Last night I went to see The Science of Sleep which just opened in Manhattan. It stars Gael Garcia Bernal, my short Mexican dream boy who appears nude in a lot of his films including this one. lol. The film was one of the most wackiest and original movies I have ever seen. The animation and sets are ridiculous yet amazing. The storyline is a tad confusing, especially near the end, but it is ultimately a lot of fun. The character that Gael plays is hysterical and if you can identify with him (which I couldn't really), you will really enjoy the movie like the two people I went with. It wasn't as thrilling or mindblowing as I was hoping for though so I don't know if it really is needed to see in a theater.
The Science of Sleep - New York Times.
Filmed in not-especially-glamorous parts of Paris, the film takes place in a zone where dreams, wishes and fears mingle with, and at times obliterate, the literal facts of everyday existence.
Beginning deep inside the head of its hero, an anxious young man named Stephane (Gael Garc�a Bernal), “The Science of Sleep” creates a world of intense peculiarity, where time seems to move in loops and curlicues, and where the basic axiom that a thing and its opposite can’t both be true seems not to apply.
Plot summary, therefore, is both irrelevant and impossible. Which is not to say that the movie lacks a story, only that, like a dream, the narrative moves sideways as well as forward, revising and contradicting itself as it goes along. Mr. Gondry, who would rather invent than explain, makes a plausible case that a love story (which is what “The Science of Sleep” is) cannot really be told any other way. Love is too bound up with memories, fantasies, projections and misperceptions to conform to a conventional, linear structure.
Afterwards we boarded various subway lines to make a 50 minute commute to the restaurant Saul in Brooklyn. Saul is a one star Michelin restaurant (we know how obsessed I am already so don't act surprised) started by Saul Bolton who honed his skills in the kitchen of David Bouley who runs Bouley
(a three star) and Le Bernadin. Boerum Hill is where the restaurant resides and I really didn't get to notice the neighborhood because it was ten at night when I was trying to find the restaurant but supposedly it is one of Bk's prettiest neighborhoods. The restaurants decorations are simple and delicate. The only thing that beckons to be paid attention to inside is the food.
The meal was stellar. There is a less than exciting prixe-fix menu so we ordered directly a la carte. Every piece of food was incredibly fresh and seemed straight from a New England farm or body of water it originated in. I had the duck confit for an appetizer which came to my table surprisingly still on the bone and nearly in duck form. My salmon was exceptionally delicious; flaky yet juicy, beautifully pink, and in a sauce so tasty thoughts of "the old French sauces" dance in your head. We had the signature baked Alaska for dessert and it was pretty much standard yet a perfect way to end the meal. Per typical of Michelin restaurants and "French"-like meals, the amuse bouche of cauliflower soup was a totally new idea of cauliflower soup.
It was great and memorable. It certainly stands out in Brooklyn and is one of the better restaurants in the NYC boroughs. The movement of a chef into a quieter neighborhood and is still able to draw you outwards is very European and this restaurant was worth the hike. Though, I am not sure if it is worth two hikes.
mmmm duck confit
Posted by: Kiwi | September 24, 2006 at 12:04 AM