The Science of Sleep

After his father's death Stephane Miroux returns to Paris and starts a dull job at a calendar company that his mother found for him. He spends his nights in a television studio he has built inside his own head, where he films and presents his dreams. As he grows closer to his neighbour Stephanie the border between dream and waking disappears, and neither Stephane nor the viewer can tell which is which. Michel Gondry wrote and directed. The French title, La Science des reves, means The Science of Dreams. Gael Garcia Bernal plays Stephane and Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Stephanie, with Miou-Miou and Alain Chabat in the cast. Its most discussed feature is the method: the effects were made by hand rather than on a computer, using cardboard, cellophane, felt and stop motion. The rough look of the dream sequences is a deliberate choice. On a 6 million dollar budget it took 15.3 million worldwide, 4.7 million of that in the United States. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 71 percent. One critic wrote that the film lacks a story in the conventional sense while suggesting the dream-shaped structure suits the subject. Who it is for: viewers who like handmade imagery and Gondry's invention. Who it is not for: anyone who will not read the lead's behaviour as romantic. Stephane's persistence with Stephanie goes to an uncomfortable place at times and the film does not question it enough.