Showtimes & Tickets Enter Zip Code:

THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP
Written & Directed by: Michel Gondry.
Produced by: Georges Bermann.
Director of Photography: Jean-Louis Bompoint.
Edited by: Juliette Welfling.
Music by: Jean-Michel Bernard.
Released by: Warner Independent.
Country of Origin: France/Italy. 105 min. Rated: R.
Languages: English & French with subtitles.
With: Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain Chabat & Miou-Miou.

Following 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, writer/director Michel Gondry’s latest feature is another marvelously quixotic exploration into romantic delirium. After spending his adult life with his father in Mexico, Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) moves back to his family's apartment in Paris that his mother has left untouched in the hope that he would one day return. He is fluent in Spanish and English, but his half-forgotten French creates a few introductory mishaps when meeting his new neighbor, Stéphanie (a mousy and bespectacled Charlotte Gainsbourg).

Realizing they are attracted to each other and barely able to communicate, their stunted flirtation leads Stéphane and Stéphanie to take advantage of the confusion and lie about themselves, leaving him convinced that she is an artist (instead of pharmacy clerk) and allowing her to believe that he does not actually live across the hall. Adding to their burgeoning relationship’s snafu is Stéphane’s vibrant dream world that becomes indecipherable from his waking life. By the movie’s end, even the audience is unsure of how much of their relationship is real and how much is a dream.

After Eternal Sunshine brought mainstream success to both Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, there were a few lingering Wizard of Oz questions about the collaborative tone the two artists had created. Was it the intellectual Kaufman who gave Gondry’s directorial tricks a brain, or was it Gondry who gave Kaufman’s erudite scripts a heart? The answer seems self-evident now since The Science of Sleep follows its cinematic predecessor like it was a guidebook on how to film the lives of pretty people with odd hair, quirky problems, and brief relationships. You can even hear Jon Brion’s breakthrough soundtrack in the bubbles and fizzles of composer Jean-Michel Bernard’s music.

All of Gondry’s tricks are on display, including remarkable stop-motion animation, surreal props, and ingenious manipulations of set pieces without ever having to resort to kitschy blue screens or digital sleight of hand. The office where Stéphane works as a typesetter for cheesy calendars is one of the film’s most memorable transformations into his dreamscape. Staircases are pushed forward into infinite M.C. Escher allusions, previously discrete wall decorations become hallucinogenic patterns, and ceilings are lowered while familiar desk objects are magnified all to create Gondry’s distinct sense of dream realism. Walking out of the theater after seeing this film is like reentering Florida after spending the day in Disney World’s Toontown.

But the real magic comes when Stéphane and Stéphanie’s relationship emerges and his already dream-like reality starts to act more like a realistic dream. During a date, Stéphane shows her the portable time machine he had made as a child (it’s not a major scientific innovation, he says, since it only allows for its user to travel one second forward or backward). Stéphanie tentatively moves the small lever backwards for a moment, then goes forward to find her inventive date kissing her on the cheek. After “traveling back,” she comes to the flirtatious conclusion that Stéphane’s future is probably different from her own. Underneath all the psychological undercurrents, Stéphane and Stéphanie flourish as detailed and resonant characters. Actors Bernal and Gainsbourg bring a giddy joy to their characters’ relationship that anchors the film, preventing it from dissolving into a display of Gondry’s technical showmanship. Zachary Jones
September 22, 2006