“As soon as you close your eyes, the adventurous dream begins.” (Beginning of the novel, ///A Man Asleep///) “Your alarm goes off. And you don’t move an inch.” (Beginning of the film ///A Man in a Dream///) The movie, based on the novel ///A Man Asleep/// by Georges Perec, unconventionally uses a second person point of view, referring to the reclusive, mid-20s protagonist as “you”. A French actress, Ludmila Mikaël, voiced the narrator whose gender is unknown in the novel. The novel is an autobiographical story of Perec and can only be described as a sociological view of isolation in modern society. While both the film and the movie completely break the common idea of narration, they are also dissimilar as manifested in the subtle differences in each of their beginnings. Although the film’s credits say it is directed by Bernard Queysanne and written by Perec, it is in fact co-directed by the two.

※No English subtitles provided

1974 Cannes Film Festival
1974 Venice Film Festival

Georges PEREC

Georges Perec won the Prix Renaudot for his first novel, ///Things: A Story of the Sixties/// published in 1965. Since then he has written fictions, plays , an opera libretto, radio plays, a collection of dreams, and a study of the game of go.

Bernard QUEYSANNE

Bernard Queysanne began his career in television and second assistant to Robert Enrico. Then, he became the assistant of Georges Franju. He has directed many films.