Dream and Cinema

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the use of dream as a visual device in David Lynch's film "Eraserhead" and Nina Menkes' film "The Bloody Child". The paper analyzes Lynch's use of the dreamscape as a means to facilitate symbolic substitution and Menkes' use of the dream concept as a means of actual narrative.

From the Paper:

"Dream and cinema seem to go together. Film has long been considered a type of fantastic representation of what people experience, to one degree or another, when they sleep. Film seems to have the ability to bring dreams to life or to reduce life to the palatable state of a dream. In this light, dream must be understood to be an alternate form of reality; if not physical then certainly conceptual. To better grasp the psychological importance and the subjective realities that dreams, through film, can and do represent, one need look no further than the Native American religions where dreaming is seen as, "a source of personal empowerment"(Irwin, 1994, p.231). Viewed in this light, the utilization of dreams in American cinema and especially in the films of David Lynch and the lesser known Nina Menkes, must be examined from a much more rational and empirical perspective."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Lynch, D. (1977). Eraserhead. American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film Studies.
• Irwin, L. (1994). Dreams, Theory, and Culture: The Plains Vision Quest Paradigm. American Indian Quarterly, 18(2), 229-246.
• Menkes, N. (1996). The Bloody Child. ITVS & The Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
• Nochimson, M. P. (1997). The Passion of David Lynch: Wild at Heart in Hollywood (1st ed.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
• Tasker, Y. (Ed.). (2002). Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers. London: Routledge.

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