Topic Question
Added 2022-07-13 23:56:20 +0000 UTCFavorite dream sequence in a film and why?
Comments
The dream sequence in Stalker when they take a nap in the Zone is on of the most hypnotizing scenes on film. Aided by Artemyev's score, Tarkovsky proves once again he is a master in visual storytelling.
Dan L
2022-07-16 05:44:21 +0000 UTCFuck I love that bit. Absolutely perfect ending to one of my favorite movies of all time.
Tyler Shobe
2022-07-14 23:12:24 +0000 UTCCan I say all of Eraserhead?
buenDisk
2022-07-14 20:43:06 +0000 UTCThough its more of a nightmare, <i>Vertigo</i> (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)) seems the most obvious to me. Maybe too obvious, but I love it nonetheless. The editing, the colors, the great Bernard Herrmann score, the imagery. It gives the watcher so much to sink their teeth into if they're watching the film for the first time or for the 100th time. Such a wonderful scene.
Nathan Jones
2022-07-14 17:53:49 +0000 UTCI've always liked the dream sequence in Bunuel's Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned in English). This film is modeled on Italian Neorealist films like De Sica's Bicycle Thieves but has elements of his earlier surrealist movies like Un chien andalu. The dream sequence shows one of the characters, Pedro, who has a lot of guilt related to past events that he could not control, dreaming about his strained relationship with his mother and some of the other neighborhood boys. This sequence is very effective because it provides insight into his internal reality as it breaks with a purely outside view of the character that you expect to experience from the Neorealist perspective. It really forces you to identify with Pedro and brings Bunuel's critique of social poverty and the hopelessness of fate into perspective.
Edward Eiffler
2022-07-14 17:05:28 +0000 UTCThe very surreal THE SWIMMER (1968, with Burt Lancaster) is really an entire dream sequence, slowly turning into a nightmare. It's way ahead of its time, and it was haunting me for days after I first watched it. A must see cult movie!
FlyingWaffle
2022-07-14 14:45:20 +0000 UTCAlmost any dream segment in Paprika would be good enough, I'll choose the bit from 1:03:00 to 1:05:56, it is such a weird, compelling and multi-layered scene.
Ross Skilton
2022-07-14 10:07:37 +0000 UTCThinking about this at all, there are so, so many. The Dali designed sequence in 'Spellbound,' the sequence in 'Rosemary's Baby' that turns out to not be a dream at all (Polanski using naked old people to full-effect, which is vastly preferable to what he did with naked young people), 'Blade Runner,' all of the dreams in 'Wild Strawberries.' 'The Wizard of Oz' is the obvious answer, I suppose. But, I'll go with the opening traffic jam sequence from '8 1/2.' Dream sequences can so easily be hokey or even lazy shortcuts, and it's particularly cheeky to open a film with one. Instead of a cop out, though, Fellini has definitely shown and not told. Without yet knowing the details of Guido's life and predicament, we are given a huge amount of information in a very short amount of time. Unless a viewer is especially savvy and has their Jungian dream interpretation cap on, the opening is going to be inscrutable, for most, on first viewing. The set-piece, though, expresses Guido's struggles—which are not, when diving into the details, exactly universal—in terms with which most can identify. Countless thousands of words have been dedicated to not just the film, but that sequence. Also, one can easily find the maestro himself breaking it down in his own words. I'm not going to do it justice here. That said... '8 1/2' is a mini-miracle as in virtually any other filmmaker's hands it would probably have been a monumental disaster. The sheer chutzpah in hoping an audience will sympathize with an adulterous protagonist who—in the wake of an enormous success that many would be all too pleased to have experienced even once—finds himself coming up short creatively as he wrestles with turning 40 (all while convalescing at a big fancy spa), is impressive. His anxieties and frustrations, even if only (appropriately enough) subconsciously at first, are made comprehensible thanks to that arresting, fairly hilarious, and disquieting opening.
Matt Quigley
2022-07-14 09:49:26 +0000 UTCThe musical dream sequence at the end of La La Land. It puts a brilliant new spin on the fantasy dance scenes from Gene Kelly films by telling an alternate version of the film's plot where everything goes right for Mia and Sebastian like a Hollywood fairy tale. Most people I've talked to ding the film because they don't actually end up together but that's what makes the dream so poignant. It shows a self awareness of the audience's expectations for the happily ever after ending and tells us through just visuals, music, and dance that life doesn't always work that way which makes their final goodbye in the jazz club all the more powerful. It's nothing short of visual poetry.
Wolfman Brandon
2022-07-14 06:02:35 +0000 UTCHopefully this counts - the Unicorn dream from "Blade Runner." Knowing that this wasn't in the original cut, it amazes me just how much this short dream adds to the film. Not only is it mesmerizing, absorbing, and blends in perfectly with the rest of the movie, but it essentially opens the door for themes and ambiguity at the end. I know it was mentioned a few months ago on this channel that "Blade Runner" is "style over substance." And even if that remains true, this dream sequence added a whole lot more SUBSTANCE to the film in my opinion.
Christopher Cassara
2022-07-14 05:27:17 +0000 UTCI’d have to go with the samurai fight scene in Brazil. It’s beautiful looking with the German expressionist set and elaborate costumes. It also definitely has that Gilliam humor/camp that we know and love. But like dreams, it’s an absurd and fantastical manifestation of our unconscious desires, which for this character is to be free of his daily grind in an unjust society. Brazil’s many dream sequences make it much more interesting than a straightforward adaptation of 1984 ever could be.
Jackson Littlewood
2022-07-14 01:15:51 +0000 UTCI thought about doing the "Diner Scene" as my pick but then had the same thought as you given the entire movie feels like one extended dream sequence.
Stephen
2022-07-14 00:53:26 +0000 UTCThe Big Lebowski For me, nothing really beats the bowling themed dream sequence with the Dude dancing to “Just Dropped In” by Kenny Rogers and The First Edition. It’s one of the funniest scenes in the movie featuring a hilarious mock movie title card, Saddam Hussein giving the Dude his bowling shoes, and Julianne Moore heading a group of Viking women in a dance number reminiscent of a Busby Berkeley film. Also who could forget, it’s capped off with the Nihilists dressed in red jumpsuits chasing the Dude with giant scissors. This dude definitely abides.
Stephen
2022-07-14 00:38:13 +0000 UTCIt has to be something from Lynch. It's probably arguable whether or not this is a dream sequence or not but Club Silencio is probably my favorite sequence in cinema, dream or not. It so beautifully encapsulates Lynchs filmmaking philosophy, exposing the manipulation of the medium in a way that ALWAYS makes my mouth go agape. And of course you have Rebekah Del Rio's amazing voice which is just the cherry on the top of an incredible cake. Love it!
Tyler Shobe
2022-07-14 00:15:06 +0000 UTC
