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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Spoilers)

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Mister Six, whom all the girls

16:33 / 02.02.04

IMDB entry.
Lucuna Inc. (official site)

I'm too shocked for words that no thread has been started on this film. Granted, all I've seen is the ELO-heavy trailer, but... I hate Jim Carrey and I want to see this film, so that's a pretty strong trailer. It's written by Charlie Kaufman and Michael Gordy, starring your regular sordid rack of lamb celebs.

The whole concept that memories can be erased from the mind is very appealing, esp. when it results in tripped-out imagery (even though I'm sore that my comic posted on www.zebramag.com is based on a similar idea). Ah well. It might be a good film.

Anyone else interested?

Matthew Fluxington

16:57 / 02.02.04

There was no thread because there's no sense in putting up a thread about a film which hasn't come out yet, and when it does, only a handful of us will even be able to see it. I'll see it the weekend it comes out, maybe I'll post about it. I'm a huge Kaufman and Gondry fan, so I've been looking forward to this for quite some time now.

And for fuck's sake, his name is MICHEL GONDRY! Michael Gordy? Eeeeee.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

17:26 / 02.02.04

Your skirt came up a bit there, deary. You should honestly press it down firmer.

18:09 / 02.02.04

I read the screenplay and it sounds good - the first draft, I think, is at www.beingcharliekaufman.com under scripts.

21:38 / 02.02.04

I'll be seeing this one as soon as possible. The trailer looks amazing, and the story has a lot of potential. Kaufman's work is the most consistenly intriguing of any writer working in Hollywood at present.

22:11 / 02.02.04

Amen to that. I've been shoving the trailer into everyone's pupils that I can.

Can't wait.

21:27 / 03.02.04

There was no thread because there's no sense in putting up a thread about a film which hasn't come out yet

Nonsense. Any critique of movies can and sometimes should take into account marketing, pre-release hype, trailers, creative process, interviews, to name but a few things. The movie doesn't exist in a vacuum. God, this forum would be duller than dull if we were only able to talk about the film without addressing any wider contextual issues.

11:02 / 04.02.04

And speaking of which... why is it that this film wasn't mentioned in the big fucking splurge of publicity around the Disector's Label launch? But rather there was only stuff about how Human Nature wasn't that good.

I have to say that that trailer got me damn excited about the film, both times I saw it; why do you say most people won't beable to see it, Matt? I got a trailer on the Isle of Wight, and it seems odd they'd give it a bigger release in England then they would in America...

Matthew Fluxington

11:37 / 04.02.04

Chris, I was just addressing the fact that this film will be out in NYC and LA long before it is in wide release in the United States, much less the UK and elsewhere.

Seth, you've got a point, and I agree.

By the way, Human Nature is quite good. It's totally underrated. It's not Kaufman's best script, but on its own merits, it is an interesting and funny movie.

14:21 / 04.02.04

I've been looking forward to it for a year now. Jim Carrey may have done a few shit comedies here and there but The Truman Show redeems everything.
Mr 6: I'm not sure I'll be able to see it until it comes out dvd. It might come to a theatre thirty minutes away. Here's hoping.

Like Human Nature, I expect this will be a mix of crap and cool. Human Nature was entertaining though not memorable.

Murray Hamhandler

18:41 / 04.02.04

I've already been a Charlie Kaufman fan for some time, but after having bought his DVD solely on the basis of its inclusion of the video for Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water" (which was and still is one of the best and most interesting videos I've ever seen), Michel Gondry is exceptionally high in my esteem. I can't recommend the DVD highly enough, as it contains many videos which are on par with (and which, in some cases, surpass) the Cibo Matto video IMO. I have enormous respect towards Gondry's aesthetic, which seems infused w/a sense of fun and child-like joy (and which is about the polar opposite of the moods and attitudes which inform the work of most other innovative directors).

I saw and thoroughly enjoyed Human Nature, as well, but didn't realize that Gondry had directed it (or even know who he was) until just recently. So I'm highly anticipating Eternal Sunshine... and fairly put off by the fact that I won't get to see it until April. Damn these extremely limited releases that take place months before wide release.

02:36 / 20.03.04

So good. I swear after seeing this movie my friend and I had a helluva time remembering where she had parked.

03:46 / 20.03.04

It's like a really great Philip K. Dick movie... more later.

04:38 / 20.03.04

It is brilliant. Fun, innovative, interesting, creepy, sad, funny, with great performances all around. Greatly awesome.

Gondry's Director's Label compilation is also outstanding.

Anybody know what he's doing next?

09:03 / 20.03.04

Michel Gondry is an astonishing guy. The video he did for the Chemical Brother's Star Guitar is one of my favourite music videos of the last five years.

19:08 / 20.03.04

Has anybody that's read the script also seen the movie?
Just curious as to whether it's pretty much the same...I'll see it tomorrow though and looking forward to it.

