Dream one

I saw glimpses of this film when I was about 10, but my young brain couldn't handle it for more than a minute at a time, so I only saw a total of five. It gave me Stendahl Syndrome. Recently, with the DVD release ( a pretty dull, full-screen effort with burnt-in Dutch subtitles, but its the best we can hope for from such an obscure film) I was able to satisfy my curiosity. You will either love it or hate it, I was close to tears by how beautiful it was by the end (which is as obscure as the rest of the film). What is it about? You tell me. Certainly the impossibly beautiful Matilda May is worth the price of admission alone, but along the way we have the best representation of The Nautilus ever committed to film and production design unlike anything you've seen before. There's no logic, and possibly the makers simply filmed the writer's childhood dream, but its a precious, indispensable gem and if your none the wiser after reading this review, that's what you'll feel like by the end of the film. It doesn't make sense, it just feels right.

This movie isn't worth watching at all. I first watched it when I was about 12 years old, in the hope that it would be an interesting piece of cinema, but my opinion was the same as it is today: It's simply boring, has a confusing story and bad actors. Not even Harvey Keitel, normally one of my favorite actors, can save this flick from being a complete fiasco. And Jason Connery should better have continued his work within the series called Robin Hood, which was really brilliant. Even if you like fantasy or science fiction movies, there are still a lot of better examples. This is probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of bad ones.

Released in Australia under the much more descriptive (and apt) title "Dream One", this movie has been at my top 3 or 4 since I saw it back in about 1993. So much did I like it I hunted for, and finally found, an ex-rental VHS, which was in not very good condition. I dreaded each time I played it, it would be the last ...

Until, almost by sheer accident I saw the DVD in a shop. Pow.

Like a really good dream, it all seems to make some kind of sense at the time, but in the cold light of day, there is nothing left but bewilderment, and a longing to "go back" into that safe and secure land, where there are no questions, only comforting answers.

A type of "coming of age" experience where the man-child Nemo (Seth Kibel) is precipitated, via a faulty elevator in his home skyscraper, into a nether world where in the daytime, it is always twilight, and at night you can hear the stars roar. No sunshine, just red and blue light, outlining without necessarily illuminating. (In a nod to "The Wizard of Oz" the film format changes from blue and white to amazing colour.)

He discovers, as every boy would dream, a submarine beached and apparently deserted. He meets Cunegond (Charlie Boorman), a rather graceless young twerp who is just as lost as Nemo but won't admit to any weakness, and has a "pet" human sized monkey named ... "Monkey" (Dominique Pinon). Nemo rescues a beautiful young woman named Alice (Mathilda May), Princess of Yonderland, from the ocean, and falls in love with her (as any man-child would).

In the ensuing adventures he encounters the Magician, Mr Rip (Nipsy Russell), Legend (Harvey Kietel) a Zorro-like hero, and eventually a rocket ship, piloted by the mysterious Rals-Akrai (the aethereal Carole Bouquet). He is so much in love with Alice he tries to grow up and eventually become the child-man (Jason Connery).

Other characters, fusions of Nemo's real world and this dream unter-land come and go, in an almost ballet-masque fashion (Observe Rals-Akrai as she converses with world-weary Count Danilov (Michel Blanc) on the steps of the rocket ship.)

Unlike a dream, this movie can be returned to at any time, and even after a decade of viewing (usually every 2-3 months) it still induces a delicious sense of languorous ease.

The soundtrack (Gabriel Yared) is a perfect complement.

Don't try and understand this frankly surreal movie, just allow it to wash gently over you, and enjoy the sensual and sensuous experience, with its erotic undertones.

Mathilda May, you can enter into my dreams any time.

First this is a totally biased rating of 10/10, simply because I saw this film at such a young age and it stayed with long after I forgot the title. In fact if my father had not come into the room and remarked, 'That's Sean Connery's son," I probably would have never found it again.

The film starts with a boy being told a bedtime story and later that night having a nightmare about his parents dying in a car crash, which jolts him into action.

He runs into an elevator and there he descends into his own Oz. A dream world that looks like a pantomime set and that is populated with several different children's stories archetypes.

The film is a romance more than anything, but one for children and it operates on its own child-like logic. Some things happen just because they do and everything is exaggerated. The heart of it still lingers with me today and that ending, a dream you never want to end.

Probably not for everyone but I love it.

This is a real extra-ordinary movie in the full meaning of the word. I enjoyed every second of it. The way I found it , should be told to interested film-lovers; there is a new release of the movie on DVD under the name "DREAM ONE" by INDIES Home Entertainment (together with another movie "The Far Pavilions") and since may 2003 to be found in all the decent DVD-shops of Belgium and the Netherlands, or you can order it there. Sure a new release not to miss for such an old but special movie. And NO, I can not tell you what it is about, it's too strange and certainly an experience you have to go through without any prejudice. Open your eyes and mind and go for it.