Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5288 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-06-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Science of Sleep concerns the flirtations and misunderstandings of Stéphane (played by Gael García Bernal), an aspiring visual artist, and Stéphanie (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg), his Parisian neighbour who creates whimsical sculptures from cotton balls and felt. As Stéphane toils in a caustic office for a company that makes calendars, he retreats into his dreams and finds them increasingly hard to distinguish from reality, and vice-versa.

The French magician and director Georges Méliès was arguably the first master of special effects, filling the silent movie houses of the early 20th century with camera trickery that stunned and delighted audiences. A century later, Michel Gondry works very much in the spirit of his artistic predecessor and countryman, creating films and music videos that feel just as hand-crafted and visually fantastical. The Science of Sleep is a trilingual film, with dialogue spoken in French, English, and Spanish by characters who are very much global citizens, crossing boundaries of consciousness as easily as they cross boundaries of culture. Gondry decorates his love story with deliberately low-tech special effects, including cellophane made to look like bath water and a subconscious television studio constructed largely of corrugated cardboard. This is filmmaking with all the seams and stitches exposed, an appreciation for the patent falseness of films that nonetheless transport and enchant us. It's dreamy. --Ryan Boudinot

Synopsis
For his first feature since 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 neighbour from next door (Charlotte Gainsbourg), 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.

Customer Reviews

Bittersweet love story, with amazing visual
This is a very European production. "The Science of Sleep" permeates with the viewer even more than "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind" did after its first viewing because its more impulsive and creative. Michel Gondry, now having three full-feature films under his belt, does penetrate the very core of our dreams, and somehow makes us believe that we can too.

In the beginning of this film we can clearly see that Stephane, played by the charming Gael Garcia Bernal, has problems distinguishing dreams from reality. Stephane at first, lived in Mexico with his father, then moves to Paris with his mother after his father death. Taking up a boring and unsatisfying job, he often flees to an imaginary world. He falls in love with his new neighbor Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourgh). She herself is some sort of a dreamer, though more grounded in reality than Stephane. Though smitten by his fantastic world and creativity helps kick off their relationship. Now as the movie progresses Gondry blurs this concrete line and it becomes difficult for us to see the difference. This is a key part of the film, and seems to keep the impulse to a minimum while keeping us more in tune with Stephanes fantasies. Like everyone Stephane does, in his dreams, what he wants to do in reality, but can never muster the nerve to.

What's astonishing about this film is the sheer surreal childlike quality that Gondry is able to keep throughout the film. It's like an 8 year old was allowed to let his imagination go loose. Seldom have we seen such an inventive world on screen. The acting is naturally impressive. Gael Garcia Bernal is the perfect choice for Stephane. Though his character is a little bit uncanny (to say at least), he's able to make us feel sympathy for his character, especially at the end which is no small accomplishment. Gainsbourgh's prim and unconventional beauty is the perfect match for Bernal.

"The Science of Sleep" is more creative than Gondry's last two efforts, while still incorporating his interesting film work. Gondry does take the childlike stop-motion feel of "Rhinoceros Eyes," and blends it seemingly with his original ingenuity. A very human story involving the drama, paranoia, and tension experience. Not to be miss for the Indie film fans.

Delightful
Super film. Excellently played - good to see opportunity for Bernal's acting range here. Film toys with ideas of reality/non-reality conscious/unconscious thought and behaviour, until you do not know where you are - but hey - it doesn't matter. It's an absolute joy. Go see it for the horse and the cardboard car, if nothing else.

a great rendering of those "crepiscule" moments at dusk and dawn
I'm an unashamed Gondry fan - I'd go as far as to call him a genius - I think his music videos are superb and I thought Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was pretty decent. Gondry has the kind of surreal creativity that is so often lacking from cinema - he has a knack of translating ideas into powerful visual imagery, and this is certainly the case with The Science of Sleep. Gael Garcia Bernal's character - Stephane, returns to Paris on the wishes of his mother to work as an illustrator. The story follows his life in an apartment block living opposite Stephanie - played by the ever-gorgeous and multi-talented Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Like Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" did before, and as the title suggests, this film essentially seeks to represent in celluloid those moments of intense REM sleep / vivid dreams that you get which leave you wondering "did that happen - or did i dream it". the inter-weaving of the dream world and the real world creates confusion and interferes with their friendship in the real world - or is it the dream world? The reason this film works so well is how subtlely Gondry blurs the waking world and the world of your dreams. Combined with fantastic props and lavish sets, like all good films, this works on a number of levels, making it accessible even if you just want to follow the most obvious plot line. I personally preferred this film to Waking Life, partly because I think the fusion of models, crazy sets and real life actors is a more representative approach of how muddled dreams get - whereas Linklater adopted a more uniform style of presentation through film converted into animation. I would whole-heartedly recommend this film - whether you are after a fun watch on a Saturday night, a gratuitous set-designer's visual feast of props, animation and backdrops, or something deeper, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.