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Sleepwalking THE
SCIENCE OF SLEEP: Written and directed by Michel Gondry.
Cinematography, Jean-Louis Bompoint. Music, Jean-Michel Bernard. Starring
Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain Chabat, Miou-Miou,
Emma de Caunes, Aurélia Petit and Sacha Bourdo. Warner Independent
Pictures, 2006. R. 106 minutes.
On the cardboard-and-egg-crate set of "Stéphane TV," the imaginary TV show that represents his interior life, twentysomething Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) is a suave, witty conductor of life. He cooks up dreams, questions guests and marvels at the oddities of human existence. But out in the real world, beyond a shiny shower-curtain boundary, Stéphane isn't so charismatic. He's recently returned to France, his mother's homeland; his French is poor; he doesn't know anyone and the job he thought was going to be creative turns out to involve pasting calendars together. Stéphane's own calendar idea, the morbidly funny "Disastrology," is swiftly rejected. And there's the small problem of Stéphane's inability to distinguish between dreams and waking life. In The Science of Sleep, writer-director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) has created a whimsical dreamscape, a sweet, sad film about fantasy, imagination and love that can't quite overcome its own meandering quirkiness. Despite lovely, natural performances from García Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg, who plays Stéphane's neighbor and love interest, Stéphanie, The Science of Sleep has all the staying power of a dream. But it's a charming dream while it lasts, and part of its charm is the juxtaposition of very ordinary lives with extravagantly fantastical interior ones. Stéphane and Stéphanie have boring jobs, live in tiny apartments, wear the same clothes repeatedly and use creativity as an escape. She writes music and builds fantastical creations out of fabric; he invents a one-second time machine and spins background tales for her toys. Their friends and coworkers escape reality in their own ways: Stéphanie's friend Zoe tells tall tales about working for a record label, while Stéphane's tactless coworker Guy (Alain Chabat) wears a leather jacket out one night and declares himself punk. Or does he? It's not always clear when Stéphane is awake and when he's dreaming, and to try to determine just what's "real" in The Science of Sleep is to break the film's fragile spell. The allure isn't in precision but in imagination, in Gondry's unique, striking imagery (created with homemade props and old-school bluescreen and animation techniques), off-kilter humor, emotional storytelling and fascination with how far imagination can take you — and whether the place it takes you is where you really want to go. The Science of Sleep opens Friday, Sept. 29 at the Bijou.
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