The Science of Sleep

The Science of Sleep is yet another testament to my love for the genius of Michel Gondry. This film may perplex some people, but if you’ve ever seen any of Gondry’s numerous and brilliant music videos, you’ll have a fair warning. Gondry’s beautiful, unfiltered creativity spills itself onto the screen with this quirky film about love, life, and imagination. Purposely complex and confusing, Gondry shapes the viewing experience as an increasingly posthuman one, cleverly mixing the real world and the dream world of main character Stéphane. As Stéphane’s mother explains halfway into the movie, Stéphane has always had trouble separating his dreams from reality (much like Gondry himself). The point of the film is not, however, to force the viewer to separate the worlds for Stéphane, but to realize and embrace the beauty of NOT dividing the two. For Stéphane, there is no “trouble,” as his mother suggests, at all; instead, he lives his life without the barriers of concrete reason and reality.

Excessively eccentric proportions, blending in and out of reality without notice, and jumping from one language to another all exist as markers of Gondry’s critique of the human emphasis on rationalism. The world in which Stéphane is forced to live constantly derides his unique mindset, considering it a disability rather than a gift. Though the conclusion may suggest otherwise (Gondry purposely leaves it open to viewer interpretation), Stéphane finds love in Stéphanie, one of his mother’s tenants, who seems to be his female counterpart and compassionately opens up troubles in his dream world. Stéphane becomes somewhat obsessed with Stéphanie and his inability to separate dreams and reality complicates their creatively inspired relationship. It is interesting to note how Gondry’s use of handmade visual effects (perhaps better termed camera tricks) cross the boundaries between both of Stéphane’s worlds. Nearly all of the visual effects used were actually employed on set by hand (for example, Gondry put the entire office set on giant springs and had people physically bouncing it to film a scene where the room is moving and characters are stumbling). This use of completely real yet completely unrealistic effects suggest the ability of both reality and imagination to coexist peacefully.