The Science of Sleep
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Movie Reviews of The Science of Sleep
Movie Review: An instant classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
There is no boudry to gondrys imagination. One of the most interessting directors of our times.
A.Pal
Movie Review: The best!
Summary: 5 Stars
Simply the best. Best movie, best director, best soundtrack! It's surreal, it's a dream, it's life.Movie Review: Tonight, I'll show you how dreams are prepared
Summary: 4 Stars
Initially known for his odd yet visually stimulating music videos for musicians the likes of The White Stripes ("Fell in Love with a Girl"), Rolling Stones ("Gimmie Shelter"), and Bjork ("Bachelorette"), director Michel Gondry, in the eyes of many, is clearly on a path toward cult status. In recent years, he's stepped away from the music scene to direct movies such as Be Kind Rewind and 2004's hit Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Both movies follow Gondry's unsystematic style of directing which walks the fine line of artisticexpression and utter absurdity. That said, it's no surprise that 2006's The Science of Sleep is made in that same manner.
The Science of Sleep follows the disjointed life of protagonist Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal). The film opens within a dream of Stephane's in which he is hosting his own cooking show on Stephane TV. He's making a recipe for dreams, which calls for "a handful of reminiscences, the day's musical choices, and enough spaghetti for two." This scene brings forth the first notion that our protagonist has a problem maintaining a firm grip on reality. Stephane finds himself back in France after the death of his father. His mom has lured him to the country with a job offer that will employ his artistic ability. The job turns out to be nothing more than a lie his mother uses to bring him closer to her, and Stephane finds himself working a dismal job he has no passion for. Soon, he finds love with a woman, Stephanie, who lives next door, and the two embark on a relationship that is as fragile as it is destructive. The two connect creatively, but are both too naïve and vulnerable to carry the kind of relationship each yearns for. As they become closer, Stephane finds himself falling into his dreams more often, and his ability to discern reality from fantasy becomes increasingly difficult. His sensitivity and petulance become more exposed, and gives way to the fact that he is severely tormented by his inadequacies and overall fear of meaning nothing to everyone. This foils the volatile relationship between the two young lovers, and although it's clear that they were made for each other, it simply cannot be.
Gael Garcia Bernal brings forth another brilliant performance in the film, proving that his acting isn't limited to the Spanish language (see Y Tu Mama Tambien and Motorcycle Diaries). Through Stephane, Bernal makes it possible to see ourselves in times of defenselessness. In the opening of The Science of Sleep, we find Stephane's dreams to be funny and even charming, but as the plot develops, we truly see how trying it is for him to distinguish what is real from that which isn't. Scenes that once held elements of humor become more painful to watch, as the viewer is subjected to the unraveling of a protagonist who wants nothing more than to live out the dreams he finds himself trapped in. The viewer will suddenly find their laughs replaced with a morbid fascination of the inner workings of Stephane's psyche. It's director Michel Gondry's way of expressing that we as humans in times of difficulty find ourselves escaping to a comfortable place among our imagination. It is our escape from reality, but should not be looked upon as a resolution to our troubles. That very escape can just as easily allow us to become a prisoner of our own thoughts.
Due to Stephane's frequent treks through reality and dreamscapes, the film can be quite hard to follow at times, but it is made this way to emulate the same confusion Stephane is feeling. Rather than using multi-million dollar special effects, Gondry employs the use of stop-motion animation and random materials such as cellophane, cardboard boxes, and paper mache to achieve an overall look that exudes an air of sophistication and art. The visuals are never too overwhelming and are just as essential to the film as the storyline. Sundance reviewer Karina Longworth put it best when she said, "Gondry tends to make movies for two kinds of people: sad-eyed boys with fantastic record collections, and the art school girls who want to make out with them. The Science of Sleep is essentially a hipster wet dream." If you are not one of those two kinds of people, do not fret, as there is something for everyone to discover in this film. If one night you find yourself in the mood for an engaging piece that strays a bit from the conventional, check out The Science of Sleep. Even if you don't find yourself in that kind of mood, check it out anyway. The plot and depth of each character is not presented on a silver platter, allowing the viewer the freedom to make what they will of what is presented on the screen... a rarity among many modern films. The Science of Sleep allows viewers the pleasure of walking away with an individualized experience that will still play out long after the film has ended. Gondry has served up a great piece for both the film enthusiast and the average watcher, and really, what more could you ask for?
Movie Review: Quirky and Imaginative; Not for Everyone
Summary: 4 Stars
Recently I saw The Science of Sleep (2006), written and directed by Michel Gondry, and enjoyed this film more so because of Gondry's imaginative and quirky directing than anything else. The acting, especially Gael Garcia Bernal as Stephane, was good, but Gondry's style surpassed all of my expectations (which were high, considering I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).
Gondry meticulously and flawlessly used common objects strangely placed to construct a bizarre story of love and growing up. He is unlike any director in his creative and child-like way of making innate objects come alive - this is particularly apparent from the props used in Stephane's dreams. For example, Stephane's dreams come alive for the viewer as we watch him on his very own TV Program, "Stephane TV," in his own dreamlike production studio lined with egg crates. It becomes difficult to distinguish the difference between Stephane's fantasies, or dreams, and his own reality - in one dream, he and Stephanie, his love interest, are dressed like kittens, and in another, he has huge hands (made out of paper mache) in an otherwise normal setting in which he tries to capture his coworkers. Stephane escapes his troubled reality by entering his dream world in which anything-and everything- is possible.
