Horsehead (2014)

Horsehead: Directed by Romain Basset. With Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux, Catriona MacColl, Murray Head, Gala Besson. Since her childhood, Jessica has been haunted by recurrent nightmares whose meaning escapes her. This peculiarity has led her to study the psychophysiology of dreams and to follow a therapy with Sean, her mentor and boyfriend, to try and understand the origin of her nightmares. Following the death of her maternal grandmother she hardly knew, Jessica reluctantly returns to the family home. She doesn’t get along with her mother very well and is not looking forward to seeing her again. Upon her arrival, Jessica discovers that her late grandmother is lying in the adjoining room to her own during the wake. After a rough first night made restless by a strange nightmare in which she meets her dead grandmother, Jessica suddenly becomes ill. Stuck in bed with a high fever, the young woman decides to use her lethargic state to try out lucid dreaming. In order to do so, and on Sean’s advice, Jessica breathes a little bit of ether whenever she needs to sink deeper into the other world to try and take control of her nightmares. Jessica then begins to wander in a nightmarish world inhabited by twisted versions of her family members. She gradually improves her skills as a lucid dreamer and investigates to solve the mystery that gnaws her and haunts the family home…

“Surreal, phantasmagoric, enigmatic! HORSEHEAD is a visually stunning puzzle full of symbolic figures where each one of them represent one particular icon related to imagery of dreams. We can notice, for instance, the clear inspiration in some previous and notable works about the allegories of dreams, as the Henry Fuseliu0026#39;s painting THE NIGHTMARE. And this inspiration is not denied, itu0026#39;s even reinforced when at the beginning of the movie appears a picture of that famous painting… On the other hand it made me remind some surrealistic and artsy films of the 70u0026#39;s, in particular those from European cinema (also French cinema…). The kind of cinematography used, the short but puzzling plot, the enigmatic symbols and characters, the twisted eroticism, the camera work – focusing on certain plans and details… All of this truly make me compare this film to those remarkable movies of the 70u0026#39;s. But of course HORSEHEAD has it own value, in fact itu0026#39;s a great film that we could resume as a frantic journey into the depths of the subconscious, a dream that crosses two dimensions, ending both in one same reality…”