Hacker Cinema
Dreams
夢
1990 · Film · 119 min
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Eight visually rich vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams—fox weddings and vanished orchards, a soldier’s ghosts, a walk through Van Gogh’s canvases, nuclear nightmares, and a water-mill utopia—meditate on childhood, art, mortality, and humanity’s uneasy bond with nature.
6 positive2 neutralfrom 8 commenters
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8 comments on Hacker News
Also of note as another film using Van Gogh paintings: The "Crows", from 1990's Dreams movie by Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKSUpyENtwo
From wikipedia: "In "Crows", Vincent van Gogh is portrayed by American filmmaker Martin Scorsese.[8] The segment features Prelude No. 15 in D-flat major ("Raindrop") by Chopin. The visual effects for this segment were provided by George Lucas and his special effects group Industrial Light & Magic. Additionally, it is the only segment in the film wherein the characters do not speak Japanese, but instead English and French."
Coincidentally, check out Kurosawa’s Dreams, an anthology of dreams of his really worth watching.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_(1990_film) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waking_Life are two of my favorite films.
Dreams can be wild, but the writer manufactures their characters from their mind while conscious. The intention and the agency over the creation sets them apart.
I have had only a 1 or 2 lucid dreams, but I couldn't hold the dream state for any appreciable amount of time that I achieved consciousness in the dream world.
I wonder how many writers employ dreams in the creation of characters, if they dream about the stories they write?
It’s strange. I can definitely give you a list of books that made me see the world differently, but I find it much harder to come up with a list of films, even though I tend to enjoy the medium more. Broadly speaking, I keep reflecting on scenes from Tarkovsky, Kurosawa, and Miyazaki films more than any others, even though they’re not necessarily my favorite films. I would recommend Stalker, Dreams, and Mononoke.
There’s also Man on Wire, for both the sheer joy of impossible achievement that it evokes, as well as the beautiful minimalist soundtrack. On reflection, maybe that’s one of the few films I’ve seen that had a different person leaving the theater. The mood of that film is imprinted in my personality.
This is so awesome for someone like me. I have been a Kurasawa fan and almost went through all his movies except for Dreams which I so wanted to see. To get more understanding into the process and imagination, to me is like a treasure land now.
Any new Kurosawa movie is a treasure for me to discover. Dreams also had themes of nuclear holocaust. Quite topical today as the spectre of nuclear armageddon still hovers above.
Kurosawa has a wide range of styles - which is why I like to compare him to Kubrick, although Kurosawa usually stays within Edo period contexts while Kubrick also had a wide range of themes. My favorites so far are Seven Samurais, Yojimbo and Dreams. Don't be afraid of watching one of his films from the 50ies - because of their relatively quick pace, clear themes and modern looking cuts I find them highly enjoyable, not just as an educational experience, but with a genuinely high entertainment value even today. From an educational standpoint it's amazing to see the strong influences he had on Star Wars for example.
Reminds me of the dialogue in Kurosawa's Dreams movie in the part where there is a conversation with an old man in a treadmill village (I wouldn't like night so bright you could not see the stars) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1FIps--PGg