SCREEN SCENES: "The Science of Sleep"

“The Science of Sleep”

Director Michel Gondry

WARNER INDEPENDENT PICTURES

(Out Of 5)

According to scientists, the average human being spends more
than six years of his life dreaming. And while there is no
agreed-upon neurological explanation for the dream state, we all
dream. Even Stéphane Miroux dreams.

But, in the way that French filmmaker Michel Gondry is unlike
other filmmakers, Stéphane is unlike other dreamers. In
“The Science of Sleep,” writer-director Gondry uses the
wildly enchanting Gael García Bernal (“Y Tú
Mamá También”) as a stand-in for himself and thus
blurs the dream world and waking life.

And though the film begins with a mathematical concoction
““ including specific doses of “random thoughts”
and “memories” prepared in a mixing pot ““
“The Science of Sleep” is barely about science at all,
but rather about the interconnectedness of emotion and the
unreal.

Stéphane has just returned to his childhood home in Paris
after the death of his father and with his mother’s promise
of a creative job. Stéphane meets his new neighbor
Stéphanie (a less-enchanting Charlotte Gainsbourg, “21
Grams” actress and the daughter of libidinous French musician
Serge Gainsbourg) and an unconventional courtship transpires. But
Stéphane increasingly confuses his dreams with waking life as
his potential lover fluidly crosses the boundaries between
worlds.

Stéphane and Stéphanie revel in the film’s
fantasy. Cotton clouds float in midair, the faucet’s water is
cellophane, and a one-second time machine takes them forward and
backward in time.

Best known for his notoriously quirky and magical music videos
and commercials, as well as cowriting and directing “Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Gondry is the master of
eccentricity on screen; however, many of Gondry’s tricks are
cheap. Yet here, even stop-and-go animation and primitive effects
are mesmerizing.

“The Science of Sleep” is Gondry’s third
narrative feature, but is noticeably his first without the twisted
talent of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Though “Eternal
Sunshine” and “The Science of Sleep” share their
bizarreness and tonal romanticism, “Sleep” is indelibly
more French ““ and not only for its trilingual dialogue and
European actors; it follows a French style that will be less
accessible for many American audiences.

The machinations of “The Science of Sleep” ““
sets, camera and pace ““ are ultimately incomparable to
Gondry’s previous work. He proposes both a lightheartedness
and a philosophy entirely unique.

Stéphane does not end the film with the hearty realization
and B-movie gimmick that “it was all a dream.” Rather,
he wakes into a dream. But, Gondry interjects, what is dreaming
after all? What is real life? And who is to say that there is a
difference between the two?

E-mail Dickau at ddickau@media.ucla.edu.

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