The Screen at Contemporary: Hypnotica
Delusion, dreams and the subconscious explored in nine classic films. What happens when our world fractures from reality, explored by cinema’s most intriguing minds.
Whirlpool (1949)
Dir. Otto Preminger
A woman suffering from Kleptomania is hypnotised to cure her, but things soon take a murderous turn. A heady mixture of existential philosophy and post war angst and what forced domesticity can do to the mind.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Dir. Michel Gondry
An estranged couple have an experimental procedure to erase each other from their memory but will their subconscious hold on? A truly cinematic vision of memory, loss, heartache and the experiences that makes us human.
Les Diaboliques (1955)
Dir. Henri- Georges Clouzet
The wife and mistress of a sadistic headmaster set out to murder him. However, reality is not what it seems in this tense and highly influential psychological thriller. This is the film Hitchcock always wanted to make.
Taxi Driver (1976)
Dir. Martin Scorsese
A lonely and isolated Vietnam Vet drives the streets of New York and want to clear it up. The now infamous Travis Bickle mental state is an intriguing articulation of society’s collective psyche of personal isolation and mistrust of authority.
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Dir. Nicholas Roeg
A married couple are in Venice following the death of their young daughter. Reality, religion, the supernatural and grief are masterfully intertwined here in an engaging backdrop. Never has thriller been so tender.
Vertigo (1958)
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Private investigator, James Stewart follows a young woman acting strangely who then disappears. Was she real or imagined? Often voted the best film ever made this is a complex, disturbing cinematic experience not to be missed.
Rosemary’s Baby (1965)
Dir. Roman Polanski
“This isn’t a dream, this is really happening”. A pair of newlyweds move into a seemingly perfect apartment building until satanic rituals and occult goings on soon take hold. With its heavy sense of paranoia and fear of ourselves and others this classic has never felt so relevant.
Shock Corridor (1963)
Dir Samuel Fuller
A reporter seeking the Pulitzer Prize has himself committed to a mental institution to investigate a murder. As he gets deeper into it, insanity starts taking hold. With its B Movie aesthetic and use of animation in the dream sequences this was radical for its time and since become a cult classic.