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Michel Gondry: Requiem for a Dreamer
Michel Gondry explores The Science of Sleep
Michel Gondry knows a thing or two about the human mind. Judging from the surreal music videos he’s concocted for the likes of Björk, The White Stripes, Foo Fighters and Kylie Minogue, it’s safe to say that Gondry’s in touch with his own hyperactive imagination. His first feature, Human Nature (2001), dealt with the behavioral (re)conditioning of a man raised by apes (actually, raised by a father who thought he himself was an ape… don’t ask) and the notion that civility does not trump the libido. His stunning sophomore effort, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), tackled the most precious currency of gray matter—memory—and what happens to one’s heart when you try to erase it.
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None of Gondry’s previous work, however, can hold a proverbial candle to the cerebrumcentric subject of his new film. The Science of Sleep actually spends a hefty part of its running time inside the main character’s addled noggin… specifically, in one man’s flights of fancy. Stéphane, played by Gael García Bernal, is the sort of daydreamer who runs an imaginary TV network inside his frontal lobe, complete with cardboard cameras and a built-in green screen attached to his retinas. Having recently returned to Paris to live in his late father’s apartment, Stéphane soon falls for his neighbor across the hall—Stéphanie (the comely Charlotte Gainsbourg), a woman who may or may not be unattainable. Awkward in real life, Stéphane instead turns Stéphanie into the literal woman of his dreams, wherein the two can ride macramé ponies next to paper maché streams and live happily ever after in a cave furnished completely with yarn.
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| Michel Gondry, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Gael García Bernal on the set of The Science of Sleep (2006). |
Like the delusional hero of John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar (1963), Gondry’s alter-ego begins to blur the lines between reality and REM cycle, in much the same way that the director treads over the boundary between live-action and stop-motion animation, linear narrative and free-form freakout. Call it the missing link between Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory” and “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” or just a romantic comedy turned inside out, it’s easily Gondry’s most personal film. Having written the script over a period of several years and unabashedly proclaiming that the movie is “highly autobiographical,” The Science of Sleep offers a peek into its creator’s own insanely beautiful view on matters of the head and of the heart.
David Fear (MM): How did you come up with the concept behind The Science of Sleep?
Michel Gondry (MG): I’ve always been fascinated with the notion of lucid dreaming… the idea that you can control what’s going on in your subconscious. Ever since I was young, I’d dream about people I’d never met before and then want to meet them in real life. Or someone from my family would show up in my dream and I’d believe that we were sharing the same dream, so I’d give them a code word with instructions that they had to say back. My mother or brother would suddenly be in my head, and I’d tell them, ‘You have to say ‘27’ when you see me tomorrow!’ That would be my proof.
MM: Did that ever happen?
MG: Unfortunately, no… I used to wake up and believe that it could happen, but I don’t believe it anymore. Still, there was something romantic about the idea that two people could share the same dream. You could be in a relationship without ever having to be awake.
MM: You’ve mentioned before that your childhood has been a huge source of inspiration for your work. Would you say that your dreams have played a big role in your creative process as well?
MG: When you have a mixture of things going on in your life and all around you that gets filtered through your imagination (to me, that’s what a dream does) it generates a lot of original imagery. So when I’m working on a music video or a film, I try to recycle what I see in my mind as much as possible. I like the way that something you’ve seen on the street on the way to work will suddenly show up 10 times larger or 10 times smaller or in a totally different color… I’ve even used something from a dream, only to realize later that it originated from something I saw in another film! But I figured, well, my mind changed a few things after it digested those issues/64/images, so…
MM: So it’s technically yours?
MG: Sort of, yeah. (laughs) It’s a mix of the abstract and concrete, recognizable things.
MM: Like the oversized hands? I remember that they showed up in the Foo Fighters’ video for “Everlong,” which also takes place inside a dream.
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| García Bernal in The Science of Sleep (2006). |
MG: Yes, exactly! That came from a state I was in when I woke up from nightmares when I was a kid, where it felt as if my hands were far too large for my arms. I only just figured out what causes it about six months ago… it has to do with the connection between the cortex of the brain and the geography of the nervous system that sends messages of movement to your limbs. It perfectly mirrored the anguish that Stéphane goes through, so I wanted to use the concept again.
MM: Your first two films were collaborations with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman; this is the first project where you’re directing something you’ve written yourself. Did you find that it was easier to work from your own screenplay?
MG: No, it was much, much harder.
MM: Really? Most directors would say the opposite, since you’re able to direct the movie in your head as you write it.
