How much difference is there between a dream and reality? Is there any parallelism or equivalence between the persons of our fantasy and actuality? Or else when we come into possession of the real love of our life our hallucination becomes extinct? Well, you may get answers to all of those questions in Anthony Nion's short film 'Once Upon A Dream'.
Velentin, a wordsmith falls in love at first blush to the very beautiful and charismatic Ludivine and in order to impress Ludivine he takes a utopian scheme like hallucination. He makes Ludivine believe that she is the fantasy girl of his dream. Gradually the duo became paramour. The twist of the story comes then. Ludivine devastates when Velentin makes a confession that the girl of his hallucination was none other than the Hollywood diva Natalie Portman. But yes, here Director Nion has established the essence of eternal love and the pure, overwhelming love of Velentin makes much to Ludivine.
It is difficult for a filmmaker to establish a very particular and distinctive direction in a short film. With such an amorous and off-centre story, director Anthony Nion has passed with distinction. Films that aren't intelligent often end up as entertainment. This myth has totally missed the mark in the case of 'Once upon a Dream'. All the thirteen minutes and twenty five seconds is a package of intelligence as well as entertainment and romance.
In the aspects of direction Anthony Nion stresses his experience remarkably. Characters won the screen and their body language was pitch perfect. The background music serves as the perfect foil. In a whole the movie will floor you with its deliberate pacing, uncluttered simplicity and understated joie de vivre.
Arindam Bhunia/Cult Critic/CICFF