Elwood's Essentials #13 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Title: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Director: Michel Gondry
Released: 2004
Starring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkinson

Plot: When Joel (Carrey) discovers that his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Winslet) has had her memories of him erased via Lacuna, Inc. he undergoes the treatment himself to remove his memories of their relationship only to soon find himself wanting to hold onto his memories of her and attempting to hide the subliminal Clementine within his own memories as a unique chase soon begins to unfold.

Review: Occasionally as a avid movie watcher you will encounter a film which for one reason or another seemingly hits you on a deeper level, making the experience take on a whole new level. It’s something that has only happened a few times with Donnie Darko, Southland Tales and A Clockwork Orange all providing this kind of viewing experience, to the point where I can still remember every detail about those initial viewings.  The same thing would also happen during the opening to this film as Joel suddenly decides to blow off work and take the train to Montauk, while her reels off his thoughts as a voice over from the random such as critising sand for being “Just tiny rocks” to suddenly hitting on two thoughts which hit me hard

“Random thoughts for Valentine’s day, 2004. Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.”

“Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?”

And it was these two quotes which made me suddenly realise that I had found in this film a kindred spirit,  knowing in the back of mind that no matter what happened next I would love this film forever.  Thankfully the rest of the film is just as great as this opening with the perfect storm of the visually driven director Michel Gondry and the highly unique writing of Charlie Kaufman with this film being their second time collaborating after the hit and miss “Human Nature”.

Being a Kaufman script it should come as little surprise that the films narrative is less than traditional, with the opening introduction of Joel and Clementine whose mismatched personalities somehow gel together into a believable relationship not that we get to enjoy it for long as we cut to a post break up Joel struggling to deal with the fallout from their break up while more confusingly why she suddenly doesn’t seem to remember who he is. Needless to say it’s a disorientating style of plotting, but Gondry trusts enough in his audience not to baby them through the film as he throws out bursts of information along with a heavy dose of his visual styling and leaves the viewer to piece it all together.

While the lead up to Joel undergoing the treatment might be confusing its none the less of a rough ride once we get into his memories as we are confronted with the bitter end of his breakup as these two characters we see falling in love now seemingly can’t stand a thing about each other. As each of these memories are deleted though we inevitably come to the turning point in the relationship when things weren’t so bad and it’s this sudden realisation on Joel’s part where the films emotional centre lies especially as Joel now realises that he’s not ready to give her up. The added twist here though are the frequent cuts back to the real world as Lacuna technicians Stan (Ruffalo) and Patrick (Wood) carry out their work and as Joel decides to go on the run in his own memories struggles to delete the memories of Clementine he’s attempting to save, especially as his body remains paralysed while undergoing the treatment.  

While these two plots would be perfectly sufficient for the film to be an intresting and unique film, we also get another and more creepy aspect added with Patrick attempting to seduce Clementine using her deleted memories of her relationship with Joel with little regard for the ethics of doing such a thing. This role being the start of a chain of interesting roles for Wood who at this point was coming off his lead role in “The Lord of the Rings” and here really manages to tap into a surprisingly creepy side while equally happy to brag about his involvement with her to Stan and makes for an interesting antagonist of sorts for Joel as he constantly tries to figure out who he is from the fragments of memories of him he has.

Perhaps because Gondry is such a visually driven director that the film is almost too perfectly suited for him, as here he shows scenery rapidly disappearing as memories are deleted, while using visual trickery to shrink Carrey without the use of CGI as seen during the scene in which Joel hides out in his childhood memory of hiding under the table while Clementine remains fully grown as she takes on the role of his mother’s friend. Its also during these diversions into his childhood memories or when memories start merging into each other that the film is at its most arresting and memorable.

At the same time the films characters are as equally memorable and intresting as the visuals happening around them be it the free spirited Clementine whose introduction is her voicing her desire to have the job naming hair dye such creative names as “Agent Orange”. Joel on the other hand while depressed and withdrawn when we first meet him, soon starts to show a variety of levels throughout the film including a fun and creative side that Clementine brings out in him, with Carrey playing it largely serious once more, yet somehow still manging to work in some of his natural clowning abilities. However the person seemingly have the most fun here is Winslet, who shugs off her usual well-spoken persona and embraces an anarchic side not seen from her since “Heavenly Creatures” and one which perfectly gels with Carrey despite the unusual pairing and making me wish that they would team up together more often.

Unquestionably this is a highly unique film and the kind which seems to be sadly increasingly a rarity in these times were studios are favouring tentpole and prestige pictures over the risks of more imaginative and creative works. At the same time this remains currently the high water mark for Gondry who while certainly none the less creative with the films which he has made following this has yet to produce anything which has come close to matching the surprisingly emotional yet entertaining trip that he takes us on here.

