Dames Nation's A-List: Dreamy Movies Edition
A little round-up to guide your viewing choices
A while back, I asked for nominations from the field of dreamy movies, and Dames Nation answered the call, in abundance! Thank you all so much — these will keep me busy for a good long while. If you missed that issue & want to nominate another film for the list, comment on this issue.
Now, of course, this list isn’t strictly necessary, because you can revisit the comments to the original post, but I love a helpful redundancy. As I reviewed your recommendations, I noticed a few small trends worth mentioning:
Dames Nation looooooves Wong Kar-Wai
The Hong Kong filmmaker got more nominations for his films Happy Together, Chungking Express, and the dreamiest of all, In The Mood For Love. Other films/bodies of work with multiple mentions: Hayao Miyazaki & Ghibli Studio films in general, A Room With A View, and Enchanted April. There’s just something about the English & life-altering trips to Italy!
Something Old, Something New
Your most recent recommendation is 2023’s Past Lives, and An Affair To Remember is our most vintage entry.
I put the following 35 films in alphabetical order, and added brief dreaminess categories and embedded trailers to make it easier to recall what they’re about (or learn about them for the first time, as was the case for me with at least a quarter of them). Happy viewing, and please do chime in in the comments if you think of other films that meet the brief!
After Life (Happiest memories of the dead dreamy)
Amelie (French dreamy)
An Affair to Remember (Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr dreamy)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Western dreamy)
Babette’s Feast (Sumptuous Danish meal dreamy)
Chungking Express (Crime-y comedy-drama dreamy)
Cyrano de Bergerac (1990, French dreamy)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Tragedy dreamy)
Enchanted April (Italy transfigures the British dreamy)
Ghost Story (Sad dreamy)
The Green Knight (Arthurian dreamy)
Happy Together (Queer dreamy)
Howards’ End (1991, Merchant-Ivory dreamy)
In The Mood For Love (Slooooooow burn dreamy)
Last Life in the Universe (Grief processing dreamy)
Last Year at Marienbad (French New Wave dreamy)
Local Hero (Scottish little guy vs. big business dreamy)
Minari (Multi-generational family dreamy)
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (London governess cuts loose dreamy)
Mostly Martha (This is a clip rather than a trailer; culinary dreamy)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Vampirically dreamy)
Paddington & Paddington 2 (Charming dreamy)
Past Lives (What if dreamy)
Persuasion (1995, best Austen dreamy)
Petite Maman (Mother & child dreamy)
The Piano (New Zealand dreamy)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (Australia dreamy)
Pride and Prejudice (2005, Matthew McFadyen’s hand subtly brushing against Kiera Knightley’s hand dreamy)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Queer & artsy dreamy)
A Room With A View (Italy transfigures the British dreamy)
Russian Ark (Single-take ballet dreamy)
The Secret of Roan Inish (Irish legend dreamy)
Somewhere in Time (Romantic fantasy dreamy)
Studio Ghibli films (Hayao Miyazaki forever dreamy)
Tortilla Soup (Culinary dreamy)
Dames Nation: Keeping It Classy-fied
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Great list! How about David Lynch? Mulholland Drive was kind of like an actual dream...