Plot Synopsis Of Science of Sleep

Life seems to be looking up for shy and withdrawn Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal) when he is coaxed to return to his childhood home in France by his mother with the promise of a job. Wildly creative, his fanciful and sometimes disturbing dream life constantly threatens to usurp his waking world. But his joy is muted when he discovers that the job is actually a mundane copy setting position in a tiny office with three co-workers, including one (Alain Chabat) hungry for someone to entertain him and a boss who would prefer to be perpetually left alone.

However, that disappointment is overshadowed when Stephane meets his new next door neighbour, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her friend, Zoe. Initially mistaken for an injured furniture mover upon first meeting the two young women, and too shy to correct them, Stephanie then must pretend that he doesn’t actually live next door in order to continue the growing friendship with Stephanie.

Stephanie is not nearly as adept at lying as he is at creating and the girls soon learn the truth. Initially attracted to Zoe, he is quickly drawn to Stephanie as her imagination easily matches his own. He enlists and engages her in his various creative projects and inventions and joyfully begins to let her into the confused but colourful world of his mind. And almost inexplicable charmed by him, Stephanie somehow finds the key to the heart of Stephane’s fragile artist. As their relationship blossoms, the confidence he exudes in his fanciful dream life begins bleeding over to his real life as it never had before with Stephane finding success, dispatching villains and looking toward a happy, magical future with Stephanie.

However, just as he finds popularity with the successful publishing of a calendar featuring his illustrations, he becomes distraught over the perceived rejection of his feelings by Stephanie. But did she really reject him? Or through his insecurities, did he simply imagine the scenario which has left him romantically adrift yet again? Unable to bear the prospect of a waking world without Stephanie’s love and with no satisfying solutions coming out of his dream world, Stephane faces a dilemma he may not be able to depend on the science of sleep to help him solve.