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REM

Today's Michel Gondry film was the wonderful

La science des rêves / Science of Sleep (2005)

This film is the reason I decided to see all of Gondry's movies.

It is hard to describe this film as it is hard to describe a dream.

Gael García Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg are a young, fragile couple who meet as neighbors. There is the old id/ego tension here as Bernal, who is all whimsy and invention, butts heads with Gainsbourg who is all mind. Or maybe it is right brain/left brain. Take your pick. There is a lot of tension.

There are many dream sequences which are fashioned from the stuff of their waking experience.

Gondry's invention here is startling in its simplicity. He uses all hand made objects, common materials, stop action photography and other simple almost homely devices to carry the dream and fantasy stuff. No CGI. Great.

The dreams here are at two, at least, levels. The almost waking dream which mostly occurs in a teevee studio with Bernal conducting his interviews with himself and his life. The other level is the more fantastic REM sleep dreams which carry rich material, turn it upside down and show the behind the scenes working of Bernal's mind.

There is some magical realism. Not all that happens in a dreamlike way is a dream.

One way to see the film is that it is all a dream but I don't think so.

I have seen this before so it is a 5 out of Netflix5. I will probably see it again.

Labels: films