2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

January 8, 2005

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Directed by Michel Gondry, Story by Charlie Kaufman

Erase Memories

The title is quoted from the poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope (1688-1744). This poem was used in Charlie Kaufman’s earlier project Being John Malkovich(1999). This film shows how we can change our memories often for what we would have liked to happen or what we view did happen through our own minds. We are not camcorders and thus those memories can not stay "possible".
Franz Kafka’s short story “The Metamorphosis” is about a traveling salesman who wakes one morning to find himself changed into a giant beetle. Unable to communicate with his family, though he can understand them perfectly, the story charts the degradation of his humanity as he loses contact with the world around him. The Kafka principle: we accept as real something impossible (a man is turned into a beetle or we can erase parts of our memory at will). But then everything else has to be absolutely natural and commonplace. Once an impossible fact is accepted as a premise, its consequences have to be followed to the end in a scrupulously logical and realistic way.
This idea of selectively erasing memories was first seen in "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale", a short story by Philip K. Dick.
Total Recall is the adaptation of that short story which is in dreamlike state quirky, nightmarish and disturbing quality.
Stephen Dixon's The Play and Other Stories, surreal short story "The Letter." Dixon is one of Charlie Kaufman's favorite writers.
Despite the fact that Kaufman's script and Michel Gondry's visual concepts were closely followed, Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet were allowed many chances to improvise.
Puzzle-type of films: Being John Malkovich(1999), Adaptation(2002), Donnie Darko(2001), Memento(2000), Cube(1997), Vanilla Sky(2001), Open Your Eyes(1997), Naked Lunch(1991), Eraserhead(1977)…