Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle Between Art and Science

Capa
McFarland, 28 de jun. de 2010 - 209 páginas

Films with dream sequences, or a dreamlike quality, allow directors to create their own rules of logic and nature to meet a variety of artistic needs. For instance, an opening dream immediately establishes what a character is feeling; a later dream--or series of them--provides viewers with a glimpse of the climax, and a concluding dream ties up loose ends. (In real life, of course, dreams do not occur at such convenient times or serve such useful purposes.)

This book explores why science is lost or distorted in the process of representing dreams on film and why audiences prefer this figurative truth of art over the literal truth of science. Part One discusses changes in form and considers the history of dream theory. Additionally, the physiology of sleeping and dreaming, dream structure, sleep deprivation, dreams under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and waking up, as depicted on film, are examined.

Part Two investigates changes in content, and delves into the psychology of sleeping and dreaming, dream interpretation, altered states of consciousness, visions and prophecies, dreams as wish fulfillment, sex and death, nightmares, and reality versus illusion. The author uses theories by Freud, Jung, and current experts in her analyses of dream sequences and their use in film.

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Conteúdo

History of Dream Theory
13
Physiology of Sleeping and Dreaming
21
Dream Structure
29
Sleep Deprivation
37
Dreams Under the Influence
46
Waking Up
54
Creative Differences Changes in Content
65
Psychology of Sleeping and Dreaming
67
Dream Themes Sex and Death
114
Nightmares
126
Dream Elements
138
Dream Symbols
147
Reality vs Illusion
161
Conclusion
178
Filmography
181
Notes
189

Dream Interpretation
73
Altered States of Consciousness
82
Visions and Prophesies
92
Dreams as Wish Fulfillment
103
Bibliography
191
Index
195
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Passagens mais conhecidas

Página 51 - I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was; man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream.
Página 51 - If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended: That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: If you pardon, we will mend.
Página 52 - IN Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree : Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round : And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots...
Página 25 - This preservation of favourable individual differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest.
Página 144 - I've been telling you what we said - repeating the phrases we pronounced, - but what's the good? They were common everyday words, - the familiar, vague sounds exchanged on every waking day of life. But what of that? They had behind them, to my mind, the terrific suggestiveness of words heard in dreams, of phrases spoken in nightmares.
Página 1 - HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Página 95 - When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.
Página 74 - In the pages that follow I shall bring forward proof that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that, if that procedure is employed, every dream reveals itself as a psychical structure which has a meaning and which can be inserted at an assignable point in the mental activities of waking life.
Página 95 - Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.
Página 94 - Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

Referências a este livro

Neil Jordan
Maria Pramaggiore
Visualização parcial - 2008

Sobre o autor (2010)

Writer Leslie Halpern has worked as a columnist for Markee Magazine, film correspondent for The Orlando Sentinel film reviewer for So London Magazine, and stringer for The Hollywood Reporter. She lives in Oviedo, Florida.

Informações bibliográficas