Casablanca

Streaming video - 2002

At the beginning of the dream, Nadine is handed a picture of herself playing the violin. Stanley, a man in clunky glasses who accompanies Nadine through her dream, demands a performance, and a chorus of suited men on the other side of a wall of windows stare at her expectantly. Throughout the dream, Stanley repeatedly nags Nadine about not cheating. Nadine finds herself in a kitchen, mixing flour and other ingredients in a bowl. She stops before dumping rat poison into the bowl, and the chorus of suited men applaud. This same group of men observe her in the dressing room as Nadine primps for the performance. She panics when she learns that her accompaniment is Wendy, a popular, leggy, blonde woman. Then Nadine hesitantly descends a staircas...e as she is greeted by bizarre family friends. A matronly woman assure her she’s “a good girl.” Nadine is genuinely relieved and happy to hear this. But then Wendy enters and steals away all of the attention. Dejected, Nadine sits on a couch watching “Casablanca,” which is actually just a shot of herself holding her breath under water. Here, she declares her love for Stanley (I’ve love you since dinner. And that’s a really long time”). They kiss, and he tells her to go “get pretty.” Sitting in the bathroom with Wendy, Nadine explains that she has lost her violin, and also has an extra finger. It is Wendy who ultimately leaves to give a screeching performance. By the time Nadine emerges, the performance scene has become a massacre, with dead, bloody, suited men tossed around the hallway. But now, Nadine brushes off the needling demands. As she begins to play the violin by bowing the air, she dismisses the hysterical Stanley by telling him, “You’re always talking.” Official Selection at the **Sundance Film Festival**. more