by the sea.

Tim Evans