On Friday, Lemming, three others, and I saw The Science of Sleep, which had been the film I had been anticipating the most ever since I first saw the trailer. (When I saw this trailer, I remember both Lemming and I having the immediate reaction of 'I am so there' for this movie. Maybe we saw this trailer during A Scanner Darkly? I was trying to figure out what the film was, because we first saw the trailer at the Paseo and it would certainly make sense if it was during a flick that was also showing in both Laemmle and major theatres.)
While I don't particularly like the title of the film, the movie itself is an work of art. I have seen a number of absolutely wonderful new films in 2006 (and that's ignoring things like Adaptation that I saw on DVD but should have seen long ago), and this film is on the short short list of the best ones of the year. I'm not sure how I'll ultimately rank these films, but I think my ranking now is already different from when I first saw them. (They all wowed me when I saw them, but some of them left impressions that feel more indelible than the others, and I need to consider this when I try to order them. Really, it's better to say that they wowed me on different axes.)
The Science of Sleep blurs the reality between reality and dreams, and I have a major soft spot for such things. There is an additional component of meta- via "Stephane-TV" which reminds me a bit of my always feeling like my life has a soundtrack. (I have looks that are perfect for radio, so it kind of makes sense that I only experience the audio version of this.) For example, I sometimes get the experience of a song coming to my iPod that just somehow feels right for that moment. I may or may not have realized it before the song started playing, but it just seemed right and even if the song was a sad one, that knowledge alone made me feel better even despite problems in my life. (Naturally, in cases where I realize in advance which songs sets the right mood, I go and play it. For example, my canonical angry song when I've totally fucked up something is What's the Frequency, Kenneth? in part because the song just sounds so angry. There also is a story behind this that could encompass an entire blog entry --- not one of my finer moments, I assure you --- but I'm already getting sidetracked more than I intended.)
OK, so besides the meta- aspect and the (far more important for me in this particular case) blurriness of reality, I can identify with the protagonist, which I pretty much realized would be the case from the trailer. (I also realize the blurriness and the meta- from the trailer.) He is having trouble talking to a girl and doing some stupid things as a result that aren't helping his case. The confusion of what's a dream and what's reality are also contributing to these problems. His way of doing stupid things doesn't resemble mind, which take the form of different neuroses from the ones he exhibited. (I must have dropped my confidence somewhere. Now where was that? OK, great. And how about my ability to speak coherently. Among other things, when I'm infatuated and interacting with said person, my mannerisms start resembling Woody Allen's on-camera persona --- well, except that the girls in question are actually my age --- which is far more amusing to watch than to experience.) Anyway, I can certainly relate to it and empathy with the main character helps. It also helps when both this person and the object of his affections are creative.
Oh, another thing that was awesome was the intertwining of French and English---especially when the protagonist would speak pidgin French and the English subtitles at the bottom of the screen would reflect it! Awesome!
A related piece of awesomeness was that the film had a lot of witty one-liners. I love that stuff, and comments that are simultaneously clever and pithy make my day. Here is one of the best exchanges in the film:
Stephane: It's like touching your penis with your left hand.
Stéphanie: I don't have a penis.
Stephane: But you have a left hand.
Any phrases I hear about people's left hands will never mean be the same as they were before Friday night...
Here's the wikipedia entry. The details are still extremely sparse as I write this, but I am eagerly anticipating reading this later so I can better understand a few more things I saw on Friday.
In sum, blurring dreams with reality + wittiness + empathy with protagonist + meta- = big win.
Go see this movie!
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