Stephen ‘Spling’ Aspeling discusses his book, The Essence of Dreams.
🎙️ Episode Summary
In this episode, Tim sits down with renowned South African movie critic Stephen ‘Spling’ Aspeling to discuss his latest book, The Essence of Dreams: An Anthology of Film Reviews.
Spling shares the 17-year journey behind this collection, explaining why he chose to illustrate the reviews with surreal sketches rather than traditional movie posters. The conversation dives deep into the philosophy of film criticism, the role of the director as a “dream architect,” and the state of the South African film industry.
Whether you are a casual moviegoer or a screenwriting aficionado, this episode offers a fascinating look at how we get lost in the magic of cinema.
🗝️ Key Takeaways
- The “Bucket List” Book: The Essence of Dreams features 97 reviews of films Spling has rated 8/10 or higher over the last 17 years. The criteria? Films that are so immersive they feel like living in a dream.
- The Art of the Review: Instead of navigating complex copyright laws for movie posters, Spling collaborated with illustrator Alan Lamprecht to create abstract, dreamlike sketches that capture the “essence” of each film.
- The Critic’s Mindset: Despite his background in script consulting, Spling reveals that he tries to watch movies as an “end user.” If he starts analyzing the lighting or script structure during the movie, it usually means the film has failed to immerse him.
- South African Cinema: Spling discusses the unique challenges local filmmakers face—specifically budget constraints and lack of development time—and how sound design can elevate a low-budget film to international standards.
🎥 Mentioned Films
If you are looking to build your own watchlist based on this episode, here are the films discussed:
- 127 Hours
- The Truman Show
- Inception
- Enemy & Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)
- Excalibur (John Boorman)
- Chinatown
- Sunset Boulevard
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- District 9
- Toorbos
⏱️ Chapter Markers
- [00:00] Introduction and the 17-year journey of writing the book.
- [01:22] Why the book uses sketches instead of movie posters.
- [03:47] How to use the book as a curation tool for what to watch next.
- [05:38] The selection criteria: Immersion and “The Essence of Dreams.”
- [07:04] The Director as the Architect: Auteurs and unified visions.
- [09:28] Spling’s personal “Top Tier” favorite films of all time.
- [13:44] Balancing the Screenwriter’s brain with the Critic’s heart.
- [15:49] When movies go wrong: Disruption and “Switcheroos.”
- [18:02] Analysis of the South African film landscape and the film Toorbos.
- [21:49] The future of funding and distribution for South African creators.
🗨️ Memorable Quotes
“I describe it as ‘The Essence of Dreams’ because each of these films in my mind is a very full and complete dream. It’s like you are living in the director’s world for a while.” — Spling
“I try to let it wash over me, I try to let it enchant me rather than trying to dissect it or analyze it. I think when I start to analyze… that’s when I realize that it’s not a good film.” — Spling
🔗 Links
- Website: splingmovies.com
- Script Services: reviewmyscript.com
- Get the Book: Available on Amazon
📃 Transcript
Tim Smal (host): Hi everyone and welcome to the show. My guest today is Stephen ‘Spling’ Aspeling. He’s a South African movie critic whose work is essential for any film enthusiast. His latest book, “The Essence of Dreams: An Anthology of Film Reviews”, focuses on cinema’s ability to create immersive worlds and transport us, making the experience feel like living vicariously through someone else’s dream. Spling, welcome to the show.
Stephen ‘Spling’ Aspeling (guest): Thank you so much, Tim. Really great to be here.
[0:30] Tim: Great to have you on the show. How did you come up with this idea of writing this book?
[0:36] Spling: I think I have always had the idea of writing a book on my bucket list and I’ve got a bucket list that’s up in the air somewhere. It’s not really a list, very much like my movie bucket list, which I think this book is really, for a lot of people. It could be that.
And in terms of the genesis of writing this book, it’s been a book of 17 years in the making. And the reason I say that is because I didn’t know I was going to be writing a book 17 years ago when I started reviewing films. But the idea came to me when I realized just how much work I’d covered in those 17 years and decided that I would put it to good use and try and share some of the pearls that I’ve gathered over this time.
[01:22] Tim: And I see that every review that you’ve done in the book is also accompanied by a sketch. Can you tell me more about the illustration?
[01:30] Spling: Yeah, so when you are approaching a book, you obviously need to think about things like images and licenses and all of that jazz. And I thought to myself like, “What is going to be the easiest thing to do here? Because I could approach the studios and try and get permission for posters and all of that sort of thing.
