The Science of Sleep

The Science of Sleep was a film created in 2006 directed by Michael Gondry. The movie centers around a young guy named Stephane who lives alone in an apartment in Paris and falls in love with his neighbor. Throughout his daily activities he slips in and out of reality. Sometimes he lives his life in a dream and gets caught up in it so much that he has a hard time adjusting back to reality.
Stephane's inability to sometimes distinguish between dreams and real life causes his love life with the neighbor, Stephanie, to suffer. Stephanie, gets fed up with Stephane's antics when he is still in his dream world. Because he has this, what to some could be perceived as a personality flaw, it causes him to come across as childish. This could also be attributed to the fact that when he does go into his dream world in the movie it looks like a television show made for kids. This causes him to think like a kid and act like a kid when he is coming out of his dream world and into reality. Stephanie of course has a problem with this behavior, because who in their adult life wants to date a child?
I feel that Stephane is afraid to grow up and join the adult world. He is holding on to this childish dream world to maybe hold on to his childhood. This is why I think that the art he creates is childish but in a cynical way. Not only this he is living in an apartment that his mother owns and his mother has to help him find a job. The only friend we really see him interact with is a man that he meets at his job who is older than him. He kind of becomes that cool dad figure for Stephane.
This movie is unlike any I have ever seen. The special effects for his dream world are very interesting, low budget looking at times, but still help tell the story. The concept of this story is very imaginative. The writer like Stephane must also have a wild and vivid imagination.