Review of Dreamwood (1972) by Kd C — 01 Feb 2013

Broughton's most surreal, abstract, dreamlike and bizarre movie. A man plagued by an industrial, modern world hates what he has become, has visions of a strange woman and goes on some kind of quest on an island where he encounters all kinds of tests, tribulations and adventures.

This includes naughty nuns, materialism in the form of a man in front of a dresser with drawers full of pigeons which he promptly axes, a swarm of aggressive naked children, naked river nymphs, a leather-clad dominatrix, an alternate version of himself, what may be a succubus helped by masked men, and various other odds and ends, until he makes love to nature and defecates on her.

Dream-like super-impositions, cinematography and sound add to this hippy-esque and symbolic fantasy-cum-parable.