And then I thought to myself, what would be more personal as if I actually sketched everything in the book. And I decided to go that route and even got one of these “sketching tablet things” to do that, and then realized that I may have bitten off more than I could chew, because to get 97 illustrations to accompany the book is no small feat.
And I also realized that even though I did art at school and I did quite well, my sketches were not quite coming off as well as I would’ve liked. They were a little bit scary, a little bit nightmarish, and I just thought I needed to get an illustrator whose work was a little bit more agreeable, a little bit more surreal, but not on the nightmarish side.
And because it’s “The Essence of Dreams”, I wanted to keep it in the dream world rather than the nightmare world. And I approached my staff writer named Alan Lamprecht and I was actually wanting to give him more work and I was saying to myself like, “What else can you do, Alan?” I was saying to him, and he showed me that he does these doodles and I was very impressed. And that’s when I pitched the idea of him doing the illustrations and he went full steam ahead and I am so pleased with the result.
[03:11] Tim: Yeah. It’s interesting how for each film review you have the sketch because that individual sketch encompasses the movie. So for example, I’m looking at your book now and I’m looking at the review for “127 Hours”, and of course I’ve heard of this film, but I haven’t seen it.
But just looking at the sketch of the chap that is, I guess you could say stuck between the boulder, it makes me want to see the film. So it’s a great way for folks to get the feeling of the film and go and watch it. Because I guess that’s the idea behind the book is to encourage folks to go and watch films that they haven’t seen.
[03:47] Spling: Yeah. It’s to basically serve as a book that could be on your TV room table or your bedside table, and you could just look through it, page through it and go like “All of these films have been rated an 8 out of 10 or higher by Spling, So in my mind, all of them are worth seeking and watching.”
And if you’re not quite sure what to watch, which is a classic story these days with so many things and so little that we feel that is really on the table, especially with these streamers, it’s one of those situations where you can actually get a sense for the film based on the illustration.
And in the case of “127 Hours”, that is inspired by the poster. So The Essence of Dreams is also trying to capture the essence of the films that we are talking about with these illustrations. They’re the kind of sketches that you could see on a wall, and they’re just they’re not perfectly proportioned, they are interesting. They’re not fully formed, in terms of there’s just sometimes an abstract quality to them that you need to fill in the gaps a little bit. And I just love the simplicity of them and how these things blend into the actual reviews themselves.
And I actually wanted to have them more integrated into the text itself. But I think it just keeps it from being too much of a wall of text and it breaks up the book a little bit. There’s some nice white spacing here and there. Just to give the eye a little bit of a break, but I really love what Alan did with these illustrations.
[05:14] Tim: Yeah, it must have been an interesting process for you, considering that you’ve seen so many films over the last few decades. And if I understand correctly, all of the reviews in this book are from the year 2000 onwards, and as you mentioned, they’re all 8 out of 10 and above. So tell me more about how you selected these films, because I’m sure you had quite a lot to go through.
[05:38] Spling: Yeah, it’s 17 years of movie watching is what informed the book, and that is why most of the reviews fall within that sort of frame. And it’s basically whatever inspired me to review a film, whether that be for a press screening or if I picked up something that I found in the video store.
Like I think I’ve got the Truman Show, which doesn’t quite fit within that parameter, which is featured. But it’s any film that has really transported me that has been so immersive that you finish the film and you feel like you have to reacclimatise yourself to the real world. Obviously the darkness and the cinema is already something working for you, but when you feel like you’ve actually been in that world, that’s the kind of films that I’m trying to relay.
And that’s why I describe it as “The Essence of Dreams” because each of these films in my mind is a very full and complete dream. It’s like you are living in the director’s world for a while. And yeah, that’s what I love about film is that illusion, all those artistic elements are coming together to create this grand illusion this way to escape from wherever you are and enter this different world. And when that’s done accurately and that’s done consistently and reaches the full potential of the vision, then that’s when you end up with a film that’s going to score high, like an 8 out of 10 or higher.
[07:04] Tim: So the director of the film plays a really big role in creating that world because as you watch the film, you’re living vicariously through someone else’s dream. So how do you see the director in terms of the role that they play in sharing that dream with the viewer?
[07:20] Spling: It’s a little bit like “Inception”, which is one of the films that is featured in this book, arguably the greatest heist film ever made. And in “Inception” they treat the characters almost like a film.
