The Science of Sleep (Director: Michel Gondry)
March 2nd 2009 08:47
If you feel like getting lost in a movie, watch The Science of Sleep, directed by Michel Gondry.
It's captivating, surreal and strangely comical in the sense that you could find yourself giggling at something and not realising why for another whole minute or so. It's intellectual without being pretentious, and sad but removed, as you would expect, I suppose, from a movie that pushes the dance between dreams and reality to an ultimate extreme.
The movie is about Stefan, a young Mexican man who has moved to France to be with his mother after his father's death and for the promise of a good job. He has these colourful quirky dreams, in which he is no longer the shy , fumbling graphic artist but a beaming, confident host of Stefan TV. He falls in love with his neighbour, and increasingly the wacky, almost twisted dreams begin to spill into real life. I particularly loved the little cardboard police cars that chased him. Random is an understatement, and probably not even the right word, as each seemingly abstract element has in fact been expertly crafted together to create a hazy, wonky but endearing piece of work.
It almost reminded me of a 20th century ballet by Stravinsky, Petrushka, in which a magician brings to life three puppets, and the audience is transported to the world in which the puppets are alive: Hideous Petrushka pining after, and being rejected by the Ballerina, and being chased away by the Blackamoor. The puppets then chase each other into the magician's marketplace, and Petrushka's skull is smashed in. The villagers are reminded that the puppets were nothing more than wooden figures, but the ambiguity is emphasised when the magician is visited by Petrushka's ghost.
Obviously this is a much more blunt depiction of such blurs, but keeping in mind that the subtlety is achieved through the intricacies of dance and composition, it's interesting to compare to film where we are so accustomed to the little tricks that directors and cinematographers can employ to affect the audience.
I loved Gael Garcia Bernal in the film, and not just because he's cute either. His character was that perfect blend of innocence and the arsehole factor that so so many males inherently possess, of uncertainty and cockiness, and one connected with him through his view of the world effortlessly.
I have to think really hard to find something to criticise about the film....I guess some people would find it takes time to be drawn into the universe of it, and I didn't quite understand Stefan's relationship with his mother, it seemed to take a backseat to his unrequited love for neighbour, Stephanie. But overall this film just delighted me and not in the snobby arty-farty way that I was expecting, either.
Surrealism is cool.
It's captivating, surreal and strangely comical in the sense that you could find yourself giggling at something and not realising why for another whole minute or so. It's intellectual without being pretentious, and sad but removed, as you would expect, I suppose, from a movie that pushes the dance between dreams and reality to an ultimate extreme.
The movie is about Stefan, a young Mexican man who has moved to France to be with his mother after his father's death and for the promise of a good job. He has these colourful quirky dreams, in which he is no longer the shy , fumbling graphic artist but a beaming, confident host of Stefan TV. He falls in love with his neighbour, and increasingly the wacky, almost twisted dreams begin to spill into real life. I particularly loved the little cardboard police cars that chased him. Random is an understatement, and probably not even the right word, as each seemingly abstract element has in fact been expertly crafted together to create a hazy, wonky but endearing piece of work.
It almost reminded me of a 20th century ballet by Stravinsky, Petrushka, in which a magician brings to life three puppets, and the audience is transported to the world in which the puppets are alive: Hideous Petrushka pining after, and being rejected by the Ballerina, and being chased away by the Blackamoor. The puppets then chase each other into the magician's marketplace, and Petrushka's skull is smashed in. The villagers are reminded that the puppets were nothing more than wooden figures, but the ambiguity is emphasised when the magician is visited by Petrushka's ghost.
Obviously this is a much more blunt depiction of such blurs, but keeping in mind that the subtlety is achieved through the intricacies of dance and composition, it's interesting to compare to film where we are so accustomed to the little tricks that directors and cinematographers can employ to affect the audience.
I loved Gael Garcia Bernal in the film, and not just because he's cute either. His character was that perfect blend of innocence and the arsehole factor that so so many males inherently possess, of uncertainty and cockiness, and one connected with him through his view of the world effortlessly.
I have to think really hard to find something to criticise about the film....I guess some people would find it takes time to be drawn into the universe of it, and I didn't quite understand Stefan's relationship with his mother, it seemed to take a backseat to his unrequited love for neighbour, Stephanie. But overall this film just delighted me and not in the snobby arty-farty way that I was expecting, either.
Surrealism is cool.
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