Film is a waking dream. To experience its power is to submerge your mind into another reality, one in which you are not in control of the shifting nature of the world around you. In film theory, this is regarded as the oneiric quality of cinema. But the idea is as old and as crucial as the works of Sigmund Freud, who himself believed that the nature of dreams lies in their ability to dramatise ideas. Even French literary theorist, critic and semiotician Roland Barthes commented on the feeling that spectators have when leaving a theatre: sleepy and drowsy, as if they had just woken up. And while all films carry this ability to an extent, some pull us significantly deeper than others. Some almost seem to be inviting us to forego consciousness altogether and to experience them instead as the last sights and sounds before passing into a state of completely internal exploration. A place where even the reality of the film no longer truly exists but only suggests itself to our minds. These are the movies that transfix us, that pass beyond the barrier of entertainment and draw us into a realm unsullied by anything more than the act of primal creation itself. Also, they make for some pretty good sleep aids, so if that melatonin isn't working out for you...
Eric Day co-hosts the Murderville Podcast at www.welcometomurderville.com
Give it a listen. Five minutes. Maybe you'll dig it. Maybe you'll hate it. But at least you'll have tried something new.
