The realm between reality and illusion in The Company of Wolves lies in the state of dreaming ; the reality that the audience is introduced to in the beginning of the film establishes the world in which Rosaleen is living in . ‘ The Shattered Dreams ’ book next to Rosaleen that can be seen in Figure One , foreshadows the nightmare elements that will be formed around her character and has connotations of fiction , thus , illusion . Following the shot of Rosaleen asleep , the lighting drops rapidly leaving only the light of the moon . Rapidly changing the lighting in this scene creates a sense of terror , with darkness being associated with nightmares as well as reflecting the rapid rate at which our childhood passes and what is deemed as the ‘ adult world ’ is an unknown nightmare . Non-diegetic music increases in speed as the shots cut back and forth between different objects , becoming shorter . The correlation of the speed of the music increasing as the transitions between shots become more frequent and shorter creates an anxious atmosphere representative of Rosaleen ’ s anxiety about the unknown of growing up . Smooth transitions in the mise-en-scene not only aid the scene in its fluidity , but it also becomes symbolic of the connected worlds of reality and the dream world - this demonstrates how closely real-world anxieties are expressed through the illusive dream . The camera panning through the window as seen in Figure Two is symbolic of both the transition from the reality that the audience has been established in , to the fantasy world , as well as from the comfort of Rosaleen ’ s childhood to the anxiety of growing up .
Doubling
Having established the reality of the world Rosaleen is living in , and the world of illusion that lies within her dreams , the shots alternate between Rosaleen ’ s room and Rosaleen ’ s sister Alice running through the woods . Alternating shots are significant as the objects that are in Rosaleen ’ s room , such as her toys , appear in the fantasy sequence , crossing between reality and illusion . The use of the ‘ double ’ in this scene allows for a connection between the world of illusion and the world of reality , whilst reinforcing the unfamiliar . Freud ’ s concept of the uncanny is integral in the first fantasy sequence as it embeds notions of reality within the fantasy world , thus creating the illusion of safety . Freud explains the origin of the word ‘ uncanny ’ stating that ‘ The German word unheimlich is obviously the opposite of Heimlich , heimlich meaning “ familiar ,” “ native ,” “ belonging to the home ”; and we are tempted to conclude that what is “ uncanny '' is frightening precisely because it is not known and familiar .’ 68 The “ familiar ” that Freud describes is the connection between the world of reality and illusion in this scene . In Figure Three the
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Freud , ‘ The “ uncanny ”’, 418