Freed from the narrative restraints of Charley Kaufman’s scripts, former pop video prodigy Gondry lets loose with a flight of fancy that is pure cinema and purely, ecstatically bonkers. Childlike Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) returns to Paris from Mexico for a creative job that is anything but. His rampant imagination finds an outlet in dreams that threaten to overcome reality. Then he meets Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a pianist and dab hand with a crafts knife. Chocka with wacky animation and strange set pieces that soar, the film is a delirious dream. “I’d watch it again in a heartbeat.” Tom Charity, www.cinema-scope.com
The Science of Sleep
Directed by Michel Gondry