I’m rewatching the Sopranos and I find most of the dream sequences a drag. Have you ever seen a film or show where dreams were well realised and useful to the story?
Twin Peaks. Agent Cooper’s dreams where an integral part of the storyline.
Though not exactly central to the story, The Descent had a good one. (About the car accident toward the beginning.)
Also, the episode “Hush” in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Not to mention all those erotic dreams Spike has when he realizes he’s in love with Buffy.
This begins to address my usual problem with dream sequences - in my dreams, I never see myself from a third party point of view, I only see “out” from my own eyes as if in real life. The dream contents are, of course, generally weird, but the perspective is usually just the way it would be if I were awake. Dreams in films or TV are (virtually) never like that. It always takes me right out of the moment.
Roddy
Gregory Peck’s dream sequence in Hitchcock’s Spellbound was designed by Salvador Dalí. It is certainly not one of Hitchcock’s best endeavors, but the dream sequence alone is worth watching.
I can think of one good one, but it would spoil the movie for me to name it. Conundrum.
There is a good one in* An American Werewolf in London* but you don’t know it’s a dream until it’s over.
That scene and the pink elephants scene from Dumbo used to scare the shit out of me as a kid.
I think you mean “Primeval”. Fetish clothed Willow and Tara, Pillow Book homage, Miss Kitty Fantastico, Xander’s extended set piece tour, human Adam, stage fright, “man… a sales man”, multiple cameos, the Cheese man, and Faith & Dawn foreshadowing.
the dream in The Fly is good because (1) it shows Ronnie’s worries and (2) it is the scariest part of the movie
I always liked the one in The big Lebowski.
*Newhart.
*
Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’.
Sometimes I view dreams third-person. Occasionally I see them from another character’s point of view. I cna also usually “see” what’s going on in adjacent rooms, even though “I” am not in them.
Dreams are weird. And I can’t recall ever seeing a portrayal of a dream in quite the way I experience them. Presumably they’re different for everyone.
I liked the dream sequence in Big Bang Theory about Sheldon eating too much Pad Tai.
I liked the apocalyptic dreams of Sarah Conner in Terminator 2…also the most obvious answer: about half the movie Dreamscape.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND, as I recall, had some sort of dream that didn’t suck. Ditto the Judy Garland film version of the WIZARD OF OZ.
In contrast, there’s a Fritz Lang’s WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, with Edward G Robinson as a college professor trapped in a “nightmare” of fate and deception, everything possible goes wrong leading to the most depressing climax of a movie EVER… and then it all turns out to be a dream, because Hollywood wouldn’t allow such a depressing end. Nonetheless, that little bit aside, it’s a brilliant film. But depressing as hell.
More depressing of an ending than Requiem For A Dream?? Yikes.
Brendan Frazer’s second “Scrubs” episode. Though that might be considered more of a mental breakdown.
-Joe