Film Review
Michel Gondry goes into oniric overload for his third full-length film
and gives the traditional French romantic comedy a whole new spin as he
does so. Gondry first came to prominence as a music video
director and his penchant for visual storytelling
is the defining characteristic of his work,
particularly noticeable in
La
Science des rêves, a film that merges fantasy and reality
to the point that often you cannot tell where one ends and the other
takes over. Gondry's debut feature
Human Nature (2001) was not widely
well-received, but he garnered widespread acclaim for his equally
off-the-wall follow-up,
Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).
La Science des rêves (a.k.a.
The Science of Sleep) is a natural
progression from Gondry's previous films, a more daring attempt to
break with film convention and explore the poetic possibilities of
cinema art. Despite its unusual composition, multi-lingual track
and infantile sense of fun, the film proved to be both a commercial and
critical success and has confirmed Michel Gondry's reputation as one of
the most innovative and fearless of today's independent filmmakers.
The film begins as Gondry means it to continue, with a jokey intro
which looks like a cruel parody of what you might find on one of the
tackier satellite channels but which turns out to be the first in a
series of recurring dreams in which the main protagonist
Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) imagines himself inside his
own head. When we see Stéphane in the flesh, he is
unhappily ensconced in Paris, trying to persuade his employer to buy
his idea for a calendar in which each month is illustrated by a
suitably grisly painting of a major human disaster. Having
narrowly evaded being crushed to death by a piano, Stéphane
finds himself being tended to by his next-door neighbour (Charlotte
Gainsbourg) who, as luck would have it, is named
Stéphanie. After that, the Gallic romance follows its
usual convoluted course, amidst surreal interludes involving
psychopathic electric razors, a town made entirely of corrugated
cardboard and, best of all, a one-second time machine. That
Stéphane and Stéphanie are amorously interested in one
another is obvious from the moment they simultaneously realise the
artistic possibilities of discarded sweet wrappers. The problem
is that, for all their blazing creativity, they both find it impossible
to express their most intimate feelings for one another. The
outcome is that Stéphane's already tenuous grip on reality
fractures completely and he becomes incapable of distinguishing his
dreams from reality, which is odd as most of his dreams look
suspiciously like a cheap children's animated TV programme from the
early 1970s.
Expressed in these terms, the film's premise may sound ludicrously
contrived and you might be forgiven for thinking that this is just
another example of art house whimsy gone utterly berserk. Far
from it.
La Science des
rêves is certainly one of the maddest films to have hit
cinema screens in recent years but it deals intelligently and
sensitively with some essential adults themes (the search for love and
identity) and is a joy to watch - not only entertaining but also
emotionally satisfying. It helps that its male lead, the
popular Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, has a magnetic
presence and a detached, Byronesque quality that makes him perfect for
the role of the quixotic dreamer Stéphane. With his
saturnine good looks and brooding persona, Bernal is perfectly matched
by the equally alluring Charlotte Gainsbourg, who has the same quality
of appearing slightly disconnected from reality.
La Science des rêves
isn't so much about two people falling in love; rather, it is about two
people who are in love finding the means to express their feelings for
one another - a subtle variation on a familiar theme. Bernal and
Gainsbourg are not only superlative actors (as this film amply
demonstrates), they are both highly creative individuals and so it is
apt that they should play opposite one another as creatives who can
only communicate through the power of their imagination. It is
interesting that Gondry resists exploiting the obvious sex appeal of
his two lead actors (apart from one cheeky nude scene) and instead
makes more use of their childlike qualities. Stéphane and
Stéphanie are the proverbial orphans of the storm, two lost
children who offer each other protection and consolation and who are in
no hurry to grow up. The childlike innocence with which Bernal
and Gainsbourg play their scenes suggests that both of their characters
are traumatised victims bearing the scars of earlier experiences, scars
that will not heal until they each find their ideal love.
La Science des rêves is
a welcome departure from the increasingly banal romantic comedies and
dramas that prevail in cinema today. Whereas most films directors
these days are obsessed with the minutiae of real-life experiences, too
eager to debase romance with love scenes that are virtually
indistinguishable from pornography, Michel Gondry takes us off in the
opposite direction, towards poetic abstraction, confident that the
metaphor and the idiom can be as powerfully expressive in cinema as
they are in literature. Watching
La Science des rêves is at
first an unsettling experience, but it soon becomes a comforting
one. It awakens the child within us and reminds us how we once
saw the world when we were young enough to believe it was a place of
endless possibilities, unfettered by the deadening logic and order that
we now, as adults, take for granted. As unhinged as the film must
appear with its psychedelic reality bending and recurring bouts of
cardboard-constructed surrealism, it is hard not to be seduced by its
naïve poetry, romanticism and exuberant sense of fun.
A cinematic oddity it may be, but
La
Science des rêves is also probably one of the cutest and
most authentic French rom-coms you will ever see.
© James Travers 2012
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Film Synopsis
After the death of his father, Stéphane Miroux leaves his home
in Mexico and returns to Paris to live with his mother, whom he has not
seen since he was a child. His mother has found him a job
with a company that makes calendars, but Stéphane is
disappointed to discover that instead of designing calendars he is simply
required to stick labels on them. A highly creative individual
who fancies himself as an inventor, Stéphane has a tendency to
daydream and finds it easy to confuse reality and fantasy. One
day, he meets Stéphanie, his neighbour, and soon realises that
he is in love with her. At first, they get on well together, but
when Stéphane hints that he wants to start a relationship with
her, Stéphanie goes cold on him. Unable to give up on the
woman he loves, Stéphane resolves to make her his wife, but to
do so he must give free rein to his imagination...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.