The topic of dreams has come up here many a time... I was wondering, what are your favorite approximations of this state on film? I don't mean dreamlike (although for that, Angel's Egg and Aeon take the cake), but scenes where the chara. is "actually" dreaming. My favorite so far has to be "Didn't You Hear". The movie is basically one big dream sequence; not a Hollywood one, but one of those chaotic, ambiguous, late-night snack induced dreams we've all had. Miniature burning buildings, incredibly bizarre dialogue, Prince Chicken and "Happy Birthday World Day"... sadly out of print, but unknownmovies.com can tell you more about this wonderful film.

I also enjoyed the ones on an early Star Trek: TNG episode, "Night Terrors"... Nightmares are really messages from aliens! Who'da thunk it? :-) Actually a pretty good metaphor from Roddenberry and co. And yes, it did creep me out as a kid.

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), September 27, 2001

Answers

I have seen Brazil about 3 times and I still don't really know what it is about. The movie is filled with dream sequences, but watching it is also like exeriencing a dream. You know, you suddenly find yourself seeing or experiencing something and you don't know how you got there, and retracing your steps doesn't seem to work.

-- Logo (vosepherus@aol.com), September 28, 2001.

12 Monkeys. Beautiful and tragic with very haunting music.

-- Dr. Razzmatazz (boogiebaby37@yahoo.com), September 28, 2001.

Actually, probably almost any Terry Gilliam movie.

-- Logo (vosepherus@aol.com), September 29, 2001.

One of my fave dreams in film is actually from the old Twilight Zone series, and it is called "Perchance to dream" about a man with a heart condition, who keeps dreaming of a beautiful girl with cat like eyes and daredevil ways. Of course the big problem is that the excitement (so to speak) of dying in the dream will kill him. To quote from the Twilight Zone site on the net by Lauren@vortext "The last time he went to sleep, he ended up in a rollercoaster with this mystery woman. He knows that if he goes back to sleep,the dream will continue, she will push him out, and that will finish him, both in the dream and in reality. This episode involves several "layers" of reality and is a nice one".

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), September 30, 2001.

Good grief! I just found out that Shari Goodhartz, who worked on the first long AF episode, wrote the story for Night Terrors. Who'd have thought that my favorite Star Trek ep was written by a Flux person?

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), October 12, 2001.

Within a week recently I saw the movies "Waking Life" and "Mulholland Drive"...definitely a pair that compliment each other and should be watched together. Both deal with dreams (and depending on how you look at them, can both be interpreted as entirely dream sequence). "Waking Life" deals more with the philospohy and theories behind dreams, while "Mulholland Drive" attempts more to recreate the confusion and beauty of a dream (and also the fear of a nightmare). They are both now two of my favorite films, along with Dark City, another dreamlike masterpiece. Other movies dealing with dreams worth seeing: Picnic at Hanging Rock Pi Brazil (already mentioned by someone) City of Lost Children

-- PolishQ (nsa656@aol.com), December 06, 2001.