Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #857 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

Disappointing
i bought this film on the strength of Eternal Sunshine but am left so disappointed - took three stabs to watch it in entirety. Best parts were the closing frames (as illustrated on the DVD sleeve) and closing soundtrack. A letdown.

A Mess
I loved Human Nature and Eternal Sunshine but since then it's been a rapid decline in my eyes, reaching new depths with Be Kind Rewind which was beyond awful...without a Kaufmann script Michel Gondry appears to be unable to fashion anything himself outside of music video slapstick. This is an irritatingly wacky idea that's been drawn out into a film - lame half-characters I didn't care about speaking banal dialog to each other. I went into the cinema with great enthusiasm but this was too much pop video, novel bits of papier-mache patchwork surrealism trying to paper over the cracks of an otherwise dull self-indulgent tale.

Confusing at times, but beautiful to behold.
I thought this movie was really beautiful. It was intensely creative and explored many ideas at once. The only quip i have with it is that i felt at times the line between shephane's dreams and real life was too blurred, and to that end its hard to make out a story line. As a matter of fact the whole experience of the film (id go so far as to call it an experience) was very much like a dream, in that thinking back on it now, i can only remember small details, little quirks and emotions and romances, and nothing much of what actually happened.

I recommend you buy this film if you were a fan of 'eternal sunshine' or, in fact, if you are a fan of quirky french films or surrealism.

I recommend too, that you watch it more than once.