That cinema is uniquely placed to give life to our nocturnal visions was early apparent to filmmakers and by mid-century, the idea that films and dreams speak the same language had entered academia, as psychoanalysis was applied to the study of film. In the same period, modernist filmmakers throughout the world were incorporating dream imagery into their work, offering access on screen to their own psyches.
There is a subset of films which are arguably pure dream from beginning to end, that take place entirely within the dream world. Picnic at Hanging Rock is one brilliant example. This unsettling period film about the disappearance of a party of schoolgirls announces it is based on a real story. But in its most memorable moments its realism is corroded by a dense, dream-like atmosphere that sends us back to the Edgar Allan Poe line recited earlier: “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
This screening will be preceded by a Random Acts short film Dream by James Franco.
Please arrive promptly at the advertised start time
Proof of ID may be requested on entry to films, in compliance with BBFC ratings
