Oneiric (film theory)
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| - | {{Template}} | + | {{Template}}In a [[film theory]] context, the term '''oneiric''' (which means "pertaining to [[dream|dream]]") is used to refer the depiction of dream-like states in films, or to the use of the metaphor of a dream or the dream-state to analyze a film. The connection between dreams and films has been long established; "The dream factory" “...has become a household expression for the film industry”. The dream metaphor for film viewing is “one of the most persistent metaphors in both classical and modern film theory”, and it is used by film theorists using Freudian, non-Freudian, and semiotic analytical frameworks. |
| - | In a [[film theory]] context, the term '''oneiric''' (which means "pertaining to [[dreams|dream]]") is used to refer the depiction of dream-like states in films, or to the use of the metaphor of a dream or the dream-state to analyze a film. The connection between dreams and films has been long established; "The dream factory" “...has become a household expression for the film industry”<ref>Marinelli, Lydia "Screening Wish Theories: Dream Psychologies and Early Cinema." Science in Context (2006), 19: 87-110</ref>. The dream metaphor for film viewing is “one of the most persistent metaphors in both classical and modern film theory”<ref>Laura Rascaroli. ''Like a Dream: A Critical History of the Oneiric Metaphor in Film Theory.'' Fall 2002. http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/rasc022.htm</ref>, and it is used by film theorists using Freudian, non-Freudian, and semiotic analytical frameworks. | + | |
| - | Filmmakers noted for their use of oneiric or dreamlike elements in their films include [[Luis Buñuel]] <ref>Reia-Baptista, Vitor. THE HERETICAL PEDAGOGY OF LUIS BUÑUEL: a study of the pedagogical character of the heresies and moralities in the cinema of Luis Buñuel. Spring, 1987 http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:hzcEVwuecHwJ:www.bocc.ubi.pt/pag/_texto.php</ref>, [[Wojciech Has]] <ref>University of Florida Professor Chris Caes’ ENG 4133 course on Polish Science Fiction and Fantasy – Films, Fiction, Artwork refers to Has as an oneiric filmmaker. Course description available at: http://web.english.ufl.edu/courses/undergrad/2005fall_up-d.html | + | Filmmakers noted for their use of oneiric or dreamlike elements in their films include [[Luis Buñuel]], [[Wojciech Has]], [[Marx Brothers|the Marx Brothers]], [[Andrei Tarkovsky]], [[Lars von Trier]], [[Krzysztof Kieslowski]] (e.g., ''[[The Double Life of Véronique]]'') and [[David Lynch]] (e.g., ''[[Mulholland Drive (film)|Mulholland Drive]]''). Film genres or styles noted for their use of oneiric elements include [[film noir]] and [[surrealism|surrealist film]]s. |
| - | </ref>, [[Andrei Tarkovsky]] <ref>Petric, Vlada. 'Tarkovski's Dream Imagery', Film Quarterly, v. 43, 2 (Winter 89/90), pp. 28-34.</ref> , [[Lars von Trier]] <ref>Lars von Trier | + | |
| - | by Jack Stevenson (London: BFI Publications, 2002) Book Review by Mette Hjort, which states that “von Trier's first feature, the haunting and oneiric film noir entitled The Element of Crime (1984), won the Prix Technique at Cannes in 1984". Available at: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/books/03/24/von_trier.html</ref> [[Krzysztof Kieslowski]] (e.g., ''[[The Double Life of Véronique]]'' from 1991) | + | The French surrealist playwright and director [[Antonin Artaud]] argued that the American [[burlesque]] genre, with its bizarre, lush costumes, and its mixture of dancing girls, comedians, mime artists and striptease artists, has oneiric qualities. |
| - | <ref>Corin Depper of the University of East Anglia, UK calls Kieslowski's ''[[The Double Life of Véronique]]'' "swooningly oneiric" in Depper's review of ''The Films of Krzysztof Kieslowski: The Liminal Image,'' by Joseph G. Kickasola. Continuum: New York, 2004. ISBN 0-8264-1559-8. 332pp. £12.99. Depper's review is in ''Scope'' a peer-reviewed online journal of the Institute of Film & Television Studies at the University of Nottingham. Available at: http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:idE1HyO1SWoJ:www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/bookreview.php%3Fissue%3D4%26id%3D102+filmmakers+oneiric&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=35</ref>and [[David Lynch]] (e.g., ''[[Mulholland Drive (film)|Mulholland Drive]]'')<ref> Bulkeley, Kelly "Dreaming and the cinema of David Lynch." Dreaming. Vol 13(1), Mar 2003, pp. 49-60.</ref>. Film genres or styles noted for their use of oneiric elements include 1940s and 1950s [[film noir]] and [[surrealism|surrealist film]]s; moreover, oneiric elements have also been noted in [[musical film|musical]]s, thriller and [[horror film]]s and in comic films such as [[Marx Brothers]] movies <ref>Ado Kyrou. ''Le surréalisme au cinéma'' (1963), cited by Laura Rascaroli in ''Like a Dream: A Critical History of the Oneiric Metaphor | + | ==History== |
| - | in Film Theory''. Fall 2002. http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/rasc022.htm</ref>. The French surrealist playwright and director [[Antonin Artaud]] argued that the American [[burlesque]] genre, with its bizarre, lush costumes, and its mixture of dancing girls, comedians, mime artists and striptease artists, has oneiric qualities<ref>Laura Rascaroli. ''Like a Dream: A Critical History of the Oneiric Metaphor in Film Theory.'' Fall 2002. http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/rasc022.htm</ref>.{{GFDL}} | + | Early film theorists such as [[Ricciotto Canudo]] (1879-1923) [[Jean Epstein]] (1897-1953) argued that films had a dreamlike quality. Raymond Bellour and Guy Rosolato made psychoanalytical analogies between films and the dream state, and claimed that films have a ‘latent’ content that can be psychoanalyzed as if it were a dream. Italian film director [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]] argued that dreams carry messages using a common store of signs. Lydia Marinelli states that before the 1930s, psychoanalysts “...primarily attempted to apply the interpretative schemata found in [[Sigmund Freud]]'s ''[[Interpretation of Dreams]]'' to films.” More recently, Robert Eberwein has “...cull[ed] dream scenes from the entirety of cinematic history” to establish “...the validity of psychoanalytic terminology in the form of a taxonomy.” |
