No eye contact: An orchard in a movie in a dream

In my dream last night, John and I were at a resort-style conference hotel on a business trip with a group of people we only knew slightly. The pool at the hotel was huge and meandering; not just a large rectangle but one made to resemble a real river.

The pool resembled a river more than was originally intended, because it was dirty! Big chunks of old logs were floating around in a mess of dead leaves. The entire resort looked like it had recently been hit by a hurricane. Construction workers were everywhere. The workers were constantly barging into our meetings and barging into our hotel rooms, and even into our bathroom.

(Ha, you can imagine where my brain got that imagery. Yes, our bathroom remodel is finally done. More about that sometime, maybe.) Meanwhile, back to my dream…

That evening (in my dream) several of us watched a movie together in the hotel’s movie room. The characters in the movie included a young crop scientist who works at a university. In one scene he’s planting some seedlings by hand in an experimental field when a love interest of his walks over and they strike up a conversation. 

The scene is filmed from the autistic scientist’s point of view. The resulting camera work shows mostly a nearby orchard in the distance, as he gazes that way when listening to her, and also when he collects his thoughts to speak. The trees in the orchard had large, bright green leaves with deep, rounded lobes. I was distracted, wondering what kind of trees they were.

The camera also shows occasional brief glimpses in the woman’s direction, particularly if she says something unexpected. She is just a slightly silhouetted shape, her face in shadow. He doesn’t even look at her long enough for us to be sure of what she’s wearing, much less what her face looks like.

The camera also steals slightly longer glances at his seedlings during lulls in the conversation. He appears to want to continue with his planting while also talking to her, but he doesn’t have the mental bandwidth to concentrate on her words and also his plants. Several times he starts to plant, but has to stop and gaze out at the orchard, it being the least distracting option. That way he can concentrate on her words and formulate his replies.

As the audience, we hear him talk while we’re seeing one part of the orchard through his eyes, and then we hear the woman talk while we’re seeing another part of the orchard. It was surreal, watching as the camera rested on the orchard in the distance, occasionally jumping to a different place in the orchard, while we listened to the characters speak. It was brilliant! Instead of watching the scientist not make eye contact, we saw what he was seeing as he didn’t make eye contact. It was immersive and realistic.

I was like, yes! That’s what it’s like. That’s exactly what it’s like.

Too bad the movie was just part of my dream last night. Otherwise I would tell all of you to go see that movie. Maybe movies often make use of that technique. I wouldn’t know. I don’t watch movies. Except – apparently – in my dreams.

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

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