Review: The Science of Sleep
Michel Gondry is an artist of fantastic talent, both as a director and a writer. The Science of Sleep, the story of Stéphane Miroux’s (Gael García Bernal) losing battle with reality, does an absolutely superb job of making you feel as though you’ve not slept in weeks. As the film progresses, the characters and situations get harder and harder to make sense of, ultimately leading to a complete breakdown between Stéphane and Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg.) What’s most interesting, at least to me, was the way in which Gondry explores Stéphane’s mental state. The more worn down and tired he gets, the less effectively he is able to deal with his father’s recent death and his frustration with Stéphanie. I won’t really go into detail because I don’t want to destroy all of the surprises…
Visually, The Science of Sleep could be a continuation of Björk’s “Human Behaviour” video. (Remember, the one where she is eaten by a giant teddy bear?) The plot is interspersed with trippy dream sequences that look completely hand made. It’s beautiful, textured and rich but also conveys the artistic styles of the characters. And it makes the film seem more like an art installation than major motion picture. It had this cool, white-lit look that conveyed a gallery to me, for some reason. Coupled with the dreary, white stone walls of Paris, the movie felt like it was a trip into a European art museum…which is probably what being inside Michel Gondry’s brain is like.
Anyway, there were a few shortcoming with the plot. I’m assuming that Gondry chose to spend more time on the amazing dream sequences than he did on the writing because there were gaping holes and things were sometimes hard to follow. This is beyond what would have been necessary to get across the disjointed atmosphere of Stéphane’s world. I really, again, can’t explain specifically, but there were a few times where you just have to assume that you knew what the characters were talking about because it really was not at all clearly exposed beforehand. Oh, and some of the sentences are in at least three languages, so have fun with that! However, I would still watch it over again and it very well may end up back in my Netflix queue in the very near future.
3 stars for being beautiful and thoughtful! Minus 1 for being a tad hard to follow!
Update: Added a link to Björk/Gondry’s video. Sorry, it’s YouTube – her QuickTime gallery has only a crappy low res version.