# Would it be possible to put a realistic dream sequence on the screen?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-put-a-realistic-dream-sequence-on-the-screen/566130>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 2, 2011, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-put-a-realistic-dream-sequence-on-the-screen/566130 "2011-01-02T09:48:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-put-a-realistic-dream-sequence-on-the-screen/566130/41 "2011-01-05T16:25:06Z")

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Damn. The movie I always want to mention when this subject comes up does the dream sequence well, but for me to reveal the name of the movie spoils the movie by telling you that it’s a dream. So click only if you don’t mind spoiling a movie which you may or may not have seen:

[Vanilla Sky](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259711/). Much of the movie is a series of dreams, which are done really well. They work just like real dreams (or as close as a movie is apt to come). Characters change identities, the narrative becomes disjointed and skips around, all just as in real dreams. Cameron Crowe can do no wrong in my book, and I think he nails this one. (And yeah, I know it’s a remake.)

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**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-put-a-realistic-dream-sequence-on-the-screen/566130/42 "2011-01-19T21:01:55Z")

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> [@Hodge](#):
>
> IMHO, it is possible and it was done 80 years ago:
> 
> [Un Chien Andalou](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJexaTmCVfI&feature=fvsr)

Hitchcock said that he got Salvador Dali to do the dream sequence in Spelbound because he wanted the dream to be as vivid as possible not vague and misty as often portrayed.

> [@](#):
>
> Traditionally, up to that time, the director explained, “dream sequences in film were all swirling smoke, slightly out of focus, with figures walking through mist made by dry ice smoke”. It was a convention with which he wanted to break, representing hallucinations instead with an eerie precision. He wanted to express dreams with a clarity that would be sharper than the film itself.

> **[TLS](https://www.the-tls.com/)**
>
> Times Literary Supplement

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