The Science of Sleep (2006) July 8, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , trackbackDirected by: Michel Gondry
This film tells the story of a blossoming relationship both in real life and through dreams. Stéphane Miroux is a slightly insecure guy who starts a new job in Paris at the request of his mother. Unfortunately, what he hoped would be a creative position turns out to be a monotonous cutting and pasting activity at a calendar firm. His move does prompt the start of an infatuation however, with his charming neighbour Stéphanie.
It’s actually a difficult film to condense down into words, especially since so much of it is visual in nature. The crux of the movie is that as Stéphane goes about his days we see many of his internalisations and dreams, which range from the weird, to the truly bizarre, and utilise some interesting model work and stop-motion animation effects. As the movie progresses, the split between dreams and life becomes ever more blurred and the two worlds even start to collide - Stéphane’s ability to define the two clearly becoming weaker.
Interestingly, the screenplay was written, as well as directed, by Eternal Sunshine director Michel Gondry, and quite an imagination he shows himself to possess. Many have attributed the ‘creative’ nature of Stéphane’s character directly to Gondry, and just to keep the dialogue interesting he makes use of multiple languages, including English, French and Spanish. Still, the script manages to punctuate its frivolity with some nice characters and a story that is very simple but which allows plenty of scope for you to attach yourself to it.
The film is also very funny in parts, with a great central performance from Gael García Bernal contributing a lot to the laughs. The rest of the cast also do a fine job, with Charlotte Gainsbourg playing especially well alongside Bernal as the slightly shy neighbour who Stéphane slowly begins to obsess over.
It isn’t perfect, and as with every movie that chooses to blur its lines in this way there will always be room for criticism. I think that there are times when the movie escapes into its fantasy world a little too readily, and the introduction of Stéphane’s ‘inventions’ takes away slightly from the grounding of the awake scenes. But I also feel that the bad things I have to say about this film are entirely personal and that while few will find it faultless, another viewer may find entirely different points of contention.
I’m not usually a fan of this weak-narrative, art-over-sense fare, yet I found myself really liking The Science of Sleep; immediately wanting to see it again in order to fully appreciate all the personality it has to offer. Whether it’s some aspect of the Stéphane character, the genuinely heartfelt scenes that sit alongside such imaginative images, or just the refreshing lack of pretentiousness that I worried might burden the movie, there’s definately something worth capturing in this film. Will it still carry the same impact a second time? I’m undecided. But the least you can do is to give it a try for the first.
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