The dream screen: an artistic analysis of the representation of dreams in cinema

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1630616 (Table of Contents)

This paper will be a reflection on editing techniques used in film for representing the concept of dream. The correlation between cinematic model and image motif in dreams advocates that film could be the optimal mean for the depiction of nocturnal fantasies. The process that create dreams formulated by Freud can be reproduced by the cinematic apparatus created by the Lumiere brother's in 1895. Montage is one of the elements of film language that allows directors to transpose on the screen what dreams reveal during the night. Through the paper I will analyze how the representation of nocturnal phantasmagorias had changed historically and furthermore how editing techniques develop from 1895 until today. Cinema was always inspired by the images of dreams, and I believe that film is the best medium that have the components for depicting the surreal pictures of dreams. I deem editing techniques have an organic quality that allows us to make dreams visible. I will moreover compare and contrast my own creative output with the works of Federico Fellini and David Lynch, the most famous directors that have visualized dream in films.