Rowyn (rowyn) wrote,

A Dream of Film and Paradise

I just woke up from a dream and thought, "Hey, I should try to get this down like all my friends who have cool dreams."

The earliest part I can remember is watching a movie. It's a Woody Allen movie, and it looks like a kind of "making of" for "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" It's being filmed in China, and I guess the idea in the dream is that, instead of dubbing a bad Chinese film, he's shooting new footage to splice into one. Early on, I'm watching a scene between a man and a woman, speaking Chinese, and Woody Allen is working with someone else MST3King the scene, deciding what dialogue to dub over it. Then it switches to Woody Allen, driving back from the shoot with his female lead riding in the car next to him, and he's talking about the movie they're making. He starts out talking about introducing the antagonist, and saying he thought he might reduce the part of the villain because the guy wasn't coming out too well. The woman--I think her name was "Sun Li"--is having a hard time following his conversation. She says something very obvious about what the scene they shot that day was, and he gives her this look, like she must be an idiot. I remember it annoyed me at the time. Then he starts talking about the age of the woman who played the original lead in the film they're re-making. She was, he says, an old woman--65--playing the part of a young woman, and he thinks this was a foolish choice on the woman's part. "She looked good for an old woman, but an old woman shouldn't try to play a young woman's part." The implication is that Sun Li, who's supposed to look just like this original star so that they can combine the new footage with the old, is the same way. It's really, really insulting. Sun Li makes a nasty remark about Woody Allen's own age.

Then they get back to the mansion, and Sun Li wanders off, while Woody Allen meets a cute young American woman and they briefly try to speak French to each other, but it's clear Woody Allen is only goofing off to show that he doesn't know French at all. I don't remember exactly what came next, but it segues to the three of them--Woody Allen, Sun Li, and the American woman--looking "for real" for the treasure that the protagonists in the movie they're making are looking for. They're out in a field, searching, and the implication is they're about to find something, then the movie ends. I think, I wonder if that would have made more sense if I started watching from the beginning?

From there, my dream switched to the much cooler part, which is where I dreamed about 'finding the lost treasure' myself. A narrator is describing some of the events to me as they happen, but this time I feel like I'm part of the scene instead of merely watching it. I'm floating over a blue ocean. I know that people say you don't dream in color but this dream was definitely in full-on Technicolor. The ocean turns into an island--my narrator labels it Tahini (yes, like the food, though I think my subconcious was trying for "Tahiti" or at least something evocative of it). The first part of the island that I see seems to undulate with blue-green grass. The grass seems to blend in with the ocean I just left, so that as I'm traveling further inland, it always looks like I'm just about to fall off into the ocean again--but it turns out to me more of this beautiful grass. It's green when I'm directly over it, but fades to blue in the distance.

Eventually, the grass turns into a jungle, and I start seeing living creatures for the first time. In another dream, they might have been monsters, but I'm not at all afraid of them. Instead, I am filled with awe and wonder. One creature looks a little like a brontosaurus-sized gila monster, but its skin has the appearance of wood, and it has huge, expressive eyes I'm leaning against a tree overhanging a river, watching it, when an alligator with smooth, black-brown skin comes slithering up the tree. "Excuse me," he says, and I get out of his way, apologizng. The smooth alligator-thing sounds good-natured and friendly as he heads off into the jungle. He's grousing without rancor about his part in the earlier movie: "Angry, he calls me. Just because I happen to look, to a human, like I'm snarling, I get billed as "Angry Bob." Sigh." Another of his kind sympathizes with him.

The narrator is going on about people searching this island for "the treasure of Tahini" and I'm rubbernecking everywhere, looking at all the incredible sights and the fantastic creatures. I think, in response to the narrator, How could they possibly miss it?

Then I woke up.

That was at about 5AM, so I think I'll try to go back to sleep now.
Tags: dreams
  • Post a new comment


    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.