The Science of Sleep

Title: The Science of Sleep

Director: Michel Gondry

Released: 2006

Staring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain Chabat, Miou-Miou

Plot: Stephane (Bernal) a frequent lucid dreamer, who seemingly spends as much time in his own personal dream world as he does in the real world. Having returned from Mexico to his childhood home in Paris, following the death of his father, he takes up a job at a Calendar Company believing that it will provide the outlet for his creativity he craves, while also forming a relationship with Stephanie (Gainsbourg) who shares Stephane’s overactive sense of creativity.

Review: This last week despite my best efforts I have been suffering from the darn flu that is currently going around and in between amassing a small pharmacy of flu remedies and looking for some suitable viewing while I was refusing to get out of bed, I rediscovered this film in my collection and knew that I had found my choice for this week. This weeks choice is a film which was pretty much ignored on it’s release despite receiving a lot of positive press from critics, which is only the more surprising at the time with Director Michel Gondry coming in hot after the phenomenal success of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and memorable in the conscious of the movie going public, an advantage which allowed Gondry seemingly unlimited creative freedom for this project, which would also be the first film written by him, with his previous films both being scripted by the equally visionary screenwriter Charlie Kaufman probably best known for writing “Being John Malkovich” and while “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” might have been trippy, this film would be turn out to be on a whole new surreal level.

Coming from a background in commercials and Music videos, much like equally visual directors such as David Fincher and Spike Jonze who bizarly also made the transition to feature films around the same time as Gondry did, though while they may have expanded on their earlier styles, Gondry has reminded determinedly set in his own surreal world of DIY props and dream like imagery, while frequently drawing inspiration from his own dreams and has frequently used this imagery as part of his work, which makes it only all the more sense that he would eventually make a film about dreams.

The casting is nothing short of bold, with the two leads being realativly unknowns to most movie goers, bar those with a taste for Foreign and independent cinema. Having made the pitch black “The King” a year earlier this film would be Bernal’s second film to be shot in English, having previously only being known to fans of foreign cinema for his roles in “Y tu mamá también” and the fantastic “Amores perros” this film would continue his trend for fearlessly choosing his roles, especially with a character as frenzied as Stephane. Equally inspired is the casting of the little known Gainsbourg who is equally believable as Stephanie while seemingly to genuinely believe and buy into the world which Stephane lives inside, while also being shown as the stereotypical hot art student with her personal styling and room layout, which also is hinted with the intoxicating essence of Parisian flair.
Split down the middle, the film frequently switches between two worlds, the real one and the world of Stephane’s dream and more precisely “Stephane TV” his own TV show in his mind were he frequently reflects on current events happening around him, while providing the gateway into the even more surreal parts of his mind, with Gondry frequently choosing to switch between these two worlds frequently without warning, which can be a disorientating experience upon your first viewing and it’s really only on the second viewing that it becomes easier to identify the boundary lines between these two worlds, even when those lines frequently become all the more blurred as the film goes on, especially as Stephane’s dreams only grow in intensity.

This constant disorientation is only furthered by the frequent switches in the characters speaking French and English, also like the switches in reality with little or no warning, only making it more the appropriate when this is picked up by Stephane, who complains that it is making him feel “Schizophrenic”. Still Gondry somehow manages to get the audience to buy into this style of storytelling, which is highly reminiscent of French New Wave directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and from the retro opening titles onwards I found myself frequently comparing the work of the two directors, especially with both being key in furthering the progression of visionary cinema and it was interesting to see Gondry seemingly referencing Godard’s work, while also drawing inspiration from the more established visionaries like Terry Gilliam and David Cronenberg whose Spider like Typewriter from “Naked Lunch” making a surprise appearance here.

The dream sequences are truly the main selling point of this film, as Gondry lets loose with some of his most ambitious imagery to date, as he constructs elaborate sets from cardboard and polystyrene combined with heavy use of stop motion animation, while for those familiar with Gondry’s work will recognise the now all familiar giant hands which have frequently appeared at various points in his previous music videos and films to the point were they are almost as established as his other trademarks, despite having originally been born out of a frequent childhood nightmares about his hands growing to gigantic size, to the point were his mother would have to continuously rubs his hands to assure him that it was nothing more than a dream, though for such an unpleasant childhood memory it bizarre that it would feature so frequently in his work. Still frequently these sequences often do feel like an excuse for Gondry to pull out his film making bag of tricks, especially when so many scenes seem reminiscent of his earlier work.

Ultimately this would be his most ambitious film to date and also prove to be the zenith of his creativity, as the films which followed would see him gradually toning down his vision with his follow up “Be Kind Rewind” being firmly set in reality despite the heavy use of DIY props to now an almost mainstream style of film making seen with “The Green Hornet” which lacked any of Gondry’s trademark touches, though it remains to be seen how mainstream he has become as fan’s now egerly await the forthcoming “The We and the I”.

Ultimately this is a tale of doomed love and it’s sudden and abrasive ending will no doubt only further exclude it from the tastes of your average movie goer, while for those of you who like to be visually inspired by your film, there is much to enjoy, even if it does require your full attention to keep up with it’s continual switches, while only making you hope that Gondry returns to this style of film making soon