I think that the viewer's difficulty to discern whether or not Stephane is experiencing real life or dreaming was intended by Gondry, because Stephane is having the same difficulty as us; we are right there with him as he adventures into the unknown world of dreams. He is portrayed as childlike throughout the entire film as his vivid imagination seen in his dreams accompanies him into real life. He is obsessed with creating things for "Stephane TV," and this hobby adds to the confusion of what is real and what isn't. He says "Distraction is an obstruction to the construction," and it's like his dreams are distracting him from his life and making it easier for him to continue distorting his own reality.
This movie was surreal and made me think a lot about how our dreams are our way of clinging to the imagination we had as children. As we grow older we experience life and discover the bitter reality of routines-we accept things instead of question them because we know better. We are not as inclined to explore the details of mundane objects because we only see them as mundane. Stephane uses his imagination to make these everyday objects-such as a stuffed horse on which he rides in one of his dreams-part of his fantasy world. And thus, we are thrown into his fantasy and forced to question in our minds the reality of the situation. It is perfect because Stephane has moved back into his childhood bedroom after his father dies and it is like he is travelling back into his childhood but experiencing it as an adult.
The soundtrack to this film was very fitting - it is dreamlike - the music is reminiscent of a mobile you would hang over a crib to lure a baby to sleep. It really helped the viewer to get into and ready for "Stephane TV." This movie was good because it allowed me to embrace - and construct - my own visions of fantasy and reality. In dreams, these visions co-exist. In most of our adult lives, we know the difference. We almost take ourselves too seriously. Stephane, however, was able to really thrive in his dreamworld, so much that his illusions and perceptions of reality were thrown off. This usually had a negative effect on his relationships with other people because they wrote him off as a childlike dreamer. Stephanie understood him and therefore got whisked away in his imagination.
The Science of Sleep is not for everyone. Likely, many viewers will become confused and frustrated as they try to understand Stephane's dreams and make sense of the film's shifting illusions into fantasy and reality. I really enjoyed this film because it was definitely original - Gondry is truly one that "thinks outside the box," and he is able to pull it off through his obsession with details - these very details are the ones that cloud our judgment of reality in the film. The Science of Sleep was carefully planned and well executed. I was glad to have seen it, and I've thought about how my dreams reflect and coincide with my reality every day since.
Movie Review: Romantic comedy on a head trip.
Summary: 4 Stars
A playful, bittersweet diversion into the mind of a child grown old, "The Science of Sleep" is all about dreams, specifically about the way a man dreams in a messy pastiche of goofiness, fear, sex and egocentrism. It's too precocious for its own good, yet writer-director Michel Gondry is at least illuminating the soul, rather than insistently banging the elemental, involuntary, animal instincts in us.
In a season of hopeless films about fallen, wrecked worlds, it is a ray of...something. Enough for me.
Gondry's fiendishly gifted for his homemade, childlike animation and sets. He's also known for his music videos - especially those starring Bjork - and his directing work on "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind," that Charlie Kaufman-penned head trip that clearly serves as inspiration here.
Boy again meets girl. Boy makes an idol out of girl. Girl is a just a girl, and a fairly wonderful one at that, but still a girl, and simply not capable of being the thousand points of light the boy needs her to be. Boy beats himself up and tortures the girl a little too, for the fact that she's just a girl, and not aforementioned points of light. Cue romantic dissonance.
Here the boy is Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal) an artist who returns to his native Paris for what he thinks is a job creating calendars of tragic disasters. The explosion of a plane, for example. He calls it "Disasterology." Truth is, his new job is as a type-setter. His mother lured him back to Paris with the promise of artistic freedom; the real job is skullduggery.
The girl is Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), kinda an artist, but mostly a girl, quirky, vaguely sexy and guileless. She wears the same pair of jeans for a week, chain-smokes (but doesn't seem particularly committed to it) and has to wear glasses when she cries. She's cute something awful, a disheveled movie cute that most American movies insist on "making over" in the dramatic ballroom scene. Not here, thank God.
The misunderstandings, random glances and bubbling chemistry are pretty standard rom-com material; the twist is Stephane's dreams, all-night affairs that sometimes invade his waking hours, and occasionally make him sleepwalk.
These dreams comprise a full half of "The Science of Sleep," and many of them feature a sub-cable access show called "Stephane TV" where Bernal cooks potions, talks to Stephanie, beats his co-workers with giant hands, floats around, plays drums in a rabbit costume, you name it. They're hypersexual and funny until they bleed into real life, upon which the dreams turn just a bit confusing.
That could be said for all of that third act, which compresses a lot of events and emotions into it that, just a scene before, has just begun percolating. It's like Stephane's life slips into warp gear, and the plot requires character arcs that seem rushed, almost senseless. Maybe Gondry figured, after an hour of literally dithering, the movie had to accomplish something more than the mildly-profane confection it is.
No matter. The film is a sprite, a lark, a whim. It's pretty smiley despite it's low-grade angst and it'll remind you a little of childhood. Right now, that'll certainly do.