SCIENCE OF SLEEP
France, 2005, 105 minutes, Colour.
Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsborg, Alain Chabat, Emma de Caunes, Miou- Miou.
Directed by Michel Gondry.
Plenty of sleep, very little (if any) science! A credit is offered at the end of the film to Rhys Ifans for the title. Director Michel Gondry and Ifans had worked together on the offbeat comedy (which did have a lot of science), Human Nature. They must have been having discussions about dreams and nightmares – and it has led to this fanciful comic essay on human nature.
Gondry had made another film in the United States after Human Nature, the well-received Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, written by a master of unusual screenplays, . Eternal Sunshine delved into the mysteries of memory and suggested (more science) techniques of eliminating unwanted memories and starting life afresh.
Now Gondry, writing his own screenplay, is pondering the world of dreams compared with the world of daylight reality – and what is more real. But, he does it in a comic style, visualising dreams in a non-sequitur colourful world, using animation for dream characters and events, to tantalise the audience into wondering about the interplay between waking and sleeping states.
Not all of it works – or it will depend on audience willingness to suspend disbelief and on personal tastes in comedy and visual flair. Some will find their funnybones continually tickled and their imaginations sparked. Others will find the feyness of some of the episodes too irrational and the comedy too hit and miss. Most will be somewhere along the continuum between love and hate.
Gael Garcia Bernal has been consolidating his international career after his substantial beginnings in his native Mexico. From Amores Perros, Y Tu Mama Tambien and Fr Amaro to Mal Educacion and Motorcycle Diaries. Bernal can be a bit fey at times and this suits the role of an illustrator (who has a portfolio for a calendar with memories of a disaster for the month) who slips into dreams and out of them with confusing (to him and to us) regularity. His colleagues at the publishing company are very tolerant, although they are a strange lot. His French mother (Miou- Miou) is much more down to earth and not a great deal of help. And he becomes infatuated with the girl next door (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who may or may not like him in dreams or in reality.
Like the experiences of the hero, The Science of Sleep is something of a hit and miss experience.
1.A playful entertainment? Dreams and fantasy/reality? Comic and romantic?
2.The films, writing and directing, of Michele Gondri? An offbeat imagination?
3.The Paris settings, the city of Paris, Paris life? Ordinary, workplace, office? The use of English, French and Spanish? The international cast?
4.Stephane’s imagination, the opening with his television show, his suit, the music, the announcements, his talking to the camera, the scream? (** screen? – not clear) Inviting the audience to go into his dreams? His dream world, the landscapes, the puppets, the inventions? His flying and swimming? Stephanie’s world coming into his dreams? The whole creation of the dreamland, especially at the end?
5.The title, sleep? The play on the word ‘science’, science and knowledge, science and consciousness?
6.Stephane and the difficulty of seeing him as his sleeping character and his waking character? Stephane awake, his arrival in Paris, the encounter with the concierge, the welcome, his room? His mother getting him the job, Guy and company at work, the boss, his drawings – and the calendar of disasters? His mother too busy to see him? Her relationship with Gerard? The later meal with them, his critical attitude towards Gerard? His mother’s comment about Stephane and his dreams and reality? The encounter with the girls, Stephanie and Zoe as neighbours? The audience seeing them in real life, in Stephane’s dreams? The staff reappearing in his dreams? His going to sleep, his room? The difficulty in telling the difference between the two worlds? His working on his inventions? His talk, falling in love with Stephanie, the discussions with Zoe? The difficulties at work? His decision to leave? His love for Stephanie and the happy ending?
7.The character of Stephanie, in real life, the pretence with Zoe, their actual work, precarious? Stephanie in Stephane’s dreams? Her encounters with the real Stephane? With the dream Stephane? The behaviour, the talk, the comic touches? Stephane being more forward in his dreams?
8.The effect on him, the passing of time, the difficulty between saying and doing?
9.Stephanie and Zoe, their apartment, the collapse? Their personalities? The work, going out, dancing, interacting? Stephanie being hurt?
10.The glimpse of Stephane’s mother, Gerard? His work, the discussions, her attitude towards her son?
11.The sketches of the staff, the boss and his decision-making, practical? Guy and his being in control? The two co-workers – issues of sexuality, gay, work?
12.An Alice in Wonderland world? A world of fantasy? Logic – and the lack of logic? What was true, what was false? What was on the surface, what was deeper and real? Audiences willing to go along with this playfulness?
