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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 05/30/2007 : 13:01:18
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First - shocking confession time that has nothing to do with film criticism. Let me admit here and now that if Gael Garcia Bernal had been around when I was coming of age I'd have swum oceans and climbed mountains to engineer a meeting and pulled out all the stops to have assured that meeting included some horizontal communication. I shall, however, try my damndest to exclude that fact from my assessment of his acting.
I'm captivated by his acting: in everything I've seen him do he dedicates himself to winkling out the deepest reaches of character and pull surprises which illuminate not only his part but the piece as a whole. He never lets his ego in the way, and the results charm, engage, and allow the viewer to become more involved in the story. And here, despite some good acting by the support cast, he's tasked with carrying the film.
So it's a shame that Michael Gondry's often witty but ultimately flawed film offers Bernal so much creative leeway to so little effect. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind proved Gondry's approach to cinema is quirky, interesting, brave and challenging notions of how memory is affected by emotion. His attempt with The Science of Sleep is no less than a graphical representation of what life feels like - what it actually feels like to experience the world viscerally, not to analyze it intellectually.
More than anything this is the element that divides people about the film. We're so used in modern life to its logic, its raison d'etre, its cause and effect, that we often miss what can only be called the phenomenological moment-by-moment experience. This is the elusive territory that defines The Science of Sleep, as insubstantial as a flowing stream. Gondry provides helpful stepping stones from bank to bank, here taking the form of a love tale between the creative free spirit St�phane played by Bernal, and his neighbour St�phanie [Charlotte Gainsbourg easily making the transition from someone shy and gawky to reveal the soul-mate desired by St�phane.] Stir into the mix a group of Bernal's unpredictable workmates, his gentle and genteel mother and her new husband, and a corner of urban France strong enough in its conformity to steady St�phane's flights of fancy, and you have the makings of a unique cinema experience.
I'm not sure why Gondry hasn't produced such an experience: Is it because -- despite some wonderful use of stop motion and an inspired art director -- he hasn't mastered the technical language that someone like Bunuel or more darkly Cronenberg or Lynch might have employed? Is it because once the premise has been stated, Gondry just doesn't have the intellectual weight to develop it? Or is it that the thing simply goes on too long?
After all, we get the premise immediately in an intriguing dream sequence set in the tv studio of St�phane's mind. And, once we're introduced to the other characters both as he perceives them, and engaged in their own lives, there really isn't that much story to tell. I'm betting it would have made an astounding half-hour short. What a shame the industry no longer allows for schedules which would result in lifting story-telling constraints without being guided by fast turnaround and popcorn sales.
There are those who conclude that St�phane is unable to distinguish between his inner life and reality, but I don't think that's it at all. I'm convinced that Gondry's more interested in exploring the ways that our inner world forms a dialogue with our more ordered, mundane daily lives. It's the expressionistic realization of that dichotomy which has dictated the sequence of events, and more especially, the ways they're presented.
We have visual evocations of Sylvain Chomet's Triplets of Belleville, and other contemporary animation fantasies; there are narrative references among others to Roald Dahl, and to Jean Reno's time-travel comedy Just Visiting. The acting of the support cast, particularly comedy die-hard Alain Chabat, walks the tightrope between absurdity and too-much. It should be wonderful, instead it's a series of moments, and only some of them are wonderful. So enjoy it for that!
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Edited by - BaftaBaby on 06/02/2007 07:40:54 |
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Ali 
"Those aren't pillows."
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Posted - 05/30/2007 : 13:17:28
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quote:
Let me admit here and now that if Gael Garcia Bernal had been around when I was coming of age I'd have swum oceans and climbed mountains to engineer a meeting and pulled out all the stops to have assured that meeting included some horizontal communication.
You mean like the Morse Code?
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 05/30/2007 : 13:19:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Ali
quote:
Let me admit here and now that if Gael Garcia Bernal had been around when I was coming of age I'd have swum oceans and climbed mountains to engineer a meeting and pulled out all the stops to have assured that meeting included some horizontal communication.
You mean like the Morse Code?
Actually, I had something far more comfy and intimate in mind. Ah, well, even old ladies can dream ... 
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MisterBadIdea 
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 05/30/2007 : 14:35:05
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| An insanely heartfelt film, which is why I'm sad to say I don't like it. It's clearly very personal, and if I told Gondry on the street I didn't like it, I feel like he'd be crushed. But somehow, all the innovation and trips inside Bernal's head just becomes meaningless noise. |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 06/02/2007 : 00:05:35
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| SCIENCE Of Sleep, Baffy. And I must confess, I found it a mess. For Bernal, go to Y TU. |
Edited by - randall on 06/02/2007 00:08:22 |
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lemmycaution
"Long mired in film"
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Posted - 06/02/2007 : 00:12:13
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quote:
Originally posted by Randall
SCIENCE Of Sleep, Baffy. And I must confess, I found it a mess. For Bernal, go to Y TU.
Did someone mention SCIENCE and Y TU?
Behold Sensei's vote-fu Grasshopper! |
Edited by - lemmycaution on 06/02/2007 00:13:32 |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 06/02/2007 : 07:50:49
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Originally posted by Randall
SCIENCE Of Sleep, Baffy. And I must confess, I found it a mess. For Bernal, go to Y TU.
Thanks, Randall! My bad ... Corrected now 
I agree it's a mess - though I expressed it differently above -- but I do admire that it has ambition and there are some unexpected images along the way.
I think I've seen most of GGB's big-screen stuff from Amores Perros, and it's the fact that though he looks the same his acting always addresses each particular role. The lad's got mucho talent!
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 06/03/2007 : 11:13:00
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quote:
Originally posted by lemmycaution
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
SCIENCE Of Sleep, Baffy. And I must confess, I found it a mess. For Bernal, go to Y TU.
Did someone mention SCIENCE and Y TU?
Behold Sensei's vote-fu Grasshopper!
Your vote fu skills are still strong. Hammered. |
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The Science of Sleep
