The psychological effects of color vs. b&w cinema have long been debated in film circles. It is well known that most of us dream most of the time in black and white, which is at least in part indicative of color processing as a secondary characteristic of identifications (Land's seminal work also implies this, I believe). When does color appear in a dream? Is there a typology of colored dreams, as opposed to black and white? If there were, it would have great implications for film theory. Beyond this, there is the question of a color "switch" for lack of a better word: Why are dreams *in their entirety* in black and white or color? What mechanism begins the diegesis in this manner? This implies a lateral narratological processing vs. a vertical chrominance processing... I have always believed that the cognitive psychology and even physiology of cinematic viewing relate closely to normative mental processing (see my lonely *Theses on the Inversion of the Cinema* in Millennium Film Journal #13). I am curious if the use of black and white or color (beyond the historically contingent) might be 'subsumed' within the same... [Another way to consider this: Since the 'real' is in color, but dreams are often in black and white, 'black-and-white' becomes a somewhat occluded signifier of the dream-state. A black and white film is then always already ulterior to everyday normative processes. This would explain the heightened 'reality' of black and white film, in which EVERYTHING appears to signify - just as everything appears to do in a dream.]