The Science of Sleep

So now I'm going to get to some films I have seen. I'll also blog about books I read, but I see more films than I read books. :)

To begin with, what can I say about the latest film by director Michel Gondry, the genius behind numerous inventive White Strips and Bjork music videos and the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind? A movie wonderland? A sugar rush of a fil? The most creative images I have seen since Mirrormas? All of these would be true. The amazing thing is, the visuals in Science of Sleep are not done using CGI. Instead, they use the same materials one uses as a kid at summer camp: cardboard, magic markers, and paper machie. Directory Michel Gondry uses these materials to illuminate the dream world of the central character, Stephane, who works in a boring Paris office job. However, when he sleeps, his dreams take him to dreamscapes where he imagines himself as the host of his own television show, Stephane TV, which allows him to escape his humdrum existence and plot creative revenge schemes on his annoying coworkers. When he meets an attractive neighbor, he starts to get his reality confused with his dream world. The narrative seems to suffer the same fate, that often we don't know if what we are watching is occuring in the real world or in Stephane's dreams. However, the whimsy and creativity of the dream world is so well crafted that the viewer can just flow with them like cardboard buildings swaying and giant hands wreaking pretend revenge on the people that annoy Stephane. At the end, in his effort to win the girl, Stephane has to choose between reality and dreamland. All in all, it's a messy yet fascinating film, one that would be best described as a really weird romantic comedy more than a pure fantasy film. But these kind of films are much more interesting than a standard action film. The Science of Sleep will surely be on my top ten list for the year.