The Science of Sleep

Cardboard cities, cotton ball clouds, paper boats and a one second time machine. This is what I fell in love with.

If you haven't heard of it yet, I introduce to you, La Science de Reves, literally the Science of Dreams, if you translate it, which actually fits the movie better than its English title, but that works too (that sentence was such a run-on). A film by Michael Gondry (the director of Eternal Sunshine...). It's partly French, partly English, so if you don't mind reading subtitles, then you'll love this. It's one of my favorite movies of all time (falling only one or two steps down Le Fabuleaux Destin de Amelie Poulain, which is my undisputed no.1 movie).

Stephane couldn't differentiate his dreams with reality. We can't either. The movie is an entire series of mixed up, random, eccentric events and you (as audience) can't tell either which ones are real and which ones are all from Stephane's head. And this is what I love about it.

I honestly don't know how to introduce this movie... He hosts a TV show called "Stephane TV" inside his head. He meets a girl named Stephanie who he falls in love with. He is a bit off compared to other people around him... and he enjoys collecting beautiful objects.

I like a lot of things about this film, but one of the things I loved best are the lines of Stephane. He tells things as it is. No elaborations, no sugar-coating. I wish life were like that... sometimes.

"... Because everyone else is boring"
- After Stephanie asked him "Why Me?". That's one of my favorite quotes from the movie (people in my YM list would've noticed haha). It's so straight-forward. And I wish I could just say that... I like you because everyone else is boring. Why do people need to ask why you like them in the first place? I asked, but I don't know why I did.

"For the occasion of... you're pretty"
- What he said after giving Stephanie the One-Second Time Machine. It says it all.

It's one of those few good movies wherein I feel like I can throw myself into certain scenes. Like the movie just showed you a visual representation of all the thoughts going on in your head, combined with your emotions, dreams, imaginations and a little bit of madness. It's like everything I've always wanted to say but couldn't. It's like those dreams I never could explain verbally. Ahh! I could go on and on...

I'm never good at writing reviews of any kind, so I'm sorry if you weren't be able to get any idea what this movie is about from my entry (there's always Wikipedia and IMDB!). You have to watch the film. If you enjoy art films, you'll like this. It's pretty. Literally pretty.

And if you plan on watching this, don't search for deep insightful review thingies. They're really good and the movie will make better sense once you've read those, but watch the movie once first. You have to see it first before you try to understand it. Trust me, it's better that way.

And I want to ride Golden the Pony Boy.

The site is a masterpiece in itself: The Science of Sleep