Film is a Dream

Movies are beautiful. Literature comes close, but it cannot visualize humanity like film can. Take the mind for example: we think abstractly, with ideas that don’t always connect and images that don’t always make sense. How can a book transport us into that elusive, macabre subconscious?

Quick – think of something. Not just anything, though; make it a memory, a dream or a nightmare you’ve experienced. How do you imagine it? Which symbols, colors, or sounds are associated with the image? When someone reaches into their mind and pulls out what they’re thinking and attempts to recreate it through art, they are using surrealism.

Surrealism is an artist’s attempt the recreate what happens in the subconscious, such as dreams and nightmares. I believe it is as fundamental to a film as diction is to a novel. Each serves to exploit the primary conduits of their medium – the image and the sentence, respectively. Why shoot a movie with people interacting as they might in reality when you can use the power of film to convey how we think of these interactions on a subconscious level? For example, take a story of heartbreak: a couple’s relationship just isn’t working anymore. If you’ve lived even just a decade, you probably know how this plot will go down: lots of crying, begging, and struggling to live without a companion. We hear about heartbreak and feeling lost constantly in life. However, what if those notions – heartbreak, feeling lost – were literal? Maybe the woman in the preceding relationship dreams of her heart actually breaking, or the man visualizes his life without the girl as a desolate wasteland. How could you exploit these irrational thoughts on the screen? We would be surreal, of course.

Surrealism began in 1920’s Europe with artists like Salvador Dali, Max Ernst and Rene Magritte. Have you ever seen that painting with the melting clocks or that one with the green apple hiding a man’s face? Those are both very surreal images. The style entered the cinema shortly after, and the first surrealist film, Luis Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou, was released in 1929. The picture was one of many abstract films created in Germany and France during this period. Amidst the peril of World War II, many surrealist artists immigrated to the United States. Their influence was direct; Dali collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on his film Spellbound from 1945.

Today, surrealism takes many forms and ranges from fantastical to disturbing. In regards to the former, Director Tim Burton is a leader in surreal filmmaking. Maybe you have seen one of his films and been struck by its visual flair and excess of imagination. Whether it’s an exaggerated suburbia (Edward Scissorhands) or a world in which nothing makes sense (Alice in Wonderland), the settings of his films feel off-kilter and dreamlike. He is obviously not the only surrealist filmmaker, although he might be the most accessible for contemporary audiences.

David Lynch, creator of Twin Peaks, stands at the opposite end of the spectrum. He led the surrealist movement in America for decades starting in the 1970’s with Eraserhead. He also created Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire – each with a macabre undercurrent. People do not act rationally in these films; they act as if they’re in a dream. This quality gives Lynch’s films a unique character from most mainstream movies and exemplifies what makes surrealism special in cinema.

Now, you’re probably thinking: I’ve seen none of these movies! And that’s perfectly fine. Surrealism is certainly not popular among teens, or even adults for that matter. It goes against the clear-cut narratives audiences are used to seeing and requires greater attention on the part of the viewer. The truth is, sometimes people have legitimate reasons for not venturing outside blockbusters and straightforward dramas or comedies.

Surrealist films commonly utilize suggestive topics or images – murder, torture, depression, drug use, sex, nudity, and criticisms on organized religion or government – to create a vision. The problem is that the average moviegoer has little tolerance toward excessive levels of any of these qualities, which leads them to disregard a film entirely. Take the recent film by Darren Aronofksy, mother! (I guarantee you haven’t seen it). It follows a couple in a house who receive visitors. That’s it. However, the director manages to weave an allegory through this flimsy plotline and create a violent, gory, exploitative surrealist work of art in the process.

Moviegoers gave it an average rating of F (Washington Post).

Aside from being provocative, the film was also marketed as a horror film – a label that barely fits the picture. This attempt to mask the true nature of mother! illustrates the fear modern audiences have of strange, artsy, surrealist films. It saddens me to think that this is the only way an unconventional film can be packaged for a wide audience and is an omen for a dark future in film: an industry without experimentation.

Surrealism is such an integral part of what film is that not appreciating it is like repressing our thoughts, dreams, and nightmares. Each is integral to our being, and the moving picture is the perfect medium to capture these oddities. Even if you think this might not be your cup of tea, give it a try, whether it’s now or in a few years. Regardless of when you explore the subconscious, it is always an interesting place to go.