ABSTRACT
In the primary meaning of the term, a “film” is a fine membrane that covers and protects certain parts of a plant or animal organism; by extension, the word refers to an equally fine layer of solid matter on the surface of a liquid or the outer face of another solid. In its secondary meaning, the “film” used in photography is a thin strip supporting the sensitive layer which will receive impressions. A dream is an impressionable film: it registers mental images which are for the most part visual, occasionally with added sound or subtitles, sometimes more like photographic stills, but most often animated like cinematic films, or rather—to use a better, contemporary comparison—like a video-clip. Dreams realise the desires of the Id, understood as including the whole gamut of instinctual desires that Freud had just added: sexual, autoerotic, aggressive, and self-destructive.
