Viewed: 3 April 2006
Directed by: Michel Gondry
Listed in: Movies, Cinema, Director In Person, MIT

Stephane, the protagonist of the Science of Sleep, is an illustrator/inventor who has a sever problem separating dreams from reality. The film takes it form between the dream world and reality which become increasingly blurred. It seems to take many elements from music videos Gondry has directed, and he later reveled in a Q&A that the dreams are his dreams. The film is apparently very autobiographical, from the dreams to the confusion and isolation caused by a second language. It feels very homemade, with cardboard and cellophane stop-motion animation and sets. The line between the making of the film and its content is further burred as Stephane is the star and producer of his own dreams, in a cardboard television like studio in his head. Is he just making dreams, or reality or the film itself? There is a lot to digest and having the director talk about it immediately afterwards sort of stunts the process. The Science of Sleep is very different the Gondry’s previous films, much smaller and vastly more intimate.