Science of Sleep
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Science of Sleep
Starring: Geal Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg
Written and Directed by Michel Gondry
The creation of a dream is a combination of complex ingredients: First, some random thoughts, and then a little bit of reminiscences of the day, mixed with memories from the past, love, friendships, relationships, and all those “ships”, together with songs heard during the day, things you saw and also personal thoughts. Dreams can be a very complex and confusing experience, as told by screen writer and director Michel Gondry. Gondry is an award winning screenwriter and director and has made such movies as Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and a countless number of television advertisements. Like his other works, Science of Sleep is an imaginative and original story. Nothing exemplifies this vivid creativity more than the exploits of this dreams hero.
Gael Bernals portrayal of Stephane, a seemingly schizophrenic but lovable artist, is masterful. Stephane is a half French Mexican aspiring artist who returns to France after his father has died of cancer and his mother helps him get a job. He quickly learns that the job his mother had told him would allow him to showcase his artistic abilities, was really just a ploy to get her son to return home from Mexico City. He befriends a perverted middle aged man named Guy, who provides sprinkles of laughter throughout the film and helps teach Stephane his artistic dreams are not appreciated at a calender company. He displays this frustration in an amusing dream where he usurps his bosss office and turns his office upside down. While he spends his tedious days as a typesetter, his nights are spent in a world of fantasy. After a fateful accident in which Stephane comically injures his hand, a series of lies set forth a series of events foreshadowing the movies many possible realities. The film is filled with colorful, imaginative, and entertaining little breaks from reality and the plot. It is important to understand that it can more enjoyable to appreciate the individual trees instead of the entire forest. The plot takes many twists and turns that can make a Sunday driver dizzy.
Initially, Stephane personifies a romantic, sweet-hearted young man many people could relate with. Viewers quickly learn his character is as static as rafting down level five rapids. A series of innocent little fibs, quickly snowball into an avalanche of lies. Some of these lies are by design, but some are a distortion between his reality and fantasy. The development of Stephanes delusions within himself and the