Dreams That Money Can Buy

Joe discovers he can see the contents of people's minds by looking into their eyes and decides to monetize the ability by selling tailor-made dreams from his room. The idea quickly catches on, and his waiting room fills within minutes, billed as the first installment on the 2 billion clients by a narrator. He embarks on a new line of work that blends therapy, fantasy, and art.

Mr A, a methodical bank clerk, wants a practical dream to widen his horizons and perhaps secure a raise. From his ledger, Joe assembles a surreal sequence: a bedroom under a red curtain, a reclining woman, a golden ball, and jail bars with a voyeur watching from behind them. The dream threads love, aspiration, and risk, ending with the dreamscape enveloping Mr A in its imagery.

A young woman in suit and beret enters to sign Joe up for various causes. She flirts, pleads, and almost leaves, then returns to kiss him as a chorus of wigged mannequins dances and a phone-book of jewelry is offered to a 'healthy girl' named Julie. The dream collapses into a surreal sequence where a mannequin is beheaded and the cycle continues with the refrain 'untouched by human hands'.

Mrs A pays for a session and leaves with a photo that recalls her carefree youth. She envisions a dream of renewal, including a film screening where the audience imitates the gestures on screen. Outside, a chaotic riot erupts and a gangster slips into Joe's office, signaling new danger.

The gangster wants a dream to win horse races, but the sequence becomes a dizzy montage of Marcel Duchamp's spinning discs and a distorted Nude Descending a Staircase. Unimpressed, he robs Joe at gunpoint, and a policeman with a gun license lets him go, leaving Joe unconscious as the gangster escapes.

A blind old man and a little girl enter the empty office; the girl toys with a ball that becomes Calder mobiles while a sombre mask watches. Joe regains consciousness and sees the two new inhabitants, with the blind man explaining he wants to sell a dream rather than buy one. Joe ultimately buys this new, surreal dream world.

The next customer turns out to be Joe himself, frozen in a blue-tinged ice chamber. He enters his own autobiographical dream and finds himself at a poker table surrounded by friends and a bearded Morpheus bust watching over them. A shattered glass and a sudden blue change in his skin frighten the others away, leaving Joe to confront the dream's grip on him.

Joe follows a blue thread that leads him outside, where the public blocks his progress and four-direction ladders appear. He begins to climb, recalling postwar relief and the sense of peace that followed, as streamers fall from the sky.

In a hammock-lit room a reclining woman offers Joe a drink, cherries, and a knife. He kisses her but then cuts the blue cord, turning it red with blood. He returns to the poker room, where the bearded bust bursts into flames and his friends become flaming bird cages.

Joe seizes a rope to escape through a window, but the woman who triggered the danger cuts it. He and the statue fall, transforming into balls of colored ink that rain down on the broken classical bust on the pavement below.

The colored ink floats disperse into water, washing over the pavement as the bearded bust stares upward at the swirling patterns. The film leaves Joe's fate and the dream-reality blend ambiguously unresolved, highlighting the film's surreal meditation on art, memory, and desire.