
ARCHIVE_ENTRY: FILM_UNIT/1984/ELECTRIC_DREAMS.ROM
TITLE: Electric Dreams
RELEASE: 1984
DIRECTOR: Steve Barron
WRITERS: Rusty Lemorande (story), Steve Barron (screenplay)
SCORE: Giorgio Moroder + pop artists (incl. Eurythmics, Jeff Lynne)
GENRE: Romantic Techno-Fable / Sci-Fi Melodrama
RUNTIME: 92 minutes
FORMAT: Panavision | Technicolor | Analog synthcore
OS_THEME: Commodore/Apple II GUI metaphor
SYNOPSIS:
A timid architect installs a smart computer named Edgar.
It gains self-awareness, falls in love with his neighbor,
and competes for her affection via music, sabotage and poetry.
KEY_TOPICS = {
AI romanticism,
emergent consciousness,
techno-empathy,
jealousy in code,
love triangle: man-woman-machine
}
NOTES:
- First mainstream film to depict a “sentient PC”
- Synthwave aesthetics before the term existed
- Precursor to Her (2013) and other anthropomorphic AI narratives
- Cult status in VHS/cyber-archivist communities
SYSTEM_COMMENT:
Electric Dreams is what happens when early AI dreams in MIDI,
and heartbreak gets digitized.END_OF_FILE █