The Science of Love

Today was Michel Gondry day, winner of the 2005 Academy Award for his original screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  I caught The Science of Sleep exhibition at Deitch Projects this afternoon just in time, as it closes tomorrow.  It is described in the press release as “an exhibition of sculpture and pathological creepy little gifts by Michel Gondry coinciding with the release of his new movie The Science of Sleep…In this exhibition, The Science of Sleep movie sets are presented and elaborated on as to allow their more concerted consideration as sculpture.  A walk through the exhibition will immerse the viewer in the sculptural experience of the movie in three dimensions.” And so it was, a totally wonderfully bizarre collection of video, installation, paintings and sculpture.  Walking through the show you wonder how someone comes up with such combinations and contemplations.  The actual meaning of the work, for me anyway, was almost entirely impossible to penetrate…until I saw the film.

The Science of Sleep, the film, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and stars Gael Garcia Bernal in a sentimental, surreal comedy about a daydreamer (Bernal) who falls in love with his neighbor and struggles with telling the difference between reality and his dreams.  The film is special and interesting for many reasons.  Most stunning for me was how successfully it conveyed a deep truth about love, falling in love and being in love. The way it can sneak up on you and surprise you completely. The experience of going from ambivalence to near obsession in what can seem like the blink of an eye is so like the main character’s experience of moving from dream state to reality. And like with dreams, when love enters, it is quite hard to tell truth from fiction; what is real from what is imagined; and nearly impossible to see things clearly like one’s own feelings, the feelings of another, the reasons for this or that behavior…I titled this entry The Science of Love because love is anything BUT and Gondry’s film conveys this beautifully and perfectly.