DREAM LOVER

US, 1986, 99 minutes, Colour.
Kristy Mac Nicol, Ben Masters, Paul Shenar, Gayle Hunnicut.
Directed by Alan Pakula.

Dream Lover is a slow moving dramatisation of dreams and the effect of dreams on young women. It was directed by Alan J. Pakula, a change of pace from his more active dramas, which include All The President's Men, See You In The Morning, Klute. The film is carried by Kristy Mac Nicol as the tormented young woman. There are many dream sequences, repetitions, an invitation for-the audience to share the heroine's dream life experience. Many audiences will not want to accept the invitation as too slow, too difficult. Ben Masters is a scientist exploring the meaning of dreams. Paul Shenar is the heroine's possessive father.

1. Psychological drama, fantasy and reality, dreams and their effect?

2. The work of Alan J. Pakula? His creation of Kathy's world and her music, the family? The dreams both realistic and fantastic? The laboratory work? Editing and pace, repetitions, the slow dream style? Musical score? Katherine's performance? background music?

3. The title: Katherine as loving dreams, the murderer and her relationship with him, Mike and his presence both threatening and loving in her dreams? His final rescue?

4. Kristy MacNicol? as Katherine: in herself, the music, her boyfriend and his performance? Her relationship with her father? The dead mother and the background? The friends? The intruder and the violence, her fears, the effects of the dreams, the intruder moving into her dreams, bar wanting help? Her playing music and success? Going to the psychiatrist, not being able to be helped, Mike overhearing, inviting her to the laboratory, acting out the dreams, observation and video, the injections? Mike not stopping her dream when he was part of it? Her going to England, the interaction with her father, the violence of the dream and her father's presence, the crisis on the balcony, the rescue?

5. The dreams: corridors, doors, costume and garden? Her mother? Herself as her mother? The intruder and her killing him - and the repetition of the dream? Learning to stop the dream? The laboratory, Mike in her dreams? The possibility of acting out, moving, stopping, the videoing of this action? The violence overcoming her, the final nightmare?

6. Her father and his hold over her, in society, the covering up of the violent episode, allowing her to play music, his attitude towards her mother and her death, the comments of the friends, his going to London, his trying to
help her, experiencing her violence?

7. The musician, Katherine's love for him, sharing with him? His support?

8. The doctor and his skills, the experiments, trust, learning, the injections, acting out and the video? His decision to take responsibility, stop and not stop? Going to England and rescuing her, the peril of his own death?

9. Audience response to dreams: fear, violence, sexuality, loss of power, acting out the dreams? Dramatising them?