Dreams That Money Can Buy

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Movie
German title Dreams for sale
Original title Dreams That Money Can Buy
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1944-1947
length 84 minutes
Rod
Director Hans Richter
script Josh White ,
Man Ray ,
Hans José Rehfisch ,
Hans Richter,
David Vern
production Kenneth Macpherson
Hans Richter
music Louis Applebaum (“Narcissus”),
Paul Bowles (“Desire” and “Ballet”),
John Cage (“Discs”),
David Diamond (“Circus”),
Darius Milhaud (“Ruth, Roses and Revolvers”),
Josh White ("The Girl With the Prefabricated Heart")
camera Werner Brandes ,
Arnold S. Eagle ,
Peter Glushanok ,
MeyerRosenblum ,
Herman Shulman ,
Victor Vicas
occupation

Dreams That Money Can Buy is one of the film artists and Dadaist Hans Richter in 1947 turned experimental film . Furthermore, artists such as Max Ernst , Marcel Duchamp , Man Ray , Alexander Calder , Darius Milhaud and Fernand Léger participated . The film was produced by Peggy Guggenheim, among others . It consists of seven chapters or dream sequences and each was shot by a contemporary avant-garde artist or surrealist.

action

Joe is the average guy who just signed a complicated lease on an apartment. As he ponders how to pay the rent, he discovers that he can look into his soul by looking at his eyes in a mirror. It becomes clear to him that a business can be made out of it (" If you can look inside yourself, you can look inside anyone!" ). He opens an office, sells bespoke dreams to various frustrated and neurotic clients. Joe's waiting room is filled within a few minutes on the first day after opening, a “kind of advance payment for the two billion customers who are yet to come” ( “The first installment on the 2 billion clients” ), as a voice from the off explains. This voice is the only one that you hear between each dream sequence. She takes on the role of the narrator, but also speaks directly to the protagonists.

Desire  - Director: Max Ernst

Order # 1 shows Mr. and Mrs. A. Mister A is a "rational, correct bank clerk". His mind is the same as two columns in a newspaper: "no virtues, no vices" ( "no virtues, no vices" ). She orders a dream for him “with practical values ​​that broadens his horizons, increases his ambitions and perhaps improves his salary.” Mrs. A is asked to leave the room as there is only one dream per person. Mr. A collects drawings that he cuts out of magazines, including a female nude in a bed. But what are his real interests? Maybe colors? Red liquid will then flow across the screen. Or is it light? A woman's wax figure melts. It becomes clear: Mr. A hides the images of his secret passions between the lids of the properly managed folder. And the memories of past shops and sales lead to a dream with nightingales.

In the sequence Desire , leaves fall to the floor next to a red curtain. A woman is lying on a four-poster bed with red curtains. When she breathes, a small golden ball rises and falls over her mouth. She swallows the ball, smiles, and then falls asleep. Bars appear in front of her bed and a man watches the woman through the bars. Now a woman's voice tells of the dream that is about nightingales. The man is part of her dream because he asks her over the phone about details of the dream. She says, "They talked about love and joy". The phone on her bedside table falls to the floor, shatters and smokes smoke that envelops her bed. The connection with the man breaks off. He then breaks the bars, but first has to walk through a cellar to get to the bed. He looks at the woman on the bed, but is himself observed by a uniformed soldier, Le President (Max Ernst). Then two shipwrecked young sailors are pulled out from under the bed. The woman wakes up and while she hugs the man, the red curtains of the four-poster bed fall down. Shortly afterwards, the woman is wearing a bolero jacket made of red fabric. Together they leave the room and rush down the basement, which fills with fog. Le President watches the man carry the woman. The man lies on the ground and rolls the dice between fallen leaves. Then you hear the voice of the woman who asks: "Who will come with me under my warm white apron?" She repeats the last words several times, throwing the golden ball up and catching it.

The Girl With the Prefabricated Heart  - Director: Ferdinand Léger

Mission # 2 begins with Joe receiving payment for Mr. A's first dream when a young woman enters the room. She wears a suit, glasses and a beret with a folder under her arm. Mr. A looks at her benevolently as his wife enters the office, who looks at the scene indignantly. Mr. and Mrs. A leave the office. The young woman tries to get Joe to different signatures while the off-screen voice encourages Joe to resist the woman. She flirts with him, starts crying, goes to the door, comes back again. Finally Joe signs. He takes off her glasses and they almost kiss. Smoke fills the room and after it has cleared you can see a dismantled mannequin. In the chorus of the music, Libby Holman and later Josh White sang “untouched by human hands” . Then it fades into a scene in which a “female” mannequin is dancing and posing. A “male” doll observes the female doll. Now the previously naked doll is dressed in a wedding dress. The male doll brings flowers and offers the "healthy girl" jewelry. He woos her and harasses her, whereupon she calls for help ( "This is ridiculous! Sisters, come to my aid!" ). Two more "female" dolls appear protecting their "sister". The "male" doll crumbles and loses its head. The “female” escapes on a bicycle: “For there's no man alive who could ever survive a girl with a prefabricated heart” . Tears come to the “male” head. Then there is another fade to Joe's office where the young woman jumps up and leaves the room. But she comes back, kisses Joe and then leaves the office again.

