Rêve à vendre

The British Film Institute have re-mastered the film from an original print and have released it on DVD with some Richter shorts, a very good booklet and an alternative soundtrack by the band The Real Tuesday Weld who have been performing live to it for the last three years.

It looks amazing but remains one of the most underrated art films of the last century. It's difficult to know whether its imperfections (particularly in the editing and soundtrack) are a result of a low budget or carelessness or were intended / happily included by the director. Proclaimed by David Lynch as his favourite film (He pinched the title 'Ruth Roses and Revolvers from it), it is not an easy watch and sadly is probably destined to always be for the cognoscenti. This is a film - not a movie - and whilst not completely successful as a piece of art, it pushes the boundary of film and narrative.

This quirky surrealist film follows the adventures of a dream seller as he supplies dreams to his mixed clientele.

The dreams were created by various artists, and the quality and style varies. Max Ernst comes the closest to creating something with a real feel for dream logic involving the saving of a woman, although it was a little slow. Richter also comes close with the final, blue-faced sequence. Marcel Duchamp and Alexander Caldwell, on the other hand, both contribute simple movement pieces, although Caldwell also offers a somewhat interesting stop-motion circus scene.

The most interesting piece is by the one artist I've never heard of, Fernand Leger, a clever musical piece involving mannequins.

Avant-garde works being what they are, you probably wouldn't know this was made in 1947 if you weren't told, as filmmakers today will go for a retro style. It's a mixed bag, but I'd say it's worth watching if you're interested in surrealism.

I had long been interested in watching this one (and had even toyed with the idea of acquiring its BFI PAL VHS in the mid-1990s) but, having now caught up with the film, I cannot say that the end result fully lived up to expectations!

It is quite a unique effort, mind you, but very uneven in tone – a reflection of the many 'cooks' involved in the 'broth' since, despite the overall credit to Richter, many another avant-garde artist was responsible for the various dream sequences that basically comprise the narrative (Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, Man Ray, etc.). This is also why I preceded its viewing with a number of shorts by all these exponents of experimental cinema and, for what it is worth, I opted to check the film out on the day of Richter's own birthday!

The concept is an intriguing, even noir-ish, one – accentuated by the initially down-on-his-luck protagonist and constant voice-over. The fantasies range from the romantic (a henpecked man braving a labyrinth for the sake of his idealized beloved recalls the work of Jean Cocteau) to the musical ('sung' by a mannequin and dreamt by a geeky girl liberated to femme fatale status by the hero's attentions), and from the prescient (the audience at an interactive movie theater imitate every move of the actors on-screen) to the insipid (a lazily derivative 'rotating shapes' display by Duchamp serving as the visions of a gangster type – who on earth but mathematicians dreams of such things anyway?!). The last hallucination, then, is reserved for the leading man himself – his assuming a blue countenance at this point presumably representing his own uniqueness (in view of the gift he is able to 'bestow' upon others).

As I said, this is more worth watching for its intentions than for what is ultimately achieved; the colour scheme, at least, makes it that more palatable to the adventurous movie-buff. Incidentally, we also have here one of the very earliest examples of a pre-credits sequence on celluloid.

Wow! For a film that was made in 1947, this was way ahead of it's time. 7 different surreal artists, including Duchamp; teamed up to create the dreams within the story. This is a rare film and if you can track down a copy, you won't be disappointed. The story is about a guy who starts a business selling people his dreams. People who need excitement come to him for a bizarre dream experience. Surreal images and at times crazy stream of conscious dialog follow. My favorite scene is later in the film, when the guy is walking up the ladder, and every time he takes a step, the step before disappears. Of course I wish the film would be remastered, since many of the scenes are faded. I'm glad to know that the British Film institute has it on video, I hope they digitally restore it and release it on DVD, or even better would be a Criterion release! 10/10

The Avant Garde movement is not one that I follow, or know too much about, though I had seen some work by Duchamp at an exhibition in London once. However, I'll try very nearly anything and so when Dreams that Money Can Buy came up on Film 4 very late at night, I had to give it a go.

I could not find a separate listing as to which director did which part on the IMDb, but I have to say that I only really enjoyed two segments - Duchamp's 'Discs' and the last one, 'Narcissus' by Hans Richter. I really liked the geometric patterns and shadows of the masks and things in Duchamp's and the overall operatic, Gothic feel of Richter's, which had some great visual flair.

I persevered with the others and whilst I could see definite skill and talent in many pieces, they weren't really "me". My score is probably nearer the 5.5 mark than 6, but I'm rounding up slightly. Apologies to all who love this work, but with an alternative and rare film such as this, it's always going to divide opinion - and I did give it a go!