3. La science des rêves (2006); Close your eyes. Open your heart.

The Science of Sleep

Written and directed by Michel Gondry

Starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg

Best Music Score 2007 (Cannes Film Festival);

Best Visual Design 2007 (Chloturdis Awards)

“In dreams, emotions are overwhelming.” Actually, I think this movie is overwhelming. It took me a while to finish this movie, but it took me even longer to write this entry.

The main concept in this movie is the comparison between dreams and reality. Everything in this film is somehow linked to that concept which then expands to affect some other aspect of the plot. It seems to be this big circle that it fit perfectly together to make one of the most interesting and though provoking movies that I have ever seen.

This story revolves around Stephane, a young and creative artist that left Mexico to move to Paris to be closer to his recently widowed mother. He lands a job at a calendar making company where he is picked on by his co-workers. He falls in love with his neighbor, Stephanie, who carries the same corky imagination and artistic talent. While trying to sort through the day-to-day, he focuses on his dreams and tries to understand them and how they relate to his reality.

This movie seems a bit backward. Most of the time, it’s the things experienced throughout the day that have an impact on your dreams that night. But in this film, it is Stephane’s dreams that influence what happens throughout the day. There is a strange link from his dreams to his real life that kind of has a pathological feel. For example, while having a conversation with Stephanie in the hallway, he stops and asks if he is dreaming. Most of the time, he has to “wake himself up” and differentiate actuality from his dreams. For another example, he was dreaming about slipping a note under Stephanie’s door, and after waking up, he sees that he actually did it. Kind of like sleep-walking. This disconnection simply adds to the many internal struggles that he is going through. While trying to come to terms with his mother’s relationships and the loss of his father, Stephane also is constantly struggling to understand the languages spoken around him. English, Spanish, and French are all languages spoken, sometimes in the same conversations. This just adds to Stephane’s problem of communication. His dialogue was very blunt and juvenile. It almost seemed that he had verbal diarrhea. While his conversations and general attitude seemed close to ignorance, he communicates his emotions through his dreams and his art.

The art used in this film is very unique. My favorite part was all of the cardboard pieces found in Stephane’s dream “office,” or his cardboard car. With art serving as Stephane’s escape, it also is an important link between him and Stephanie. The two of them create interesting scenes and pieces, most of them completely random. Another one of my favorite parts of the movie is when they turn on the kitchen sink and different colors of blue cellophane pour out like water.

The random mentioning of sex is an interesting aspect to the plot of this film. The actual art of sex isn’t portrayed, but comments and suggestions are made that definitely make it a constant topic. Stephane’s co-worker and friend, Guy, is the character that represents the normal male that is then compared to Stephane. Stephane is dealing with all the confusion in his life, and while doing so, he kind of escapes from being a macho man concerning himself with sex and shallow relationships and focuses on his art and unclear relationship with Stephanie. I still don’t really understand why all the sexual references are important to the plot. My only reasoning is that it furthers Stephane’s overall confusion with reality, while not really affecting his “dream-life” at all.

Another thing about his dreams becoming reality is how it affects his relationship with Stephanie. While he complains that the she is never in his dreams, it kind of parallels how he’s not really ready to be with her, or that she is not really ready to be with him. Once she actually appears in his dreams, they are able to talk out some of their issues in reality and hopefully figure them out together.

The use of stop-motion in this film is wonderful. I’m not sure if that statement is just because I have a deep love for stop-motion ANYTHING, but it makes all the art seem even more unique and specific to the minds of Stephane and Stephanie.

On the Becki scale, I give it a 6.