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Dreams (1990); Akira Kurosawa
Topic Started: Jan 30 2008, 08:12 PM (275 Views)
Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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I saw this a few days ago at the Belcourt and it was a film, I could tell by the slight wear and tear, especially at the reel changes. The movie had a touch of Hollywood and a treat that could only be appreciated on a big screen, but more on those points later.
The movie is based on actual dreams by Akira and are filmed as several vignettes with their own titles, yet a few of them segue into the next dream. After the first 2 dreams, I noticed the central characters are all carrying a backpack or knapsack, a nice touch. Too bad I didn't notice this until the third segment.

The first dream is entitled Sunshine Through The Rain. A young boy wants to go out playing in the rain (And yes, the sun is shining) against his mother's wishes. She tells the boy that foxes get married when it rains because they want nobody to see. The boy goes and runs into a procession of foxes, actually Japanese folks in oriental garb complete with whiskers and round, brown noses. The boy gets in a pickle, but I'll not tell ya if its dill or sweet, and this is a dream that segues into the next dream with the boy still being the focal point.
I had a difference of opinion from something I read about The Blizzard. Four mountain climbers are roped together as they struggle to walk through a blizzard in a snow laden valley. The men have been going for days but can't find their camp. The point man, or leader, wants to keep going, but one-by-one, the other three can't go on and they succumb to sleep. The point man can't wake the men, then he too falls asleep. Then....hell, I aint gonna tell ya the whole story, or it wouldn't do ya any good to see the movie!
There are dreams of a man in an art gallery viewing paintings by Van Gogh, an anti war dream and an anti nuclear dream. The finale is a dream of simplicity yet it is anything but.

Stony's favorite scenes: Hollywood and the Big screen. During the Van Gogh dream, the gallery patron is transported into Van Gogh's paintings. The close-ups of the paintings show the hills and valleys of some of the paint, and I couldn't imagine them looking any better than on the big screen. The Hollywood part you ask. It's Martin Scorsese portraying Van Gogh. The patron stumbles upon the painter, who is wearing a cloth wrapped around his head, under his chin, around his ears and tied on the top. Scorsese says, not verbatim mind ya, "you know, I was doing a self portrait and I couldn't get the ear quite right, so I cut it off!"

I give it 5 bong hits out of five. Man, I'm passin' out fives, like a basketball team with a 30 point lead.
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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panzer the great & terrible
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Agreed; it's one of the great head pictures.

Seems like ol' Kurosawa got around.

Incidentally, Stoner, did ya ever see the movie HEAD?
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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I've never seen Head. I've seen clips and it looks to me to be a LSD movie. Been there, done that, in my 20's. 'Fraid it'd kill me now a days though.

I didn't think of Dreams as a "head" picture, but reflecting on it, I can see that it would be.

What did you think of the "thing" (I don't want to give too much away) in The Blizzard? Good or evil?

Where ya been Paul? On the campaign trail ala Hunter S Thompson????
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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Laughing Gravy
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Head, starring the Monkees, is... Well, it's got Annette Funicello and Sonny Liston in the cast. How can it not be worth seeing? I find it too weird to really be enjoyable, but it has its moments. Best scene: Micky in a tank, blowing up a Coke machine in the desert. Best song: Circle Sky. Best cameo: Jack Nicholson.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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I've put this on my Netflix queue....I mean hell, I've seen L' Age D'Or, and it CAN NOT get ant stranger than that!
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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panzer the great & terrible
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How'd you like it?
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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panzer the great & terrible
Feb 1 2008, 10:22 AM
How'd you like it?


Okay, I guess this means L'Age D'Or....and if it does, my reply is:Man that was some weird shit!!! I don't mean like, oh, that was weird....I mean, F*CKIN' WEIRD SHIT...but I enjoyed it though. It's sold as a love story, or as a story of repressed love. BULLSHIT.....Bunuel made a weird assed movie, plain and simple. After this thought, I watched the film with the commentary and it very much solidified what I thought.

Bunuel hated the fact the Bourgeoisie loved his and Dali's Un Chien Andalou, so Bunuel decided to let the weirdness rip.

All that being said....I should have The Brute in my mailbox right now :lol: I'll see when I get home from work.
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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Clifford, have you seen Dreams?
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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