Close Your Eyes.Open Your Heart.

In theaters NOW

 

"In dreams, emotions are overwhelming..."

Welcome to the mind of Stephane Miroux (Gael Garcia Bernal)!  Stephane is the perky host of "Stephane TV" while he is asleep, but while he's awake he's a fiercesomely shy Parisian calendar publisher, perpetually on an epic quest for true love.  At the request of his widowed mother, Stephane returns to France to face all sorts of challenges.  To perhaps make up for a dead boring waking life, Stephane's world is shaped by his endearing dream life which comes complete with cardboard, cut-and-paste edifices of real life appliances and peopled with mythic creatures made out of household materials; it is within his imagination that he seeks to find the key to unlocking the heart of the woman he comes to love.  But is his love for her yet another fantasy or the real thing? 

Enter beautiful girl-across-the-hall, Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Stéphanie likes Stephane well enough, but not enough to be completely charmed by him.  She's anything but cold, but Stephane seems a bit too childish for her.  Being something of a mystery to Stephane, he escapes into his dream world to figure out ways to reach her.  

 

 

 

     

"I am your neighbor and a liar. By the way, do you have Zoe's number? "

Stephane turns to his co-worker, Guy ( Alain Chabat) for advice. Guy seems more down-to-earth and practical than Stephane, but will he be able to listen to Guy?  Guy is perhaps too upfront about the opposite sex for imaginative Stephane to listen, anyway... 

About the Director: " The Science of Sleep," known natively as La Science des rêves, is a film, written and directed by Michel Gondry.  Michel, born and raised in Versailles, France, was first best known for reviving the music-video format in the 1990's and for creating amazing imagery for commercials. You will perhaps recognize his in-camera effects, models, composites, screen projections, and lighting abounding in Björk's video for "Human Behavior" where a story is told about predator and prey. Gondry's first feature film, Human Nature, tells the strange tale of a woman born with a rare genetic disorder that has her entire body covered in hair. Gondry's films are a playfull examination of nature and the human condition. Besides Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gondry's most recent work was done in collaboration with Dave Chappelle; "Block Party" gave an unique view of behind the scenes production of a Brooklyn neighborhood's once-in-a-lifetime free block party with riveting performances by Kanye West, Erykah Badu, Big Daddy Kane, plus the reunion of The Fuggees.

Quotes about filmmaking from the Director: "Childhood occupies the biggest part of your brain, so a lot of my memories subconsciously (and consciously) enter the videos I do.” "I think my imagination dictates the technologies I use. But at the same time, my imagination can be technologic. Sometimes I see a tool and I know immediately how to use it, but most of the time I use the tool for an idea I already have. " "I don't want to just accumulate a succession of impactful images. I'm always interested in storytelling."

 

• The characters in the film are constantly switching the language they're speaking in (from French to English or English to French) because Stéphane's French is terrible.
  
  
• The film's trailer and website heavily feature the song "If You Rescue Me" by Chansons Des Chats, which sounds very similair to Velvet Underground's "After Hours". The trailer also features the songs "Fear of Sleep" by The Strokes and "Your Heart is an Empty Room" by Death Cab for Cutie.
  
  
• At the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, director Michel Gondry told that the main location of the film is a house where he used to live 15 years ago.
  
  
• Michel Gondry didn't use any chroma keys in this film (excepts the one you see explicitly in Stephane TV), but he screened the FX sequence (already done before the shooting with step-by-step method) behind the actors, so that they could see it and not imagine it, which gives them a different way of playing their parts.

Clips, fan videos, and other bits of daydream:  

A fan's remix of images from "Stephane TV"

clip from a scene from "The Science of Sleep"