But it has always happened when the film wasn´t absorbing enough and it is not oneirology that I want to talk about if we understand it as the scientific study of dreams, either from the psychological or Freudian point of view of those successions of images, ideas, emotions and sensations.
What I want to talk about is more about a few ideas on movies most probably inspired by thoughts emerged from the world of dreams.
In 1990, world-famous director Akira Kurosawa made a movie inspired from eight dreams he had had throughout his life probing how this mental activity has been a source for this kind of artist and not only for painters or writers.
Let´s talk a little bit about five of the very best-known movies that were created by or based on human oneiric mental activity, using the most attractive images or tales.
`The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari´, Robert Weine (1920)
This black-and-white expressionist movie is undoubtedly a masterpiece. It is not only visually innovative but it creates a new theatrical atmosphere through the compelling mannerisms of the characters.
The plot, recounting several crimes committed by a sadistic man, reveals his will to manipulate a somnambulist to murder others. So, we are talking about dreams, about abhorrent things that a normal or even a clever mind could conceive while it is asleep.
`The Wizard of Oz´, Victor Fleming (1939)
This is the title of the many celebrated versions of this original Fleming children´s film. Based on a novel that tells what happened to Dorothy Gale, a young girl on a small farm in Kansas whose dull life is disturbed by a tornado that takes her to a new, fantastic land.
The kingdom of Oz, being a part of Dorothy´s dreams, is presented as a fantastic land where the characters she meets -the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion- are in some way actual people from her real life.
This touching and dreamy movie was made for kids but also to be enjoyed by everyone.
`Spellbound´, Alfred Hitchcock (1945)
This thriller starring by Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck brings us the classic procedure of investigating crimes through psychoanalytical methods because it is thought that some massive amnesia and guilt complexes are hiding past events.
The movie starts with a Shakespeare quote that says: `The fault...is not in our stars but in ourselves...´
All the action revolves around the medical staff of a mental hospital, and especially the attitude of its new director who replaces the former that was forced to retire, and his strange disappearance that is supposed a case of murder.
Dreams and their psychological interpretation are presented here as clues to solve the crime. That is why Dr. Petersen -Bergman- uses her psychoanalytical training to dig through eyes, curtains, scissors, a man with no face, a man falling off a building, a man hiding behind a chimney and other mysterious images in a Salvador Dali dream sequence. This and other scenes make it possible to find the solution to the crime.
A well done classic!
This is not, obviously, a dream movie, but it contains all the nostalgic past of the childhood of a village boy whose first love was undoubtedly the seventh art, a dream-making machine for whole the population of a small Sicilian town.
The film is a long flashback from the eighties Rome to Giancaldo´s fifties, the birthplace of the famous Italian film director Salvatore Di Vita, beginning when he is told that Alfredo has died. His girlfriend asks him who he was, and the plot recounts the story of the movie house known as Cinema Paradiso and Giancaldo´s friendship with its projection booth operator.
World War II, the censorship of kisses and embraces, a nitrate film fire, a widowed mother and the faces of people who frequented the cinema, all these are contained in his memories... making peace with the poor past of a Sicilian boy. A memorable movie with memorable music by Ennio Morricone.
`Alice in Wonderland´, Tim Burton (2010)
This movie takes place during a dream, as Alice -the main character- is transported to her own colorful dream world inhabited by worried white rabbits.
This movie by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway, among others, and based on Lewis Carroll´s classic novel, as well as the earlier and memorable animated version by Walt Disney, tells the story of a nineteen-year-old- Alice, who is told that she can restore the White Queen to her throne because she is the only one who can kill the creature that is controlled by the Red Queen and is terrorizing Wonderland´s inhabitants.
Although this 2010 version was only given the `Best Art Direction´ and `Best Costume Design´ awards and nominated for `Best Visual Effects´, it was a very successful film.
The Thanksgiving Turkey
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