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The Science of Sleep (2006)
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Theatrical Release: Sep 22, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $4,572,038
Synopsis: For his first non-documentary film after 2004's ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, French writer/director Michel Gondry applies his highly inventive cinematic vision to THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP. Largely set in the very active subconscious mind of Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal), the movie... For his first non-documentary film after 2004's ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, French writer/director Michel Gondry applies his highly inventive cinematic vision to THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP. Largely set in the very active subconscious mind of Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal), the movie bounces back and forth between his vivid dreams and mundane real life, which involves living in a Parisian apartment owned by his mother (Miou-Miou) and working at an office with a strange crew of characters, including the crass Guy (Alain Chabat). When Stephane meets Stephanie, a shy neighbor from next door (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, the daughter of Gallic crooner Serge Gainsbourg and British singer/actress Jane Birkin), the two form an unusual friendship, one that may or may not lead to romance. Even more than ETERNAL SUNSHINE, THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP is marked by Gondry's whimsical-yet-melancholy aesthetic (honed working on videos by Bjork, the White Stripes, and others), which makes heavy use of stop-motion animation and other playful visual tricks. While the former film was rooted in its American setting (Long Island, NY), SLEEP is a thoroughly European affair steeped in its French setting, with the eccentric Stephane (a transplant from Mexico) alternating between speaking (and even dreaming) in English, French, and Spanish. Although its occasionally over-the-top quirkiness may baffle some viewers, SLEEP's unpredictable and engagingly odd sense of storytelling is sure to intrigue fans of other indie classics such as AMELIE and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Miou-Miou, Alain Chabat, Pierre Vaneck
DVD Info
Release:
Feb 6, 2007
DVD Features:
- Widescreen
Audio:
- Dolby Surround 5.1 English, French, Latin Spanish
Reviews
A wondrously baffling jigsaw puzzle where dreams and reality struggle to find a fit, The Science of Sleep is the dream you wish you could have, if you could only remember it
It's not that The Science of Sleep is a terrible film. It's not. It's just that it doesn't operate properly and there's nothing worse than seeing a film in which obvious design and potential is ultimately unfulfilled.
Something like a Luis Bunuel film, but with politics replaced by fashion. It is, essentially, a hipster wet dream.
It's Eternal Sunshine unhinged, Amelie as imagined by a polar bear.
A creative, original work by a filmmaker with a fantastic visual flair who refuses to stick to any typical cinematic patterns, even if it's sometimes to a fault.
The Science of Sleep is Gondry's loosest, most confident movie journey into the imaginative mind.
Another comic love story that takes us inside a character’s psyche, but Kaufman’s rock-solid jokes are replaced by whimsy.
Gondry always manages to maintain a childlike wonder in the magic of creating a moving image, and never is it more evident than in this film.
It’s whimsical to the point of maddening. Bernal does his best, but there’s only so much fawning any man can get away with.
Dreams are easy to invent, and as easy to forget. The real challenge is to invent stories that have a stake in logic as well as truth.
A thwarted love story that does not trade in the degraded cliches either of romance or conventional sexiness.
There’s a very thin line between amusingly quirky and just plain pretentious. I’d say this falls somewhere in the middle.
As the movie progresses, we’re presented with one of the best portrayals of the innate awkwardness of first love I can ever remember seeing.
Beautifully directed, charmingly surreal and genuinely romantic, this is the perfect offbeat date movie and easily one of the best films of the year.
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