04:07 / 21.03.04

I saw it last night, and loved it. It's one of the most personal films I've seen in a while, which was refreshing. So many movies feel like the work of a committe, but this felt really thought out, and a lot of love clearly went into the making of the film.

The memory erasure sequences were phenomenal, particularly the shot where Clementine is on the ice, being dragged away from him, into the dark. Also, those people with the indecipherable faces were really creepy.

Carrey was amazing in the film, he really became the character, more so than even in Truman Show or Man on the Moon. And, Winselt was great in a really tough role.

I love the fusion of the really bizarre and the really mundane, which is where people like Philip K. Dick and Morrison excel.

08:42 / 21.03.04

His "Knives Out" video for Radiohead was sensational.

04:30 / 22.03.04

Two Philip K Dick mentions!

I went to see it this weekend, basically on the strength of the Kaufmann name. I read a quick blurb about it, but don't think I'd seen any trailers. It is great, and it reminded me of how someone here described Donnie Darko - "Philip K Dick but warm!" Morrison and PKD are both pretty talented at throwing out fascinating ideas, but don't always combine them with a strong emotional center, which this movie does really well.

The Tower Always Falls

04:42 / 22.03.04

So good on so many levels.

There's a lot to be said on the film's meditations on memory and relationships and dealing with loss and such, but it's too late for me to delve into it.

I'm really impressed and rather happy that the effects were mostly practical-based, as opposed to the omnipresent CGI that's popping up everywhere. I'm also interested in this movie as it relates to Kaufmann's others flicks. I've had friends who have criticized his work as making all the characters all a bit too unlikable and pathetic. I don't think you can level that criticism on this movie at all. That may be a credit to the actors as much as the script...

constant reader

14:16 / 22.03.04

I loved the attention paid to the harsh reality of love and relationships. They can be both rewarding and utterly frustrating all at the same time.

I can't yet decide whether the end leaves me feeling bleak and empty or with hope. Two people, aware of their past, aware of what they've done to each other, procede to give it another try. This either speaks to the strength of love or the seeming human inability to remain alone.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

14:29 / 22.03.04

There was an interview with MicG about originally wanting to run the loop over and over behind the credits, which definitely would have put it in the hopeless camp. With the fade out, you can imagine that there's some potential for happiness there.

I was all over this movie, by the way. I'm very into this mini-trend of intellectualizing the emotional movie (see: Punch Drunk Love), mostly as an expression of the primary artist. In other words, someone like Kaufman just isn't able to express his feelings on love without couching it in a clever idea. I think all of his movies, actually, are incredibly moving even though he's so mercilessly seen as an intellectual writer. Being John Malkovich killed me.

How creepy was All Wrong Patrick and his All Wrong Eyes? Yeeee!

19:58 / 25.03.04

I loved this movie. It was funny, honest, sensitive, emotional but not sentimental or sappy, thought-provoking but not manipulative.... I haven't seen Kate in any other movie besides Titanic, and I thought she was great in this - you just know Clementine, you've met (or maybe been) that girl (which is a credit to the writing as well). I'm generally not a repeat-viewer, but I can't wait to see this again.

07:31 / 29.03.04

I'm not sure I understand—run which loop over and over during the credits?

I loved the film as well (and I'm going to start another thread post-haste on a possible phenomenon I saw in it). My interpretation was not necessarily one of wondering whether there was hope for happiness vs. hopelessness; in the final scene, I heard it as the willingness to accept the very real possibility—in fact, perhaps a certainty—that everything would proceed as it had before, but that even knowing that, it was worth going through the pain of the eventual collapse for the good moments. I mean, that was kinda what the whole movie was about, wasn't it? That even though Joel was in great pain, ditching the pain was not worth losing the happy memories.

I think what I really liked was that it universalized something I was not sure was universal. Once, I was sitting on the floor in a friend's apartment after we'd both been dumped by women we loved very much, and we asked whether we'd choose to erase their memories given the chance, we immediately recognized there was no way we would, tempting as it was.

12:18 / 29.03.04

>>>I'm not sure I understand—run which loop over and over during the credits?<<<

The closing shot of Joel and Clementine running through the snow on the beach. If you look, the shot is looped, their run through the snow is repeated a few times before fading to white, the suggestion being that they will repeat their experience.

It's a bit more explicit in the original screenplay by Kaufman - there's a bookend sequence set far in the future, in which we learn that Clem and Joel (now very old) visit Lacuna time after time after time, locked in an eternal cycle of bad relationships and memory erasure.

By cutting that sequence out of the final script Gondry has made a film that isn't quite so bleak and cynical, but I still found the ending far from uplifting. I was filled with a profound sense of sadness when the credits rolled (and that Beck song, jesus that's depressing), though that's probably due to the fact that I just split up with my girlfriend two days before seeing the film...

