The Science of Sleep

Everybody loves The Science of Sleep, Michel Gondry's new(ish) fantasy film about, well to be honest, I'm not entirely sure. This is not the point. This is also not the point: see it. If you've already seen it and don't like it, well then I think we're all done here.

Moving on! I love when the fourth wall (the wall between film and viewer) is breached. Especially when it's unintentional. Obviously, this happened in The Science of Sleep, otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned the movie.

Theres this one scene where our hero, Stephane (it's French, what can I say), is dancing with this random girl, and she looks right into the camera--for like 3 or 4 seconds. You may not think that's a lot of time, but it is. Looking into the camera is one of the major no-no's in film making.

I love it because the film crew probably just went into a random bar one night said, "This looks good," and then just set up their stuff and got to work. They probably gave the people in the bar a few directions, don't talk to the camera, don't look to the camera, don't talk to the actors. Several cocktails later, our hero is dancing with one of the regular patrons and she looks right into the camera before blatantly catching herself a few seconds later.

If this was a high budget American film--well if this was a high budget American film this predicament would never have happened because everyone would have been actors--but they would have probably re shot the scene. I mean it's so blatant, and so awkward. I don't know if it's that its an indie film, or that it's French, or some combination of the two, but for some reason, I love it. Brilliant!

Now I'm not insinuating that all films should be Ed Wood style, but its nice to see a film come around and not take itself so seriously. It's refreshing.

That's all for now, stay tuned next week for: Flying Pigs or Hell Freezing Over, Which Will Happen First: A Discussion