The Woman Who Dreamed of a Man (2010)

K is a danish photographer, she is married and has a daughter. While working in Paris she sees a man and follows him. He catches her and she explains that she has a recurring dream about him where he commits suicide in a hotel. They begin an affair. When she is sent to work in Poland she tracks him down even though this time around she took her family with her on the trip. He's a Polish professor, married and with a daughter. Then he follows her to her hotel. He gives her a key to an apartment right across where he lives. Eventually her husbands catches on to things and they break up. Meanwhile she installs herself in the apartment and spends her time watching him and following him to work. Eventually he gets tired of her and tries to break things up but she won't accept, until he shows her that the uses the apartment for all of his affairs.This movie is stylish and well directed. The script lacks though. The two lovers don't share anything but sex really, they don't talk much and know little about each other. Now this could very well be how affairs are for Scandinavian women--in the end credits the writer/director thanks all the women who have shared their stories with him--but it doesn't make for a compelling movie. One doesn't even see the need for an affair, at least for her. She seems most happy when she is working. We don't even see her smile during the affair. One thinks that the whole dream issue will somehow contribute to the story, but it doesn't overtly. The most important line is uttered by the Polish man when he tells her that he isn't the man of her dreams. No one is the person of someone else's dreams. In dreams, or rather day-dreams and fantasies, we idealize people and then expect the other person to conform to that ideal--which never happens. I think in a way that's what the movie is trying to tell us with the dream sub-story.While not perfect, this movie is a must see for cheaters and would-be cheaters. For the rest of us, there isn't much here but a sense of emptiness that isn't even filled by the movie's style.

Per Fly is back five years after his Denmark-trilogy with a revitalized film style and new actors.Fashion photographer K has had dreams of a strange man. One day she sees a man who looks exactly like the man of her dreams on a restaurant and follows him. When she sees him again the next day at the same place he approaches her.Per Fly made a clear mark within Scandinavian film in the beginning of the 21st century with the modern social realistic trilogy: "The Bench" (2000), "The Inheritance" (2003) and "Manslaughter" (2005), which depicts the different social classes in Denmark. Five years later the Danish film-instructor is back with a multinational and aesthetic film experiment where he and co-writer Dorthe Høgh tells a passionate tale about a happily married woman and mother who finds herself overpowered by a recurring dream. Per Fly's fourth feature film is an ongoing journey between the surreal and the real, from Copenhagen to Warszawa to Paris, and this is strengthened by the non-linear narrative structure, the long takes without dialog, the atmospheric score, the versatile cinematography, the ambiguous close-up shots and Per Fly's confident filming where he visualizes nice perspectives from his own and the main characters point of view."The Woman That Dreamed About a Man" starts off as any kind of romance about a mutual attraction between two strangers from different cultures that has similar lifestyles, but changes rapidly by the director's narrative choices which invites the viewer's into a universe of dreams where the psychological, the erotic, the mystic and the abstract are interlaced while a study of character evolves. Sonja Richter, one of Denmark's most skilled actresses delivers an enthralling performance in a risky role where she has to express more through her eyes than with her lines and emotional repertory. The chemistry between her and Marcel Dorocinski, who does a good job in his role, is present mostly due to Sonja Richter's expressive interpretation. This is a stylish thriller and a radiant figment of imagination that's characterized by Per Fly's enhanced film style where he focuses on the aesthetic, the fictive and the narrative aspects of the film language.

This movie is a great character study that brings you under the skin of the two protagonists. One might have some criticism for the depth or quality of the dialogue, but dialogue is not what this film is about. It is about the emotions and the dreams, the tustles that the protagonists face within their inner selves and with those around them. These are transposed through the visuals rather than the dialogue. While the pace may be slow for some viewers, the crescendo and the climax are perfectly dosed creating a sublimely atmospheric piece of art-house cinema. I strongly recommend this movie to all lovers of true cinema.

I have to say spoiler because i do reveal some parts of the storyline but nothing of all the twists and plots.For some reason people get very defensive on movies about infidelity and rate them low. It could have something to do with the fact that this happens more often to people than, say, a zombie apocalypse and therefore it is closer to home and more frightening.Story: The beautiful successful photographer Karen, magnificent performance of Sonja Richter, living the dream with a loving supporting husband (Michael Nyqvist)and daughter, meets the man of her dreams on a job in Paris. Literally man of her dreams as she dreamed confusing dreams about this man prior to their meeting. Shortly after they have a short encounter she gets into a hopeless downward spiral of obsession losing all dignity.A claustrophobic thriller with a David Lynch-ian twist with the reoccurring dream and a perfect circle of events. If you liked this you will also want to see Damage (Juliette Binoche and Jeremy Irons) and Polanski's Bitter Moon.