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Stéphane is a strange young man who finds it increasingly difficult to separate dreams from reality. He has a tedious job at a calendar publisher in Paris and moons after Stéphanie, who lives across the stairwell from him. She is initially charmed by his eccentricities, but is confused and hurt by his constant childishness and tenuous grip on reality.
Former pop promo director and helmer of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", Frenchman Michel Gondry is primarily known for his quirky visual style. It is very much in evidence in this particularly odd little film; in fact it entirely overwhelms the production. Much of the movie is surreal in nature with everyday characters and situations taking on bizarre aspects in Stéphane's dreams making it evermore difficult for him to differentiate between waking and sleeping life. But these effects are all rendered in kitsch lo-fi style. For instance, when he dreams of having giant hands, they are made from papier-mâché, and when he imagines having cat ears they are just furry ones on a headband. Gondry makes frequent use of stop-motion animation that gives an old-fashioned atmosphere to the movie, as does Stéphane's anachronistic wardrobe that makes the whole thing feel like it was shot in the 70s. The film is populated by strange living machines and backgrounds made of fabric or coloured cellophane and cotton wool. The entire production feels like an experiment in style that seeks to delight the audience with its whimsical wanderings through the psyche. So it begins
in the corrugated cardboard TV studio of Stéphane's mind, before taking us out into the real world and gradually blurring reality and dreams. Cuddly toys come to life, people sail away in crocheted boats, backgrounds pop up as if in a storybook and Stéphane turns into a drum-playing cat. Reality and fantasy meld as Stéphane's bedroom turns up in a cave and his workmate appears in his bath-tub. He even writes and posts letters to Stéphanie in his sleep. There are whole worlds in his mind, like an underwater kingdom and the aforementioned TV studio. But all of these creative endeavours do little to disguise the narrative shortcomings of the film.
As far as I'm concerned, the purpose of film is to entertain the audience by telling stories, but Gondry's approach feels more like a series of loosely interlinked vignettes on the theme of dreaming and the subconscious. Attempts to put them in the framework of a TV programme from inside the main character's own head put the audience at a greater distance from the players, as does the intermittent use of voice-over narration. There's nothing here to get your teeth into and the narrative is clearly of secondary importance to the director. So unless you're a film student looking for stylistic inspiration, this could be a frustrating hundred and five minutes of inconsequential nonsense.
Gondry's screenplay struggles to add substance to the visual style of the movie. There's no plot - characters generally go on an emotional journey and discover something about themselves by the end of a film. And the central figure is usually one we can sympathise with on some level. But neither of these keystone principles is applied to this film. Essentially we are asked to empathise with a man that can't a keep a grasp on reality and won't put enough effort into relationships to make them work. There is no real beginning, middle and end to the story. The central character remains steadfastly insensitive to other people's needs and feelings throughout and fails to change as the story progresses. Instead he simply opts out of decision-making and human interaction in favour of fantasy. This makes him frustrating to watch and he stops being a whimsical figure and becomes a source of annoyance by the time the credits roll. Stéphanie is similarly insubstantial; though more deeply rooted in reality than her male counterpart, we increasingly see her through Stéphane's eyes, which renders her evermore wispy and unreal. The characterisation generally lacks substance; aside from the two main players, the majority of the characters feel like plot devices. The dialogue is similarly vague. No-one is willing to stand up for themselves or their beliefs, so everyone is prone to misunderstandings and introspection. The characters speak in three different languages (French, English and Spanish) but the multi-lingual nature of the speech doesn't hide its lack of substance.
Gael Garcia Bernal plays Stéphane as a child trapped in a man's body. He is the centre of his own universe and when things aren't going his way, he simply retreats into his own imagination where he has more control. He's a wide-eyed naïf whose oddness can make him feel like a sweet dreamer one minute and a creepy loner the next. Bernal gives an intense performance throughout, managing to capture the caprices of the character, rendering him an alternately endearing and infuriating weirdo.
Charlotte Gainsbourg (daughter of British actress Jane Birkin and French chanteur Serge) is a childlike but not childish foil to Bernal. She is the kind of fragile woman you can imagine living in her own fantasy world but with stronger ties to reality than her male counterpart. Her whimsy is reflected in her creative output of naïve-style toys and her smoking habit feels almost symptomatic of her discomfort and nervousness around other people. But though Gainsbourg fully inhabits the role, there is very little here for the audience to identify with.
The original music by Jean-Michel Bernard is one of the most effective aspects of the movie because it alternates cheddary 60s lounge music, playful motifs and unsettling percussion and woodwinds. So you really get the measure of Stéphane's personality through the music - cute and creepy. Meanwhile the playful strings, harps and piano try to convey the fun of his imagination. But it doesn't chime in with the 70s rock and French chanson that also appears on the soundtrack, so it isn't quite a solid body of work.
"The Science of Sleep" is a film that will appeal more to true dreamers that wish they really could live in their daydreams. It is a great visual feat, showing Gondry's strong personal style that evokes the childhood joys of "Fingerbobs" and "Bagpuss" thanks to its make-and-do style. But if you're looking for a movie with a strong narrative thrust and easily understandable characters, this is not for you. It shows what can be done with a small budget and some imaginative stop-motion animation. However, as far as I'm concerned it fails as a movie because there simply isn't enough plot. Gondry's arresting visuals may perk up an otherwise dull music video, but without a strong plot behind them cannot sustain a hundred and five minutes of rambling navel-gazing. A visual treat but an intellectual and emotional vacuum.
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![The Science Of Sleep [DVD] [2006]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78026329.jpg "The Science Of Sleep [DVD] [2006]")
Sep 11th, 2007
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