Ruth, Roses and Revolvers  - Directed by Man Ray

When she has left, Mrs. A appears again and complains bitterly about her life at the side of Mr. A ( "It's like living in a vaccuum" ). Thus Contract No starts. 3. They, too, want a dream she as a "treatment" (treatment) , respectively. Joe shows the woman a photo of a young, happy couple. The woman in the photo reminds Mrs. A of herself when she was young and carefree. Mrs. A realizes that she has to break open the armor she has built around her and she begins to dream about this young couple. The young man reads out a declaration entitled “Ruth, Roses and Revolvers” . He tries to woo the woman and the off- screen voice describing the man's thoughts says that “those who want to protect themselves against everything lose everything in the end” ( “those who have insured themselves against all risks are bound to lose all " ). He lays the book on a tree and enters a house with the woman. The couple meets other people who want to watch a movie together. Before that, a woman announced that only a very special film would follow, in which the audience would play the leading role. It should imitate the items and gestures that are shown on the screen, which it does true to the model. Only the couple does not take part in the imitations. Then they all leave the house again and the couple sees that the book is under a tree, a rose has grown in front of it in the meantime. The woman jokes that all you need now is a revolver. The man turns the book over. On the back there is a photo of Man Ray and a procession of wounded soldiers can be seen in a screen between flames.

Discs - Directed by Marcel Duchamp

Mrs. A pays and leaves the office with the photo. Before job # 4 there is a loud argument outside the office. A police officer present does nothing, just poses. In the tumult that followed, a gangster managed to enter the office unnoticed. First he needs help because he's handcuffed that Joe can take off him. He wants a dream that he has "neither a conscious nor a subconscious". He needs a dream that will help him win horse racing . While he tries to force Joe to do it, another man comes into the office and hits the gangster K. O. , which starts his dream. It includes illusions with spinning disks and a scene distorted by a prism in which a scantily clad woman is walking down a flight of stairs. The gangster is unfazed and threatens Joe with a gun and takes the money he has earned so far. A policeman enters the room and asks the gangster if he has a gun license for the gun . The gangster shows his license, which is okay, whereupon the policeman leaves the room again. The gangster pushes Joe into a closet, knocks him out and runs out of the room when he hears police sirens.

Circus / Ballet  - Director: Alexander Calder

Mission No. 5 and 6: A young girl with her blind grandfather come into the empty office. The girl is playing with a ball that turns into a mobile and looks like a kinetic plastic . A dark mask observes the playful movements of various mobiles . Joe regains consciousness and goes into his office. Instead of buying a dream himself, the old man wants to sell him one. He creates wire circus and vaudeville figures that come to life and perform. Joe buys the dream.

Narcissus  - Director: Hans Richter

The next customer doesn't come in, although Joe opens the door for him with the buzzer . Joe then opens the door and sees that he himself is the next customer. However, he freezes because he is surrounded by blocks of ice. Joe finds a poker chip that the little girl lost before and suddenly finds himself in his own autobiographical dream. He's playing poker with some friends. They are watched by the classic bust of a bearded man. When Joe tries to reach for his glass, it breaks. In the puddle spreading on the table he sees his own face. Suddenly Joe's face turns blue, whereupon his friends turn away from him ( "Would you want to sit at a table with a blue man?" ). You leave Joe alone and all the furniture in the room comes to life and moves closer and closer to Joe. He finds a string and follows it ( "The blue thread of hope will lead me out of the labyrinth." ). The cord leads outside to a ladder. A group of people prevents him from climbing the ladder ( "The right of being in everybody's way is the right of everybody" ).

The people turn into ladders that point in all directions. Joe picks one up and starts climbing up on it. Streamers fall from the sky. Joe suddenly notices that the rungs on his ladder are falling off. Desperate, he grabs a window ledge and pulls himself up by it. He ends up in a room. A woman is lying in a hammock. She offers Joe a drink, which he takes. Then she gives him a bowl of cherries and a knife. He kisses the woman and wants to cut her neck when he cuts the string instead. Joe leaves the room and ends up back at the poker game. Fire and smoke arise in front of the bearded bust. Again he sees his friends around the poker table but he realizes that they are only dummies, fire and smoke come out of them too. Joe grabs the bust and escapes through the window, hanging on a rope. The woman he has just left cuts his rope with the knife. Joe and the bust fall. The broken bust lies on the sidewalk.

criticism

“A critical view, in whatever form, would be unfair, because it is clearly an experiment in which some things have turned out really well. Many compositions, although perhaps strange, are surprisingly intelligent. ... Obviously artistically designed, he looks for new ways to give ideas a suitable framework. And that's exactly what film is for. But maybe you should check it out for yourself. (A critical dismissal of this picture, however, would be unfair, since it is a professed experiment and there are some things about it that are good. Many of the image constructions, while obscure, are surprisingly adroit. Obviously arty in nature, it still tries for new ways to frame ideas. For that it is to be commended. Better go see it for yourself. "

- Bosley Crowther , New York Times , April 24, 1948

“Dreams That Money Can Buy is a very unusual film and a successful film experiment in" home work ". Perhaps, after seeing this gem of independent filmmaking, other artists will use this as a basis to develop cinema further and to further exhaust the possibilities. And anyone with sufficient half-knowledge about the Freud family will enjoy Richter's film. ("Dreams That Money Can Buy" is a very unusual film and a successful motion-picture experiment on a relatively "home-made" basis. Perhaps other artists of this caliber will now turn towards the cinema and exploit some of its possibilities after witnessing this independent achievement. Mr. Richter's "Dreams That Money Can Buy" should delight anyone with even a smattering of Household Freud.) "

- George A. Lelper , The Harvard Crimson , October 28, 1948

Awards

The film won a prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1947 for the further development of film technology.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ 'Hans Richter - Senses Of Cinema, Great Directors Issue 49
  2. ^ NY Times, April 24, 1948 Dreams That Money Can Buy: Psychological Study
  3. ↑ Hans Richter. In: filmportal.de . Deutsches Filminstitut , accessed on November 11, 2017 .