MG: Yes, but when you’re the one writing, everything becomes much more embarrassing since you take every criticism personally. You’re much more vulnerable and thus, more fragile. You start saying, “You’re right, this script has no value. I agree.” You feel as if you’re naked; there are no one else’s words to hide behind, you know?
MM: How closely did you work with the set designer for the dream sequences?
MG: Very, very closely. But the whole process was totally chaotic. I started with one designer who was just going to work on the animated sequences and then I found this other person who I thought would be perfect for the filmed sections. Only I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so I hired them both. Then there was a third person in charge of overseeing all aspects of production, so it was the three of them all trying to make decisions. Honestly, I have no idea how we managed to make something that was even a little coherent. There were many days where I just wanted to run away… I was hoping that I could hide somewhere in Paris and wait until they just canceled the whole film. (laughs) But I look at it now and they all did a great job.
MM: What kind of discussions did you have with the actors regarding the jumps between reality and the world inside Stéphane’s head?
MG: Well, the discussions with Gael and Charlotte were mostly about their interactions and how the back and forth between them would play out. Everyone seemed to instinctually understand the dream sequences, which are quite far out. But how to play the more human aspects of the story—how to make all this fantastic stuff feel emotionally real—that was more difficult. Luckily, it worked out fine, because you could feel the dynamic developing between the two actors from the very first conference call I had with them. We were each in different countries, but Charlotte has this very soothing, reassuring voice. You could hear Gael’s nerves being calmed as she spoke. But her character is the more obscure of the two, and I told Charlotte that I really wasn’t sure what was going on in Stéphanie’s head. I was hoping that she would tell me through her performance. I wanted to get to know this character better.
MM: Did you feel like you knew Stéphanie by the time you’d finished?
MG: No. Which is kind of cool, actually. Charlotte is so rich and brought so much to the character that I feel like I never knew what was going on in Stéphanie’s head; she made her more complex. I wanted them to exist in their own relation to the story as much as I was, and that meant that they would have to find how it related to them. The film is very autobiographical, but I didn’t want to tell a story that was like three or four different versions of me up there.
MM: How is it autobiographical exactly?
MG: The way Stéphane makes things with his hands and the way he believes his immature love is strong enough to seduce this girl, then it doesn’t work out… I have to admit that the story, in that respect, is very personal.
MM: The look and feel of the film resembles your music video work more than your previous films.
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| Alain Chabot and Gael García Bernal in Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep (2006). |
MG: I always feel a little uneasy when I hear people say that, only because I know that people are very suspicious of video directors who make films. Most of them are just concerned with surface, but I’ve always tried to tell a story in whatever I’m doing. Even when you’re trying to incorporate an artist’s personality into something, it’s always about: Who are these people and where are they going? That never changes. I don’t want people to think that the aesthetic is driving the film, or that something is driven because it’s like, “I want to film the city a certain way!” The visuals are important, but without a narrative, they’re just pictures.
MM: It’s more that there’s a sense of freedom and breaking the rules that I associate with your video work.
MG: Oh, okay. That’s fine! (laughs)
MM: What made you decide to shoot in Paris, as opposed to New York, where you live now?
MG: I really wanted the story to be physically
connected to my past. It was rooted in feelings
I had when I was younger, so it made
sense to go back to the city of my youth. I was
an animator and painted backgrounds before
I became a director, and it was very similar
to Stéphane’s job in the movie: Toiling away
in the basement, doing this grunt work with
photography that was only partially creative.
Actually, we shot in the very building I used
to live in when I was with the mother of my
son… where she still lives, two flights below
where we filmed. I thought it might make me
melancholy to go back there or I would get
sad watching the film, but none of that happened.
It’s the me from two years ago dealing
with feelings that the me of 20 years ago had,
so the distance helped me deal with the painful
parts without breaking down. MM
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by David Johnson on 7/20/08 at 10:32 am
Very Good post about Michel. It revealed the truth about him. thanks for posting.
http://www.shredexonline.com/- Comment by OlivaB. on 3/03/09 at 4:33 pm
Michel Gondry is one of those directors that has never lost touch of the wonderment we had when we were children. At the same time, he still maintains his adult audience’s attention while enticing them to remember what it meant to think like a child. It’s a very vague memory for the rest of us. Perhaps this movie can awaken what has been asleep for so long.
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Olivia B.
Seattle DUI lawyer- Comment by Philosopher on 6/24/10 at 1:54 pm
It was he who made me reflect on the meaning of life. Thanks for the post. I read with pleasure.
- Comment by fragman on 7/06/10 at 3:35 am
Michel Gondry is one of those directors that has never lost touch of the wonderment we had when we were children.
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This story was published in the Summer 2006 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Requiem for a Dreamer / Michel Gondry explores The Science of Sleep
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