2008 Woodie Awards
Film maker gets dreamy over sleep
"Science of sleep" blurs the lines between dreams and reality without taking motion picture graphics too seriously
Laena Brandenburg
Issue date: 11/13/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Gondry's autobiographical representation of his own awkward, yet richly imaginative and fantastic world provides a glimpse into the psyche of love itself.
The narrative of the story jumps around from the dreariness of reality and everything that it's not and the kaleidoscopic juxtapositions of a dream where our repressed emotions can have free reign. It is a love story in an exploration of love as a series of impulsive emotions.
In this surreal flurry, Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal) is tricked by his mother into moving back with her after his father dies. Working at a job as a graphic designer that turns out to be more photocopying than creation and overwhelmed by his life, his dreams intensify until they overlap reality altogether.
A girl next door, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) becomes the focus of his obsession for they share a child-like curiosity. But Stephane is shy, as you would imagine a hopeless inventor to be, and when she doesn't return his affection, his pragmatic mind lives out his repressed feelings in a whirlwind of dreamy disassociations and impossibilities.
Gondry uses sets made out of cardboard and construction paper, stuffed animals and simple stop-motion that doesn't try to convince you with its realness but remains charmingly child-like.
In a world where love has been forced into a small box, I found this movie to be refreshing and unique, an intimate glimpse at the overwhelming flurry of emotion that is falling in love from the perspective of a timid child that lives in all of us.
Overall the movie receives 2.5/5.
The narrative of the story jumps around from the dreariness of reality and everything that it's not and the kaleidoscopic juxtapositions of a dream where our repressed emotions can have free reign. It is a love story in an exploration of love as a series of impulsive emotions.
In this surreal flurry, Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal) is tricked by his mother into moving back with her after his father dies. Working at a job as a graphic designer that turns out to be more photocopying than creation and overwhelmed by his life, his dreams intensify until they overlap reality altogether.
A girl next door, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) becomes the focus of his obsession for they share a child-like curiosity. But Stephane is shy, as you would imagine a hopeless inventor to be, and when she doesn't return his affection, his pragmatic mind lives out his repressed feelings in a whirlwind of dreamy disassociations and impossibilities.
Gondry uses sets made out of cardboard and construction paper, stuffed animals and simple stop-motion that doesn't try to convince you with its realness but remains charmingly child-like.
In a world where love has been forced into a small box, I found this movie to be refreshing and unique, an intimate glimpse at the overwhelming flurry of emotion that is falling in love from the perspective of a timid child that lives in all of us.
Overall the movie receives 2.5/5.
Be the first to comment on this story