SCIENCE OF SLEEP
p
Boy meets girl makes for a surprisingly original film in the hands of ' director Michel Gondry, as James Mottram discovers.
TALKING
love story set in Paris might not sound
like terribly promising material. but
Michel Gondry lets his feverish imagination run riot in The Seienee of Sleep. The resulting romantic fantasia is undoubtedly one of the most original films of the past year.
The film starts as young dreamer Stephane. played by Gael Garcia Berna]. moves into a Parisian apartment after his mother finds him a job. He has recently returned to France from Mexico and finds himself living next to the shy—but- spirited Stephanie. played by Charlotte Gainsbourg. Stephane is so bashful that he can’t even bring himself to tell her he lives next door.
He is depressed by his mundane job at a small company producing calendars and dreams of a more creative existence. But his boss and co— workers fail to recognise his unique talents. So instead he takes refuge in a dream world in which he is a confident Casanova. making sweet music to woo his beloved.
After being a slave to the vision of
screenwriter Charlie Kaufman for his first two
films. Huntan Nature and Eternal .S'unshine of
the .S'potlexs Mind. Gondry was clearly itching to unleash his imagination on his own feature- length script. But Gondry. who was credited with reviving the music video format in the
22 THE LIST 15 Feb — 1 Mar 2007
‘YOU HAVE TO BE READY TO FAIL IF YOU'RE NOT, YOU DON'T DESERVE A CHANCE OF SUCCESS'
l99()s. admits to feeling under pressure to succeed with his first outing as writer-director.
In The Science of Sleep. he delves into the world of dreams in much the same way as Eternal .S'unsht'ne dealt with memory. Blending the rustic feel of his early videos for his own band ()ui ()ui with the technical innovation seen in his work for The White Stripes. Bjork and Massive Attack. Gondry makes Stephane‘s dreamscape come to life via some marvellous stop-motion animation. Completed two years ago. some six months before the live-action element was shot. these sequences boast a homespun quality that‘s reminiscent of the iconic video for Peter Gabriel's ‘Sledgehammer'.
‘The hand-crafted quality is important to me.‘ says Gondry. ‘I wanted the animation to look as if Stéphane has done it. In a way. he tries to control his dreams and build them.‘
As you might expect. (iondry sees the nature of dreams in film terms. ‘lt‘s the only lived experience we have with a sort of editing.‘ he says. ‘ln life. there is no curtain.‘
While he confesses that his take on dreams is more emotional than scientific. he did spend a lot of time reading books about the subject before making the film. ‘()bviously. l have
some interest in remembering my dreams.‘ he says. ‘Not necessarily understanding them but seeing how they come together.‘
He even adapted one of his dreams for the film. the scene in which Bernal drives a cardboard car. ‘That dream. I had it just before I was shooting and it was really very sickening. It was really horrible.‘
‘ln my dream. I was an actor who committed suicide. and I realised that this guy had really killed himself. which was why I dreamt l was