Sunday, October 01, 2006

The Science of Sleep

Such is the power and humor of Michel Gondry’s “The Science of Sleep”’ that it made a crowded theater of New Yorkers convulse with laughter at the image of a terrorist attack on an airplane.

Stephane, the protagonist of this cross between MTV and Borges, has a new job with a company that makes nudie calendar. In the critical scene, he pitches a new line: each month carries an image of the disaster for which it is most famous.

There will be dozens of reviews that will explain the premise of this film, the actors, the director and the characters, but here is all you need to know: it is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. The imagery is largely handmade, like a totem mask or a quilt (indeed, there is a quilt here, with animals made entirely of light that dance across it). If “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds” were a movie, it would be this movie, with its cellophane oceans and musical clouds. The last time I felt this moved by the cinema, I got married.


But…

1. I’m a sap.
2. There are no guarantees.



[Some real reviews: WaPo, New York Times.]

2 comments:

topazz said...

Great post, I liked the one you linked to, too.

hmmm. Wonder what movie will make you start makin' babies?

topazz said...

I didn't think it was interestng enough to repost here, I was rambling with no point.