“Dream Scenario”, interview with director Kristoffer Borgli

November 15, 2023 1

Director Kristoffer Borgli explains the origin of "Dream Scenario", screening at Rome Film Fest 2023, and the choice as protagonist of Nicolas Cage

"Dream Scenario", interview with director Kristoffer Borgli Giulia Bianconi

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After “Sick of Myself“, Kristoffer Borgli directs the dark-comedy “Dream Scenario”, produced by American independent entertainment company A24 and by Ari Aster (“Beau Is Afraid“), and starring a surprising Nicolas Cage. Previewed at the Rome Film Festival 2023, the film will be released in Italian cinemas from November 16th distributed by I Wonder Pictures.

The collective unconscious

“My movie plays on the idea of the collective unconscious and that we all like share a part of our psyche where we have the same ideas crop up in different parts of the world at the same time, because there is some shared link between us all – the norwegian Borgli explains about the origin of the movie – And I like that the collective unconscious as concept feels like it resonated with how we live our lives now that we’re so connected and we don’t meet each other physically as much, but we’re in each other’s heads all the time”.

Be or not to be popular

Director defines “Dream scenario“ a “sort of a parable, a cautionary tale about engaging with the public psyche about the mass culture, and that it can be anything could look and feel pretty miserable. I’m engaging with the public and then the collective consciousness with my movies. I think as long as I can interject myself through my art, and not me personally, I feel safer”.

A surprising Nicolas Cage

Borgli was always a big fan of Cage. “He was someone that I’ve admired since I started getting into movies. I worked at a video store when I was a teenager and was in love with so many of his films. I didn’t have anyone in mind when I was writing the script, but then I think about him”, director says, adding that between the character and Cage there are similitudes: “Nicolas is like a cultural artifact. And he’s mysterious and idiosyncratic and strange. He’s never left the collective unconscious”.

Plot

With his parka, wool sweater, backpack, incipient baldness, grey beard, two children who think he’s bumbling, and a supportive wife, Paul Matthews, a biology professor at a small college, has nothing special about him. He’s the kind of man you don’t even notice, who blends in with the crowd. Until the day that, unbeknownst to himself, he starts appearing in people’s dreams, total strangers’ dreams, anyone, anywhere. And his life changes overnight. For his first American film, Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself, Un Certain Regard 2022) has written and directed a post-modern fantasy built around the performance of Nicholas Cage, who has produced edgier and edgier star turns in recent years. His co-stars are Julianne Nicholson and Michael Cera.

Written by: Giulia Bianconi

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