Skip to main content
The Lathe of Heaven (1980)
Portland’s history is memorialized in hundreds of movies, but its speculative future? Rarely seen on film.
Adapted from Ursula K. Le Guin’s quintessential, Portland-set 1971 sci-fi novel, The Lathe of Heaven is one of the few examples. In it, our dystopian future looks a lot like a brutalist office park in late-’70s Dallas, where the movie was shot.
Still, the vision is strangely convincing. This adaptation employs precious few exterior shots—and a lot of rain outside dark windows—to cultivate both empty grandeur and claustrophobia.
These are forces that serve Le Guin’s psychodrama, in which a lonely young man, George (Bruce Davidson), reveals to his court-appointed psychiatrist (Kevin Conway) that he has “effective dreams”—meaning his dreams can change reality.
The low-budget film (produced by New York Public Television) doesn’t really try to convey the worldwide scope of George’s all-powerful dreams and instead tees up an affecting philosophical battle between the patient alienated by his power and the psychiatrist who believes he can use it to improve the world.
The Lathe of Heaven screens Feb. 8 at the Tomorrow Theater. After the screening, acclaimed Portland novelist Leni Zumas will appear in conversation with Le Guin’s son, Theo Downes-Le Guin.
Also Playing:
5th Avenue: I Am Not a Witch (2017), Feb. 6–8. Academy: Mulholland Drive (2001), Mean Streets (1973), When Harry Met Sally (1989), Feb. 4 and 5. Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Harold and Maude (1971), The Ascent (1977), Feb. 6–12.Cinema 21: The 400 Blows (1959), Feb. 7. Cinemagic: Andrei Rublev (1966), Feb. 5. Retroactive (1977), Feb. 6. Clinton: If I Were...Harap Alb (1965), Feb. 4. Black Girl (1966), Feb. 5. Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), Feb. 6. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Feb. 7. Hollywood: Speed Racer (2008), Feb. 4. This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Feb. 5. Muriel’s Wedding (1994), Feb. 7. Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), Feb. 7 and 8. Dirty Pair: Project Eden (1986), Feb. 8. When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Feb. 9. Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992), Feb. 9. Shogun Assassin (1980), Feb. 10. Tomorrow: Naked Acts (1996), Feb. 5. Waiting to Exhale (1995), Feb. 6. No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics (2021), Feb. 7. The Princess Bride (1987), Feb. 8.
