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Dreams
One of legendary director Akira Kurosawa's final films, Dreams is a series of eight vignettes based upon his own dreams. While it does come off as a bit meandering at points, perhaps after making movies for fifty years, Kurosawa could be granted a bit of self-indulgence. Plus, there is no denying that Dreams is an absolutely gorgeous film to look at.
For the most part, the segments in Dreams deal with loss, or more specifically, death. Kurosawa was surrounded by the spectre of death all of his life, from his beloved older brother committing suicide, to the devastating Kanto earthquake, and most significantly, the atomic bombings of Hiroshiuma and Nagasaki. So it comes as no stretch that as the director's own life was drawing to an end, he would choose to deal with the images of death which had been haunting him his whole life through the medium which gave him solace in his darkest days.
Like most anthologies, Dreams is lacking a bit of cohesion. Yes, there is a fairly common theme between all of the segments, but they just don't seem to fit quite tight enough together when one looks at the film as a whole. Also, the message presented in a couple of the vignettes is much too overt. In particular, the obvious evils of nuclear warfare are nailed into the viewer's retina. Dreams is much more successful when it leaves its' intentions for the particular segment up to the interpretation of the individual viewer.
Despite any problems with the narrative (or lack thereof), Dreams is still a stunning movie visually, and perhaps that is how one should approach a viewing of this film. In many ways, like the Van Gogh paintings it portrays during the segment entitled "Crows", one should maybe just relax, get into the moment, and let themselves take in the overall picture and take it for what it is, instead of trying to shoehorn it into something that it is not. RATING: 7 |
