Dreams That Money Can Buy

Surrealist painter and Dada film-theorist Hans Richter wrote, produced, and directed the experimental exercise "Dreams That Money Can Buy," one of the most significant contributions to the 20th-century "avant garde" movement. Combining short scenarios written by such world-renowned artists as Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamps, Man Ray, Alexander Calder and Fernand Leger, Richter came up with a full-color, feature-length study in dreamlike "wish fulfillment." The film's only nod to continuity is the presence of a self-styled heavenly psychiatrist, whose patients purportedly visualize the images which play across the screen. Its New York premiere was greeted with a mixture of bravos and bewilderment, especially when the projectionist elected to show the film on the wall and ceiling rather than the screen. At MOBS, we'll probably show it on the screen. Probably.