The Science of Sleep (2006)
Dreams, according to Stéphane Miroux, are a combination of random thoughts, reminiscences of the day, memories, and finally “love, friendships, relationships, and all those ‘ships’…”
The most popular cinema post on this blog—in terms of likes/comments and conversations generated—is easily my post on Inception for, I think, two reasons. First, it was the only movie I’ve written about that more than five readers have actually seen. And second because it was the only movie I’ve written about that didn’t leave me at a complete loss for words.
The Science of Sleep, directed by Michel Gondry (who also directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind, Rewind), is the antithesis to everything that was wrong with the whole “dreaming” thing in Inception. There is no shortage of imagination here and everything you see is just nuts. Gondry navigates effortlessly between reality and dreams—sometimes to the point you don’t know which is which.
There are so many excellent films that dabble in surrealism or entertain the concept of a dream, but none I’ve seen that really fleshes out what it means to dream. What it looks, feels, smells like. There is little explanation provided (mostly not needed) and it has its flaws (how could it not?), but this film beautifully captures dreaming in all its wild absurdity and inexplicable crazy.