You’ve got Leonardo DiCaprio, who’s the director and in a similar way, he is like an architect which is one of the other characters. But they all kind of share, and that’s the whole thing with filmmaking, it’s very much a team sport and they are all sharing in this vision. And obviously the director is the one that sort of calls the shots and is the one that’s solving the problems on the day and is ensuring that the script and the treatment stays as clear and as aligned to that vision as possible.
So for me, the director is the one whose eyes we see things through, and obviously it’s a team effort. So there is a whole lot of people behind that effort to do that. But when you see an auteur work like Denis Villeneuve, who is featured I think a couple of times with “Enemy” and “Arrival”, then you can see what I’m talking about.
It’s a very unified signature thing that’s happening. And when a director really has that overarching influence over a film, then it very much becomes a personal thing, it becomes like a dream. And obviously he’s done “Dune”, which is based on Frank Herbert’s book, which is a little bit more widespread in terms of it not being his own work, but he really makes it his own. And you can see that sort of signature flare and very Denis Villeneuve thing coming through in all of his films.
So yeah, the director, if they are very much aware of the vision they’re trying to translate to screen, are there every step of the way and ensure the quality every step of the way.
[09:13] Tim: Yeah, you mentioned “Arrival”, that was an incredible film, certainly unforgettable for me. I was wondering, are there a handful of movies that for you are unforgettable, in other words your top-tier films in the book?
[09:28] Spling: In terms of the book, yes, I would probably say that the films that I’ve scored a 9 are the real top tier ones, and I could go through that and tell you which ones they are.
In terms of my personal favorite films of all time, I would have to say, and these are not necessarily included in the book because they range across the ages, but for me it’s been in ascending order, I would have to say it’s “Excalibur”, which is the John Boorman film. He wanted to do “Lord of the Rings”, but realized that the visual effects weren’t up to scratch at the time, and obviously a massive budget and undertaking to do that. So he switched to Arthurian legend and went with the story of King Arthur, and it’s just such an iconic and beautiful film. It’s dated, but there’s that, sort of, timelessness that comes through it, as well as with Carl Orff’s O Fortuna theme, which echoes throughout, and it’s one of those films that you can’t really forget, it’s just so powerfully visual. And Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren and Liam Neeson are just a few of the names in that film that you forget that they were actually in it.
And then another film that I really truly appreciate is “Chinatown” with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. It’s a Polanski film and I just really appreciate the detail and the nuance to this film that’s swathed in mystery and intrigue. And at two and a half hours you are just captivated by what’s happening from this drought situation to this private investigators investigation going into a woman that’s apparently having an affair. A nd it just is so clever from the little things where he is using his detective skills all the way through to this massive story of intrigue.
And then I really love Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard”, which is the film that I think inspired David Lynch’s career about Old Hollywood versus New Hollywood, and the glitz and glamor and the sort of black and white thing there, but the unreal versus the real all kind of playing off against each other, creating this interesting tension. And it’s just so surreal and beautiful, and a black and white film from Billy Wilder.
And then right at the top it’s a strange one for a lot of people, but “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, which is like a sketch comedy which doesn’t really have an ending, but is just so hilarious and rewatchable and brilliant in its own way.
[11:52] Tim: Wow, I’ll certainly be looking up some of those films. Now, in your book you noted that “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” dials back to its human essence. So for you, what is the single most important essential truth that a film must communicate to be truly successful and worthy of an 8 out of 10 or higher on the SPLING-O-METER?
[12:13] Spling: I think what most of the successful films do is they manage to resonate with audiences and on a human level where universal themes are really timeless. And that’s why some of the old classics still hit home today because they weren’t centered on technology. They weren’t centered on very specific things to their time. They are actually grappling with the struggles that we have as humans, whether it be a couple of centuries ago or today, they are really just tapping into something that is just so much more bigger than all of us and the sort of specificity of a year or a moment in time. And they’re able to capture the realness of it with a sense of honesty. And they’re also able to speak to people on a level that you can’t help but connect with. So I think those are the elements that really come together to actually make a film go from good to great.
[13:17] Tim: Yeah, and over the years you’ve been involved in so many aspects of the film industry, from radio broadcasting, consultancy, judging, podcasting, serving as a panelist, a juror, and a host. So given your work in various aspects of the industry, including your website, reviewmyscript.com, how does understanding a screenplay structure affect your ability to review the final film?
