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The Science of Sleep
Director: Michel Gondry
Actors: Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain Chabat, Miou-Miou, and Pierre Vaneck
Rated: R (Restricted)
Retail Price (not our price): $27.98
Release Date: 2007-02-06
Theatrical Release Date: 2006-09-22
Studio: Warner Home Video
Run Time: 106 minutes
Format: Array
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Discs: 1


Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):

1) Amazon.com
The French magician and director Georges Méliès was arguably the first master of special effects, filling the silent movie houses of the early 20th century with camera trickery that stunned and delighted audiences. A century later, Michel Gondry works very much in the spirit of his artistic predecessor and countryman, creating films and music videos that feel just as hand-crafted and visually fantastical. The Science of Sleep concerns the flirtations and misunderstandings of Stéphane (Gael García Bernal, Babel), an aspiring visual artist, and Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg, 21 Grams), his Parisian neighbor who creates whimsical sculptures from cotton balls and felt. As Stéphane toils in a caustic office for a company that makes calendars, he retreats into his dreams and finds them increasingly hard to distinguish from reality, and vice-versa. The Science of Sleep is a trilingual film, with dialogue spoken in French, English, and Spanish by characters who are very much global citizens, crossing boundaries of consciousness as easily as they cross boundaries of culture. Gondry decorates his love story with deliberately low-tech special effects, including cellophane made to look like bath water and a subconscious television studio constructed largely of corrugated cardboard. This is filmmaking with all the seams and stitches exposed, an appreciation for the patent falseness of films that nonetheless transport and enchant us. It's dreamy. --Ryan Boudinot

2) Description
The Science of Sleep, a playful romantic fantasy set inside the topsy-turvy brain of Stephane Miroux (Gael Garcia Bernal) an eccentric young man whose dreams constantly invade his waking life. Stephane pines for next-door neighbor, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), but she becomes confused by his childishness and shaky connection to reality. Unable to find the secret to Stephanie's heart while awake, Stephane searches for the answer in his dreams.

Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

1) No me gustó   [Rating: 2 out of 5]
Esta película tiene unos subtítulos en inglés que no se desaparecen con la opción del menú: sin subtítulos, están PERMANENTEMENTE ahí, es muy incómodo verla.

2) Inventively fun   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
"The Science of Sleep" is like no other film I've seen. Blending reality and fantasy into a seamless thread, director Michel Gondry has produced a gem. The cast is uniformly good and is headed by the appealing Gael García Bernal, in a role as Stéphane, for which he seems destined. He makes the film what it is with an abundance of humor and pathos.The visual effects are among the best the industry has to offer and the childlike "Alice in Wonderland" quality of the film is superb. It is well-paced and engrossing at every turn. I highly recommend "The Science of Sleep" for its creativity and charm.

3) a spotless adventure!   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
The science of life- mix reality with your imagination, it's more fun.Love it for what it is- creative. Love it for what it isn't- as complex as Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; simple. The Science of Sleep has the adventure and creativity of a Dali film, and a love story realistic enough to remain realistic, yet simple enough to simply enjoy watching.

4) Love can make you crazy, or crazier   [Rating: 4 out of 5]
Music-video director Michael Gondry is known for doing some of the most inventive and strange videos ever, from many a White Stripes video to Beck and Foo Fighters and Bjork, Gondry took that style into his first film, "Human Nature" but hit paydirt with the delightful "Eternal Sunshine and the Spotless Mind". Naturally, any huge film has to have the dreaded follow-up where it might not be as successful and well-liked with people calling it disappointing and I wouldn't call Science of Sleep disappointing but the charm that Spotless Mind has in spades is only found a little bit here.Stephane is an aspiring graphic designer who returns to live near his mom after his father dies. Instead of best using his talents, he's hired to paste paper onto calendars. By chance, and a little injury, he meets Stephanie and Zoe, with the former being his new neighbor. Although attracted to Zoe, he suspects its Stephanie who likes him and he soon starts fantasizing a romance with Stephanie since one in the real world doesn't seem likely but his dreams start to interfere with his life and he can awake from one and be thrown into the next.In many ways, Gondry's films, namely this one and Sunshine have themes that everyone can relate to but they don't necessarily have to follow the rules of reality. While the previous film was essentially a love story played out in someone's head, Science is about the longing for something you probably won't have and the fantasies becoming more easier to have than the real life. In many ways I can relate to this idea and while I won't be waking out of my fantasies anytime soon, the idea of what we think is unrequited love is a universal one and luckily Science doesn't just simply deal with it in plain terms. One of the nice things about Science is that it manages to have a sweet tone even if the story feels kind of sluggish. There's only so much crazy to show before it feels like we're just spinning our wheels in the air and not a lot of story developments happen. The neighbor Zoe at one point drops from the story and one fantasy even a co-worker doesn't go anywhere in the real life that it makes you wonder what's the point in it if he doesn't act on it? But the images, with characters looking like they're flying to cellophane acting like water to a TV set made of cardboard, the inventive visuals are just as welcome as they were in the videos.As for the acting, we have Gael Garcia Bernal who is always good, Charlotte Gainsbourg who has a unique attractive quality even though her neighbor friend might look cuter to some but Charlotte just has a quality about her where you would find her the more appealing. The rest of the cast is good too like Alain Chabat as Stephane's filthy-minded co-worker friend but this is mainly the Stephane and Stephanie show so it's not really ground for co-stars to be bigger but they do fill in the edges nicely.It's best if you watch the film without thinking you're seeing Sunshine part 2 so if you watch the film just as it is, you can find a delightfully quirky movie.

5) A gem but, perhaps not for everyone   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This movie completely captured my imagination and took me back to a place of youth and innocence, first love and not knowing the "right" move. I've read the other mostly positive reviews and agree wholeheartedly. Those who are less impressed are perhaps into a different type of movie. Since I don't require "perfection" in a movie or much else, I'm rarely disappointed. Movies are for me primarily an escape, a journey, an entertainment - and this movie is pure enchantment. If you fall under its spell you are probably still in touch with that innocence you once had. I loved the elementary-school sets - full of egg-crates and paper tubes. I hope most viewers agree that the world has a big star in Gael Garcia Bernal - barely 30 and a major talent. He seems to more easily slip into this not-quite-mature role than his other heavier ones - giving me the impression that this character is closer to the real Bernal. And I thought Charlotte Gainsborough was the exact "sane" character that Bernals' flighty one needed. The ending alone gave me some discomfort - being slightly indefinite to me. Try it, you'll likely like it!