<copy><![CDATA[Many great artistic minds ΓÇô Shakespeare, Freud, Gabrielle ΓÇô have been fascinated by the power of dreams. In the cinema, too, thereΓÇÖs such a body of dream-sequenced movies ΓÇô Spellbound, The Shining, American Beauty, Mulholland Drive and A Nightmare on Elm Street for starters ΓÇô you could design a sleep deprivation programme around them. What it mostly boils down to, of course, once you have put all the portentous stuff to one side, is sex: the secret, subconscious desires that are thoroughly policed by our waking brains. So when Diesel, the sexy Italian fashion brand ΓÇô whose slogan "For successful living" really amounts to For successful... well, you know ΓÇô asks up-and-coming creatives to make 30 short, dream-like films derived from titles such as My Sky Is Erotic (a video of which opened this feature), I Eat the Big Carrot and My Dark Horse Is Horny, itΓÇÖs no surprise that the results should be a little suggestive. As well as an enigmatic tag line, the film-makers (who hail from 15 countries) were also given a photographic image for inspiration. In the case of My Sky Is Erotic, Anthony Burrill, one of BritainΓÇÖs hottest graphic <br> designers (but trading here as Multiplex), received a shot of a model sprawled ΓÇô in regulation Diesel clobber, naturally ΓÇô over a table tennis table. Result? As six monthsΓÇÖ worth of alpine calendar girls (more Debbie Harry than Julie Walters) coo in front of postcard scenery, a ping-pong crescendo builds to its inevitable climax. But not all the thrills on offer are so cheaply rhythmic. Diesel hooked up with onedotzero, the acclaimed digital film festival, and hip Amsterdam ad agency KesselsKramer to curate the project. And there is plenty of talent on show, which may one day appear on a onedotzero DVD and will certainly interest bands commissioning cutting-edge promos. Anglo-French-Norwegian group TundraΓÇÖs Dog People Rule My World looks like something Daft Punk would endorse; PeepshowΓÇÖs My Disco Is Freezing is a charming animated jumble from a UK collective that has illustrated flyers for London club nights Off-Centre and Perverted Science; and the man-sized ΓÇ£DalmatianΓÇ¥ in My Pet Is an Artist, from Dutch outfit Machine, resembles a refugee from a Flaming Lips video.<br> The call of adland is never far away either. IΓÇÖm Falling Forever by American duo Honest (Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott) could be the ultimate Dr Pepper commercial, as directed by Spike (Being John Malkovich) Jonze. The worst that can happen is that you crash endlessly through peopleΓÇÖs floorboards after tumbling while changing a lightbulb. Among the more obviously filmic entries, Hong Kong-based Da Joint deliver a comic book moto-psycho ninja movie with I Must Destroy the Evil Bear; Pes (from the USA) make a stop-motion bombing run in I Fly Over the Kitchen City; and ThereΓÇÖs Smoke in My Head by Thomas Hilland, a Norwegian now working in London, is set in an enchanting picture-book glade that could be sprinkled with good fairy dust until you realise time is going backwards to reveal some initial violence. Elsewhere, thereΓÇÖs an understandable degree of Blair Witchery, while My Darkness Is Melting ΓÇô by award-winning Brit Matt Hulse ΓÇô comes closest to the grainy video claustrophobia generated by Japanese horror hits such as The Ring. But most of the films are sui generis, part of the new breed of digital image making often described by onedotzero as ΓÇ£motion graphicsΓÇ¥. Their exploration of dreams might not be as searching as FelliniΓÇÖs 8┬╜, but for cutting-edge visual inventiveness they score at least 7 out of 10. All 30 shorts can be viewed by clicking on <a href="asfunction:Tardis.webPageOpen,http://www.dieseldreams.com"><b>www.dieseldreams.com</b></a> and a limited-edition DVD is available at Diesel stores while stocks last.To watch the trailer for the Diesel Dreams project, click on the advert (below left) and keep your eyes peeled for glimpses of films by Richard Linklater and David Lynch, among others.]]></copy>
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<headline><![CDATA[<br>Dreamworks]]></headline>
<quote><![CDATA[Fashion brand Diesel has commissioned 30 short films inspired by dreams. Spellbinding or nightmarish, they have sex on the brain, discovers Richard Clayton]]></quote>