13:08 / 29.03.04

even knowing that, it was worth going through the pain of the eventual collapse for the good moments. I mean, that was kinda what the whole movie was about, wasn't it? That even though Joel was in great pain, ditching the pain was not worth losing the happy memories.

I thought it went a bit further than that. Remember that the way he found out he'd been erased from Clementine's memory was that he was going to try to make it up with her. I was under the impression that they were going to work it out the second time around, knowing this time that what they had at the core of it was worth it. (Which point was underlined by how lame the Elijah character was.) But perhaps that's due to little more than my own optimism.

13:47 / 29.03.04

Exactly. I left the theater with a sense that this time around it was going to work. I mean they have the brutally honest tapes of the failed relationship... this time they're starting with all the worse parts hanging exposed.

But if that wasn't intended by Kaufman than maybe it's just me.

17:11 / 29.03.04

Interesting...I saw this with my girlfriend, as we've been dealing with some issues, and I took the ending as more hopeful, that they were accepting each other fully and were going to work on things, whereas she found it more negative and depressing, thinking it meant we all just get locked in unhealthy patterns and relationships that don't work and we're doomed to repeat the cycle. Yikes. My girlfriend was then depressed for hours and kept saying "What a depressing movie..." Hoo boy....Not a great movie to see when your relationship isn't at its strongest.

But a great movie nonetheless. And terrific performances all around.

It was kind of bizarre that the main male character (Joel) is from Rockville Centre in Long Island - that's my hometown. And I can count on one hand the number of times Rockville Centre has been mentioned in movies in the past 10 years. (Last time was "Married to the Mob" in the mid-80s, I think.)

There were also a few lines, one in particular, that seemed to echo my situation with my girlfriend perfectly - one very bizarre line that I've said to her which a lot of people don't say, I think (that when I first met her, I was first attracted to her back and had a strong sense that we'd be a good match, and that her front would be very lovely as well).

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

18:09 / 29.03.04

Yeah, my girlfriend and I also got a kick out of "seeing" the Rock. Especially since it was in no way the Rock. Where the fuck was that train station supposed to be? Probably just used a different one in Montauk, as only LI geeks would be able to tell any different.

But hey, a shout out is a shout out.

Locust No longer

18:20 / 29.03.04

I, too, found the film to be profoundly depressing. I saw it with a girl I've been seeing off and on for a long time, and I couldn't help feeling as though it was some symbol of our relationship, a destructive connection constantly repeating itself. She thought it was the most romantic film she's ever seen -- the characters willing to go through hell once more in order to be with one another. I'm not sure I can relate to that. It seems like such a horrible waste, and not romantic at all, just weak. I think it's an excellent film for all of these reasons, and the fact that both characters are so flawed (very PKD here) was really interesting. I'm in no mood to see it again, however.

20:04 / 29.03.04

For a minute I thought you were talking about the new movie with The Rock, Birdie - then I realized you were talking about RVC. Are you a native?

And yeah, I noticed that the train station they used sure as hell wasn't the RVC LIRR stop. The streets they used for RVC streets had a semi-RVC feel to them, but they didn't seem to be filmed in RVC. Although they did use a real street name - South Village Avenue (there's also a North Village Avenue).

20:11 / 29.03.04

This was a great movie. The only possible criticizing thing I can say is that Elijah Wood was such a jerk and the trailors didn't warn you of that. But that doesn't matter, it was very good. Better than Adaptation but not as good as Being John Malkovich. I also would have liked to see the future ending, that sounds very interesting.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

20:35 / 29.03.04

My lady lives out in RVC. Yeah, we talked about the possibility of those apartments being in RVC, although in no way is Lacuna there and also, when Joel offers to give Clem a ride home from the "RVC Station" it's like when did RVC turn into Times Square?

Oh, the nitpicking.

You can find the script at www.beingcharliekaufman.com if you want to read the original begendings, whoever it was who mentioned wanting to read them.

04:41 / 30.03.04

...this time they're starting with all the worse parts hanging exposed.

Oooh. Good point. I might believe that...

This is another reason I think this movie was so darn good: I thought they were going to break up eventually, and I considered that a happy though bittersweet ending. Some people think they'll break up eventually, and considered that very depressing. Others are sure they'll work it out.

15:27 / 30.03.04

I too left with a profound sadness but my girlfriend really enjoyed it and finding my favourite themes in there made me leave without getting too depressed. She loved it and this is an instant favourite for me.

We walked out quite pleased with ourselves.

It exceeded my lofty expectations. This is unquestionably Kaufman's best film mostly because of the strong emotional response it evokes.

I do think anyone having a hard time with their relationship should watch this film without a moment's thought. The younger cast was just crap but I can't dislike a single thing about it.

I've been waiting to see something like this all my life.

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