Films and Dreams

Tarkovsky, Bergman, Sokurov, Kubrick, and Wong Kar-Wai

By (author) Thorsten Botz-Bornstein

Publication date:

21 August 2008

Length of book:

176 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739121887

Films and Dreams considers the essential link between films and the world of dreams. To discuss dream theory in the context of film studies means moving from the original, clinical context within which dream theory was originally developed to an environment established by primarily aesthetic concerns. Botz-Bornstein deals with dreams as 'self-sufficient' phenomena that are interesting not because of their contents but because of the 'dreamtense' through which they deploy their being. A diverse selection of films are examined in this light: Tarkovsky's anti-realism exploring the domain of the improbable between symbolization, representation and alienation; Sokurov's subversive attacks on the modern image ideology; Arthur Schnitzler's shifting of the familiar to the uncanny and Kubrick's avoidance of this structural model in Eyes Wide Shut; and Wong Kar-Wai's dreamlike panorama of parodied capitalism.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Dreamtense and the Art of Film
Chapter 2 Chapter 1. From Formalist Ostranenie to Tarkovsky's 'Logic of Dreams'
Chapter 3 Chapter 2. Space and Dream: Heidegger's, Tarkovsky's, and Caspar David Friedrich's Landscapes
Chapter 4 Chapter 3. On the Blurring of Lines: Alexander Sokurov
Chapter 5 Chapter 4. Ingmar Bergman and Dream After Freud
Chapter 6 Chapter 5. A Short Note on Nordic Culture and Dreams
Chapter 7 Chapter 6. From "Ethno-Dream" to Hollywood: Schnitzler's Traumnovelle, Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, and the Problem of "Deterritorialization"
Chapter 8 Chapter 7. Wong Kar-wai and the Culture of the Kawaii
Chapter 9 Chapter 8. Aesthetics and Mysticism: Plotinus, Tarkovsky and the Questions of 'Grace'
Chapter 10 Chapter 9. Image and Allegory: Tarkovsky and Benjamin
Chapter 11 Chapter 10. Ten Keywords Concerning Filmdream: Surrealism, Expressionism, Superimposition, Daydream, The Uncanny, Dream Transfers, Dream Colors, Dream Realism, Dream Rituals, Dream Certitudes

[Botz-Bornstein] displays a masterful degree of familiarity and understanding, not only of the concept in question but also of the concept's historical relativity....Film and Dreams contains a great deal of vital argument, which for formalist and psychoanalytic scholars of film should provide a great deal of impetus for much needed discussion.