The Science of Sleep

The Science of Sleep (2006) is Michel Gondry's fantasy romance, and you can watch online on iFILM. This French-Italian film follows a young man whose dreams keep spilling over into waking life.

Shy Stéphane returns from Mexico to Paris at his mother's urging, only to land a dull job nowhere near the creative work he imagined. Gael García Bernal plays a daydreamer for whom his own imagination feels more solid than any daily routine. His neighbor Stéphanie, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, seems at first like a kindred spirit, and Stéphane falls for her hard. The trouble is that he can no longer quite tell where reality stops and his inventions begin.

Gondry builds the movie out of handmade, almost papier-mâché animation and homespun effects done in camera. The result is a tender, faintly anxious story about how hard it is to grow up when your inner world burns brighter than the one outside. Stream The Science of Sleep (2006) online on iFILM.