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The Science of Sleep review
:. Director: Michel Gondry
:. Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg
:. Script: Michel Gondry
:. Running Time: 1:45
:. Year: 2006
:. Country: France
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The Science of Sleep draws its source from a vivid imaginary world where thwarted lovers show their poetic distance onscreen. In the line of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, its obvious counterpart, this opus by inventor Michel Gondry displays a contagious charm tinted with melancholy.
Stephan (Gael Garcia Bernal) lives in a chimerical world in which his principle of reality is constantly failing. Returning to France after the death of his Mexican father, his natural propensity to daydream is exacerbated by his existence as an obscure office worker, along with his attraction to a neighbor (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who lives on the same floor and who could very well be his soul mate.
But in Gondry's world, it's not a happy love. Feelings constantly run up against a twisted reality. Consequently, the blooming passion instead goes through a substitute world in harmony with our hero's desires.
The film opens on a rudimentary TV studio, created with all sorts of odds and ends by the fanciful young man who delivers the news: the mysterious essence of dreams: reminiscences, memories of the day, songs... A moody artist's seat of consciousness, this improbable laboratory crystallizes the elements by where Stephan's fantasy existence is played. A major worry for this sweet misfit, his dreams compete with real life, a rivalry which marries a labyrinthine mise en scène. Constantly postponed, the de facto paradise stumbles. Because even if it's possible to know what dreams are made of, love resists scientific explanation. By what curious chemistry do two beings become enamored of one another? How can they miss each other when everything seems to bring them together?
Far from an expected sugary romantic comedy, the film pours imperceptibly into blackness. Gondry directs a symptom: the refusal of reality, which also struck Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Gradually, the magic yields to schizophrenia, making the film structure more complex, after a rather clear beginning.
Real and dreamlike universes intimately melt together in animation sequences where Gondry's style is expressed. He was a genius tinkerer and an inspired video director before his cinematic retraining, which was not really conclusive until now. But even if he still finds it difficult to abandon some of his signature gimmicks, Gondry manages to keep his direction tight. Rather than just going for flashy special effects, the director favors a handcrafted approach to the image, reinforced by the materials he uses: felt and cardboard, which bring out a surprising sensuality. In spite of some moments of imprecision (the impact of the fantasy vignettes wears off after a while), charm is the driving force here.
Embodied by a cast who freely play on the contrasts of language and traits, very different personalities cohabitate the screen where a skillfully orchestrated meeting enriches a delicately borderline fiction. The project's success is due to this creative material constantly transformed under our dreaming eyes: heterogeneousness, the very lifeblood of Gondry's cinema.
Sandrine Marques
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