Cortechba Overrated

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

MARIO GAUCI 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.

Jarrod Bonner This is a great film for fans of the surrealist and dadaist movements and offers a lot of great moments by a wide range of talented artists, but it falls just short of the glory of what it could have been. The running time pushes the boundaries of what many of us, even fans of surrealism, can handle.The film is a series of vignettes joined by a central story but on a whole it's not quite cohesive, and it's not even in-cohesive in an interesting way. All in all with the names involved, you just go in expecting more. It's a good little gem of experimental cinema but I was frankly wanting a little more...

Eumenides_0 Hans Richter, original Dada member and an important figure in keeping alive the memory of the 20th century's greatest art movement (his memoirs 'Dada: Art and Anti-Art' is one of the most touching non-fiction books I've ever read), was also a pretty good filmmaker. He started making shorts in the '20s, much in the vein of the avant-garde cinema that Buñuel, Cocteau, and Man Ray were doing at the time. In 1947 he got together with a few Dada friends - Ray, Duchamp, Max Ernst, etc. - and made Dreams That Money Can Buy, one of the most beautiful avant-garde movies ever made.Joe, a down-on-his-luck everyman, finds out he has the ability to create dreams for people. Because we live in dull, colorless world, he has no trouble finding customers in need of dreams. This is really a frame narrative for the heart of the movie: the seven dreams composed by the artists. Each one is inventive and unpredictable; some have people, other wire toys; and some are just abstract images without nexus.Dreams That Money Can Buy is a pretty complete movie: it has musical, comedy, film noir, and drama. It also has what seems like the beginnings of stop-motion animation, which Czech filmmakers like Jan Svankmajer and Jirí­ Trnka would later perfect. The voice-over is detached and sarcastic, making fun of everything happening, much like the narrators of writers Milan Kundera or José Saramago.Shot over sixty years ago, Richter's movie still looks modern and innovative. It fills the viewer's head with ideas and bubbles with potential that most cinema seldom explores. With world cinema going through a dull phase, rediscovering this movie could only help directors and screenwriters leave their lethargy and attempt something new.

psteier A strange attempt to bring the work of surrealist artists to a wider public. The plot is than an average Joe (Jack Bittner) can conjure up dreams that will improve peoples lives. This gives an excuse to view sequences created by several artists, most of whom were living in the US to avoid World War II.Of most interest for those wishing to seeing the various artist's work, such as Alexander Calder' Circus being animated. I saw the Museum of Modern Art Print and the colors were in poor shape - the blue was almost gone.