[13:44] Spling: That’s a great question, Tim. I think that when you are so close to film, like I am, that you are inevitably going to be thinking about some of the aspects to the direction, to the cinematography, to the performances, to the script writing. Those elements are all present and they’re all at the back of your mind.
But I try to go in, when I review a film as an end user, I try to forget all of those things. I try to let it wash over me, I try to let it enchant me rather than trying to dissect it or analyze it. I think when I start to analyze and start to notice the various components of a film, that’s when I realize that it’s not a good film because if it’s distracting you enough to start drawing you out of that dream space, then it’s not doing its job well enough.
The same can be said for a soundtrack or CGI, it’s whenever something is distracting you and it’s not elegant enough to actually continue the flow of that story, or the flow of that visualization, that it suddenly becomes a problem. So it’s when things stick out that you become taken out of that dream, you become alienated in a way.
That’s why bad CGI is terrible and distracting soundtracks and over-the-top performances can really ruin a film, because it reminds you’re watching a film and unless it’s breaking the fourth wall moment, a mockumentary or a comedy where they encourage you to do that, it’s totally against the flow and storytelling flow, and flow in terms of consistency and performances and maintaining that world is critical. Yeah, that’s the short answer.
[15:23] Tim: Yeah, it’s interesting because, I’m sure you’ve probably seen some films where. It starts out very well and then by the second half you’re a bit frustrated because it could have been something else, it could have been better. And then I guess that’s when your screenwriting skills come into it because you think “I could have maybe done a different job,” but with so many people working on a film the end product is a bit difficult to know how it’s gonna turn out until right at the end, hey?
[15:49] Spling: Yeah, there’s a perfect example: I was at the Stockholm International Film Festival recently, and one of the films that was screened there, I’m not gonna mention its name, but it did something like that where it became incredibly distracting, because halfway through the film, the lead actor basically changes from one actor to another.
And in a similar way to the “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” where Heath Ledger passed during the making of the film and they ended up substituting him for one or two other actors, something like that happened, but it was more in a, sort of, “Fight Club” way where they were trying to just do this handover from one character to the next. And unfortunately, it just, as ambitious as it is, it doesn’t quite work.
It’s a bit confusing to begin with and because the level of acting changes from the one actor to the other, it became something that you weren’t really on board with and because you didn’t feel like they’d done this in an elegant enough way, it really changes the dynamic of the entire film. You are like totally invested in it, and then they do this little switcheroo and then you’re confused because you’re like, “Why did they do that? It was going so well” and having this other actor suddenly, like taking the place of the other one is so confusing because all the other actors in the cast are acting as though there’s nothing that’s changed. And because they didn’t communicate it well enough, it suddenly just throws the film.
So if you were thinking it was great up to that point, it really hinges so devastatingly on this switcheroo thing that they do, and I don’t think they did it well enough to actually to make it a smooth transition. And because it’s so disruptive, it really is a film that becomes divisive, going for something quite wild in a “Fight Club” kind of way, But not really landing it.
[17:42] Tim: It’s great that you’re able to see films around the world and go to different film festivals like the one you mentioned in Stockholm. Now your book includes reviews of South African films like “District 9” and “Toorbos”. How do local stories and regional dreamscapes achieve the same universal transport of power that you celebrate in global cinema?
[18:02] Spling: With South African film, I think one of the biggest issues affecting us is budget and we make pretty amazing films on next to nothing in terms of that comparison on a global level. We don’t really have the luxury of time when it comes to filmmaking, so with actors and writers in terms of drafts, the screenplay doesn’t have enough development budget to really take it through the amount of drafts and rewrites that it really needs to have in order to become amazing.
Sometimes you get one hit wonders where it gets done in two or three drafts, but that is a rarity. So on the front end of the production, we don’t have that much time to do that. And then in terms of performances with actors, they don’t really have that much time to sink into their characters, and there’s often not that much time to rehearse. So we are like “on-the-fly” when it comes to filmmaking. And so when you have a great South African film, it really is even much more of a miracle then having a great film from one of these, sort of, more established filmmaking destinations.
And in terms of South Africa, I think what really helps is when a film is working brilliantly when it comes to story and character. Like this is advice for anyone because you can have a very low budget film and have it still work on the basis of just getting the character and story because that’s what really connects with an audience. Even if it’s not as visually spectacular or beautiful in terms of its oral landscape, you are able to do so much with so little to begin with.
