So any novel, film or TV show about dreaming and its numinous powers is necessarily going to catch my attention. Jacob’s Ladder, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mulholland Dr., and Twin Peaks: The Return are among my very favorites, as you probably also remember.
And now I think I’m adding the 1980 TV movie adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven to the pile.
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I first saw it back in the Eighties on PBS; it was one of those moments where you feel like you’ve stumbled on some hidden treasure room in the middle of an overgrown field, a treasure no one ever thought to look for. I’d never heard of the book or the film, and it really hit me like a bolt from the blue.
The adaptation was apparently made in two weeks for a quarter-million dollars in 1979, and it most definitely captures that elusive ’79 energy I’ve spoken of in the past. Granted $250K translates to over a cool million today, but that’s still chump change for a feature film.
But that is exactly why this movie is so incredibly resonant and numinous. Even its primitive optical effects sell the story.
Then again, I’ve long felt that the films that really get under your skin and stay there are often independent films made on a shoestring. A lot of it comes down to the passion and the undiluted vision of the auteur, but also the lack of CGI (or God help us, AI ) digital slop to assault your optic nerves.
By necessity, everything onscreen is real, physical and tangible, so your eyes never get lost in the uncanny valley. There’s also usually a lack of overly-familiar faces to take you out of the story as well...
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