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| + | Another way that films and dreams are connected in psychological analysis is by examining the interaction between the cinema exhibition process and the passive spectator. [[Roland Barthes]], a French literary critic and semiotician, described film spectators as being in a “para-oneiric” state, feeling “...sleepy and drowsy as if they had just woken up” when a film ends. Similarly, the French surrealist [[André Breton]] argues that film viewers enter a state between being “...awake and falling asleep,” what French filmmaker [[René Clair]] called a “dreamlike state.” [[Edgar Morin]]'s ''Le cinéma ou l'homme imaginaire'' (1956) and [[Jean Mitry]]'s first volume of ''Esthétique et psychologie du cinéma'' (1963) also discuss the connection between films and the dream state. | ||
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| + | In the 2000s, a graduate-level comparative literature course on oneiric aspects of film, entitled ''Dreamworks: Literature, Film, and the Oneiric'', is being taught at the University of Western Ontario by Paul Coates. Coates’ course assesses the “...widespread habit of comparing certain filmic and literary works to dreams” by examining “literary and filmic works usually described as having an ‘oneiric' quality,” including [[Mary Shelley]]'s ''Frankenstein''; [[Victor Erice]]'s The ''Spirit of the Beehive''; [[August Strindberg]]'s ''A Dream Play''; [[Ingmar Bergman]]'s ''[[Cries and Whispers]]''; [[Jean Cocteau]]'s ''Orphée''; [[Paul Leni]]'s ''Waxworks''; poems by [[Emily Dickinson]] and by Polish Symbolist [[Bolesław Leśmian]]. | ||
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| + | == See also== | ||
| + | *[[Dream art]] | ||
| + | == References == | ||
| + | *"[[Kyrou]] has recognised traces of oneirism not only in experimental cinema, but also in the musical, thriller, horror, and in much comic cinema (for instance, the Marx Brothers, Helzapoppin, and Jerry Lewis)." | ||
| + | *Ado Kyrou. ''Le surréalisme au cinéma'' (1963), cited by Laura Rascaroli in ''Like a Dream: A Critical History of the Oneiric Metaphor in Film Theory''. Fall 2002. http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/rasc022.htm .{{GFDL}} | ||
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Filmmakers noted for their use of oneiric or dreamlike elements in their films include Luis Buñuel, Wojciech Has, the Marx Brothers, Andrei Tarkovsky, Lars von Trier, Krzysztof Kieslowski (e.g., The Double Life of Véronique) and David Lynch (e.g., Mulholland Drive). Film genres or styles noted for their use of oneiric elements include film noir and surrealist films.
The French surrealist playwright and director Antonin Artaud argued that the American burlesque genre, with its bizarre, lush costumes, and its mixture of dancing girls, comedians, mime artists and striptease artists, has oneiric qualities.
History
Early film theorists such as Ricciotto Canudo (1879-1923) Jean Epstein (1897-1953) argued that films had a dreamlike quality. Raymond Bellour and Guy Rosolato made psychoanalytical analogies between films and the dream state, and claimed that films have a ‘latent’ content that can be psychoanalyzed as if it were a dream. Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini argued that dreams carry messages using a common store of signs. Lydia Marinelli states that before the 1930s, psychoanalysts “...primarily attempted to apply the interpretative schemata found in Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams to films.” More recently, Robert Eberwein has “...cull[ed] dream scenes from the entirety of cinematic history” to establish “...the validity of psychoanalytic terminology in the form of a taxonomy.”
Another way that films and dreams are connected in psychological analysis is by examining the interaction between the cinema exhibition process and the passive spectator. Roland Barthes, a French literary critic and semiotician, described film spectators as being in a “para-oneiric” state, feeling “...sleepy and drowsy as if they had just woken up” when a film ends. Similarly, the French surrealist André Breton argues that film viewers enter a state between being “...awake and falling asleep,” what French filmmaker René Clair called a “dreamlike state.” Edgar Morin's Le cinéma ou l'homme imaginaire (1956) and Jean Mitry's first volume of Esthétique et psychologie du cinéma (1963) also discuss the connection between films and the dream state.
In the 2000s, a graduate-level comparative literature course on oneiric aspects of film, entitled Dreamworks: Literature, Film, and the Oneiric, is being taught at the University of Western Ontario by Paul Coates. Coates’ course assesses the “...widespread habit of comparing certain filmic and literary works to dreams” by examining “literary and filmic works usually described as having an ‘oneiric' quality,” including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Victor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive; August Strindberg's A Dream Play; Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers; Jean Cocteau's Orphée; Paul Leni's Waxworks; poems by Emily Dickinson and by Polish Symbolist Bolesław Leśmian.
See also
References
- "Kyrou has recognised traces of oneirism not only in experimental cinema, but also in the musical, thriller, horror, and in much comic cinema (for instance, the Marx Brothers, Helzapoppin, and Jerry Lewis)."
- Ado Kyrou. Le surréalisme au cinéma (1963), cited by Laura Rascaroli in Like a Dream: A Critical History of the Oneiric Metaphor in Film Theory. Fall 2002. http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/rasc022.htm .
