After learning how to look inside himself, a poetic bum sells people vivid dreams.After learning how to look inside himself, a poetic bum sells people vivid dreams.After learning how to look inside himself, a poetic bum sells people vivid dreams.
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination
Photos
John La Touche
- The Gangster
- (as John Latouche)
Ethel Beseda
- Mrs. A.
- (uncredited)
Samuel Cohen
- Mr. A
- (uncredited)
Max Ernst
- Le President
- (uncredited)
Jo Fontaine-Maison
- The girl
- (uncredited)
Bernard Friend
- Policeman
- (uncredited)
Bernard Graves
- The male voice
- (uncredited)
Anthony Laterie
- The blind man
- (uncredited)
Julien Levy
- The man
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAn experimental film shot for $25,000 in a Manhattan loft. It opened in New York in March, 1947 and went on to win the Venice Film Festival Award for the best original contribution to the progress of cinematography.
- Quotes
(singing on soundtrack): Oh Venus was born out of sea-foam / oh Venus was born out of brine / but a girl of today / if she is grade A / is assembled upon the assembly line
- ConnectionsFeatured in Cocteau Marais - Un couple mythique (2013)
- SoundtracksThe Girl with the Pre-Fabricated Heart
Lyrics by John La Touche
Sung by Libby Holman and Josh White, accompanied by Norma Cazanjian and Doris Okerson
Featured review
DREAMS THAT MONEY CAN BUY (Hans Richter, 1947) ***
I had long been interested in watching this one (and had even toyed with the idea of acquiring its BFI PAL VHS in the mid-1990s) but, having now caught up with the film, I cannot say that the end result fully lived up to expectations!
It is quite a unique effort, mind you, but very uneven in tone – a reflection of the many 'cooks' involved in the 'broth' since, despite the overall credit to Richter, many another avant-garde artist was responsible for the various dream sequences that basically comprise the narrative (Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, Man Ray, etc.). This is also why I preceded its viewing with a number of shorts by all these exponents of experimental cinema and, for what it is worth, I opted to check the film out on the day of Richter's own birthday!
The concept is an intriguing, even noir-ish, one – accentuated by the initially down-on-his-luck protagonist and constant voice-over. The fantasies range from the romantic (a henpecked man braving a labyrinth for the sake of his idealized beloved recalls the work of Jean Cocteau) to the musical ('sung' by a mannequin and dreamt by a geeky girl liberated to femme fatale status by the hero's attentions), and from the prescient (the audience at an interactive movie theater imitate every move of the actors on-screen) to the insipid (a lazily derivative 'rotating shapes' display by Duchamp serving as the visions of a gangster type – who on earth but mathematicians dreams of such things anyway?!). The last hallucination, then, is reserved for the leading man himself – his assuming a blue countenance at this point presumably representing his own uniqueness (in view of the gift he is able to 'bestow' upon others).
As I said, this is more worth watching for its intentions than for what is ultimately achieved; the colour scheme, at least, makes it that more palatable to the adventurous movie-buff. Incidentally, we also have here one of the very earliest examples of a pre-credits sequence on celluloid.
It is quite a unique effort, mind you, but very uneven in tone – a reflection of the many 'cooks' involved in the 'broth' since, despite the overall credit to Richter, many another avant-garde artist was responsible for the various dream sequences that basically comprise the narrative (Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, Man Ray, etc.). This is also why I preceded its viewing with a number of shorts by all these exponents of experimental cinema and, for what it is worth, I opted to check the film out on the day of Richter's own birthday!
The concept is an intriguing, even noir-ish, one – accentuated by the initially down-on-his-luck protagonist and constant voice-over. The fantasies range from the romantic (a henpecked man braving a labyrinth for the sake of his idealized beloved recalls the work of Jean Cocteau) to the musical ('sung' by a mannequin and dreamt by a geeky girl liberated to femme fatale status by the hero's attentions), and from the prescient (the audience at an interactive movie theater imitate every move of the actors on-screen) to the insipid (a lazily derivative 'rotating shapes' display by Duchamp serving as the visions of a gangster type – who on earth but mathematicians dreams of such things anyway?!). The last hallucination, then, is reserved for the leading man himself – his assuming a blue countenance at this point presumably representing his own uniqueness (in view of the gift he is able to 'bestow' upon others).
As I said, this is more worth watching for its intentions than for what is ultimately achieved; the colour scheme, at least, makes it that more palatable to the adventurous movie-buff. Incidentally, we also have here one of the very earliest examples of a pre-credits sequence on celluloid.
helpful•30
- Bunuel1976
- Jan 15, 2014
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Snovi koji se mogu kupiti za novac
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer