Michel Gondry: The Science of Sleep

Despite the fact that Michel Gondry’s latest movie The Science of Sleep has been already shown at cinemas worldwide and even came out on DVD in the US, it is only going to be shown in Japan from this May. Starring Gael García Bernal who played the young Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries and the French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, Michel Gondry let his creativity explode more than ever in this new film. So today PingMag asked him about… well not really! Unfortunately we only joined a press conference and didn’t really manage to get that close to him. BUT we show you how we exprienced Michel visiting Tokyo for the French film festival 2007.

Written by Chiemi

MC: In this latest film, you challenged to write the script yourself in addition to directing the film. You say that the main character Stephane is exactly who you are. How did you get the initial idea of the story?

It took me about 7 years to finally get to realize this project. Some of my ideas just kept growing. The starting points were different issues from my dreams. My dreams are very strong, vivid, and I remember a lot of them. It helps me for my work as an inspiration but the only problem is that I am often trapped inside them. For example, I have a bad dream and wake up and realize it was just a dream. Then I go back to sleep and I have the same dream again! And sometimes I don’t even realize that it was just a dream and feel like it happened to me in my real life. My brain doesn’t wake up fully as the logical part of my brain seems to wake up slower.

So I think I started those issues to develop a character who is very self-confident in his dream but very shy in real life. Then there was a love story in addition to that… I met this person I was working with and had a special feeling for her - but we couldn’t become a couple. So these are true stories mixed up in the way of my dreams. The basic idea of this film are my emotions and my life mixing them up and confusing me.

Reporter A: So, did you choose Gael García Bernal for the main character because you found some kind of similarity between yourself and him?

The reason why I chose Gael was because he is a good actor, but also because he is funny and charming and he can cry very dramatically… I thought he was right for the theme. However, it was difficult to make a decision to use a handsome boy because people might think: “Oh, that’s how Michel Gondry sees himself..” but I don’t see myself like him at all. Gael is very successful among ladies: when I’m with him in a room, all ladies are staring at him and he has this aura. But for this character he had to behave in a funny way and I had to make him less sexy and less attractive. So it was a bit of challenge for me. But as a result I think it worked very well.

Reporter B: The Science of Sleep is humorous and also romantic. Which scene is your most favourite?

Every time I see Charlotte and Gael together, I really enjoy the scene. I would say, the first time they really connected is when Stephane comes back to Stephanie’s place and she kind of realizes that he only came to see her friend Zoe. She is a bit upset but decides to take care of his injured hand. And then comes a small moment when they are connected and start to imagine this collaborative project: Like “How about the sky? The skyline of this clouds is like this..” and there is an explosion of creativity. For me that scene is very touching because of the characters and their charm in a real sense. When I see them sitting on the couch together, I feel like watching real people - not an actor and an actress.

Reporter C: At the beginning of this film, Stephane moves to France because his mother is French. But he can’t communicate with people very well as his mother tongue is Spanish. Did you plan this fact from the start as Stephane can’t manage to get through to Stephanie very well? Or did you make this part for Gael who is originally from Mexico?

I think it’s a combination. I chose Gael because I thought he was perfect for the film, but also because he can create an exotic atmosphere by speaking in English and French. In my own experience, I remember when I started to live in NY, I met this person I really liked. We were supposed to meet to watch some videos together, and she said to me “OK, I have my date with you.” To me a “date” means a romantic rendezvous - but she didn’t mean that. The language gap brings misunderstandings and sometimes it even creates a stronger connection because people excuse it a little bit. So I wanted to play with that in a romantic way.

PingMag: In this film, there are many ideas you could easily use for some of your music videos, such as water made out of cellophane running from a tap or floating clouds made out of cotton balls. Why did you use those ideas for this feature film? And do you recall any anecdotes while making these scenes?

To talk about my music videos first - again in many cases they are influenced by my dreams. I feel like I have to translate the visuals I saw into a video. As the budget for the music videos are never huge, I had to find a way to develop special techniques. The Science of Sleep is my very first fully personal film and I wanted to express myself with these techniques, especially when entering Stephane’s head.

Anyway, about 8 months before we started shooting with actors, I shot some scenes [pictured above] at a country house with about 10 staff, which took us about two months. The city [in the background] is entirely made out of toilet paper rolls. One of my staff told me that we could have just bought big tubes and cut them up into this shape. But I said “No, no, no! Toilet paper tubes have a very special shape and there is always a little bit of paper left on surface of the tubes because of the glue they use. I want that!” So 2 years before this shooting I asked all our friends and families to collect their toilet rolls for it and in the end everyone had big bags of toilet paper rolls.

MC: You have the spirit of a true workman…

(everyone laughs)

To talk a little more about toilets, the Japanese toilet seats are fascinating. (smiles)

…so, the press conference finished with Michel’s nice comment about Japanese toilet seats and finally he showed us the note book he had on the table the entire time:

Anyway, Michel, we didn’t have a chance to talk to you properly this time, but we are really hoping to interview you in the near future! Thank you so much!

Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep will be shown at Shibuya Cinemarize and other cinemas from this Golden Week!

11 Comments

1. hm… i thought that in russia we saw it later than in other countries… :)

   Posted by: Julia Lyao on March 28th, 2007 at 9:32 pm

2. [...] PingMag offers a new interview with Michel Gondry on the eve of The Science of Sleep’s opening in Japan. [...]

   Posted by: Film / Video » Shorts 2.8 on March 29th, 2007 at 4:23 am

3. Yes, it´s the shy-type-of-guy whom it is to ask.
   So, next time, when I´ll be in a dramatic discussion with only the talking-loud-ones speaking, probably the only one thinking and dreaming is the shy one. Therefore, the best thing to do will be to ask him for a wise answer.
   !
   :)

   Posted by: Bruno on March 29th, 2007 at 12:24 pm

4. [...] PingMagでGondryの恋愛催眠のなんとか、が紹介されてたら超見たくなったんですけど！Yoshiはフランス映画祭で見に行こうと意気込んでたらチケット売り切れだったらしい。 アチョー [...]

   Posted by: komomola! » Blog Archive » PingMag - Michel Gondry: The Science of Sleep on March 29th, 2007 at 2:22 pm

5. PingMag有趣的，有意义的，收益我们。

   Posted by: 莎骇 on March 29th, 2007 at 3:04 pm

6. art is bpointy

   Posted by: harry on March 30th, 2007 at 8:00 am

7. Well, it hasn’t opened yet in Singapore either…

   /grumble

   Posted by: strangeknight on March 30th, 2007 at 6:49 pm

8. [...] However, you will be in our magazine as a film director. The last director we had was Michel Gondry… [...]

   Posted by: PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Stewart Copeland: Everyone Stares on April 5th, 2007 at 7:00 pm

9. in the us it opened well a while ago. honestly the movie inspired me to think alot.
   i really loved it.

   Posted by: clarissa on May 2nd, 2007 at 5:08 am

10. thank you for this article…i’ve yet to see the movie (though i’ve been trying incessantly,if not obsessively) but the concept erally interest me. so yeah, thanks!

    Posted by: yellowtea on December 23rd, 2007 at 10:18 am

11. thanks alot…

    Posted by: oyun hileleri on February 3rd, 2008 at 2:39 am

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