My friend and I just completed a mini-marathon
of movie watching. We saw three films
nominated for Best Picture in two days.
I found it so interesting that two of the three had dream sequences.
No need for a spoiler alert. I won’t reveal any secrets or surprises and
ruin your experience if you haven’t seen “Hugo” or “The Artist.”
The dream sequence in “Hugo” is not critical to
the story, but it does provide dramatic insights into the fears of a young boy.
Hugo lives in the enormous clockworks of
a Paris train station in the 1930’s. He
has been orphaned by the death of his father, and abandoned by his ne’er-do-well
uncle.
It’s no wonder then, that Hugo would be
fearful of so many things. And of course
these fears show up in his dream: A
runaway train crashes through just about everything he knows, destroying his
secure, if difficult, life. Ultimately,
he sees himself becoming transformed into a mechanized automaton, much like the
machinery that rules his daily routines.
He awakes as we often do from
images that seize us in our sleep, both terrified and glad to understand that
he’s still himself and his world is intact.
The images of Hugo’s nightmare are made all
the more powerful by the effects of 3D. Moviegoers
are sure to be gripping their armrests, just like dreamers themselves, not
knowing until the end that they were experiencing the dream with Hugo.
In “The Artist,” the lead character, George
Valentin, is the top box office draw of his era: silent films.
As such, he has become arrogant
and spoiled, expecting that he will always have his way. But when he must face the reality of the
coming wave of “talkies,” he can barely keep up appearances of confidence.
George falls asleep to have an unsettling
dream of the world with sound. I’d love
to see the script of the dream sequence.
It was so cleverly done. George’s
dream begins as his life is lived, silently.
Even though the audience knows there must be sound in his world, the
dream suggests that his entire being is wrapped up in silence. That’s how he’s lived after all, certain that
silent movies, the medium he dominates, will go on dominating.
But in his dream, sound creeps in with the tap
of one dancer’s shoes, then two, then a dozen.
He begins to hear their laughter in the streets among the studios’
sets. All manner of sound crashes around
him. Even a feather hits the earth with
a boom. He moves from startled to
confused, then to fearful, and even panicked before he awakes with a start to
the comfort of his silent world.
Not only do these two dream sequences add to
the drama of their respective stories and the audience’s insights into the lead
characters in each story, but they also speak of an integral part of our make
up as human beings: our dreams ~ where
we all have a starring role!
Sweet Dreams to You, Dear Dreamer!
SMYD
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