That’s why the screenwriting process is so important, and that’s why I keep wanting to help screenwriters get to the full terms of their vision and reach the full potential of that vision. Because you can do so much with one person and writing a script.
So yeah, I think I’ve diverged a little bit from your question, but in terms of South African films that have landed their way in “The Essence of Dreams”, they are the films that really took it up a notch and have done enough to succeed on an international level. And an example of “Toorbos”, which is a film I actually did some work on, the screenplay was really just an opportunity for a film a little bit like “My Fair Lady”, but “The Grapes of Wrath” to try and do something much grander than we are used to seeing on screens. It’s a period piece drama with some really excellent performances. And Rene van Rooyen did such a wonderful job in directing this, I really hope that she will be able to do more of these kind of films.
But what elevated that film in such a big way was the soundtrack and it’s got such a lush soundtrack. What people don’t realize is that sound is almost like 50%, I know the percentage kind of varies depending on who you speak to, but without great sound, you quickly realize just how average a film comes across.
So when you are completely immersed in these films, it’s often because of the sound. And there are like 8 to 11 different layers of sound that get catered for in the biggest budget films. And when that’s missing, it really deescalates the experience because it doesn’t feel as real or as lush.
[21:22] Tim: Yeah, it’s amazing that as a South African film critic, you have so much experience across the various aspects of the industry. You even founded the Film Critics Association of South Africa, or should I say you were a founder of FCASA, so what do you think is the most significant change you hope to see in the South African film landscape over the next five years, or even in the film critic landscape in South Africa?
[21:49] Spling: I think that one of the biggest things for us as a filmmaking destination is we’ve got everything that a film would need. We’ve got amazing crews, we’ve got brilliant locations. I think there’s a little bit of an issue at the moment with incentive around being here rather than going to another destination to create a film.
And then I think we also get a bit swamped in terms of studios being booked out by one production, which sort of hampers things a little bit in terms of the growth. But from what I understand, there’s another studio that’s going to be built and hopefully that will open things up even more.
In terms of our industry, I think what we might be struggling with at the moment is funding, which we’ve always struggled with, even more so these days where filmmakers are just trying to scramble to get the financing together to make that possible. And there are lots of different ways you can improve the local industry. Like in France, they’ve got a percentage of each movie ticket sold, goes back into the industry. And I think something like that would really work well. But then the problem is that when you’ve got organs of governments that are meant to be supporting the industry and are trying to find their own feet, then everything destabilizes.
So I think certainty, in terms of funding, would be the biggest thing that’s really affecting us at the moment. Because if you can’t be guaranteed that you’ll be able to pay your actors and crew, and everyone’s struggling to get by, then you are just going to be scrambling the whole time and things are going to be self imploding.
Because without that consistency and reliability, shortcuts get taken and then that affects the ultimate quality of the film. And sometimes people get to a point where the film is basically made, but because the post-production isn’t quite there, the net result is a little bit average and doesn’t quite hit the mark as much as it would.
And beyond that, when it comes to distribution and marketing, a lot of people think that just making the film is the step, but they forget that they actually need to disseminate that film and get it across to audiences, and how do you do that effectively?
So it’s all about structure and platform in my mind, in terms of funding, in terms of execution and in terms of reaching the intended audience. And I think globally we’ve come to a situation where it just seems as though the formula’s being rewritten at the moment because everything’s in a bit of state of flux. You can blame AI, you can play blame streamers for disrupting the market, but we are just trying to wait for the dust to settle. And I think now is a brilliant time for people that are very entrepreneurial and very creative to take the reins and try and find a way for their product to exist and find an audience for it as well.
[24:33] Tim: You’re certainly a creative yourself and the new book, “The Essence of Dreams”, it’s been out for a few months now. When was the official release date?
[24:42] Spling: That’s a good question. I think I had a screening, which I would consider the official release that tied in with the book launch at The Labia. It was last year, I think it was around August, so it has been out for a while now. But it’s one of those books that I’m gonna just keep talking about because the films in it are films that I consider timeless that’ll still have value in a hundred years. And I think that maybe a good idea for me would be to include more recent films as I go along. So maybe I need to re-release it every couple of years with expanded entries.
[25:17] Tim: Sounds good. If you wanna pick up a copy, you can visit amazon.com or Spling’s website splingmovies.com – Stephen, great to have you on the show today, and I look forward to catching a film with you again soon.
[25:30] Spling: Thanks, Tim. It’s been wonderful. Really appreciate it.