*** Official ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND DiscussionThread (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

Interesting. I didn't see that at all, would you please elaborate?

--
H

 

[Mike Broadman]

It could also be both.

It's just a feeling I got when watching it: early on in the film when the story was shifting between time frames and here hair was a different color, I said to myself, "Oh, now it's the past 'cause her hair isn't blue" And then the thought, "Oh, cheap!" I unfairly connected it to my experience of Traffic.

However, I think both films are great. One of wild things about the Kaufmann flicks is that he's not afraid to do stuff like that, it's all part of the tapestry.

 

[Stephen_L]

While the hair color is a convenient device to help orient us in time and memory, it is also an effective manifestation of her character. She is admittedly impulsive and bores easily; when she looks in the mirror I can see her getting tired of this month's look and deciding to change it. And as was mentioned earlier, its an endearing characteristic early in a relationship, but could easily get wearying for her lover over time.

Both characters have serious flaws (as do we all). These flaws are what draw the characters together and in the end pull them apart. Clem encapsulates it in her key line to Joel in the hall after discovering their previous relationship. (Paraphrase) "I feel trapped, I get bored, its what I do." If she bores easily, then she's likely to eventually get bored with whatever man she's with.

Joel's flaw is that he is so emotionally closed down, unable to communicate his feelings to anything except his journal. In his relationships he's likely to not get the things he needs, because he doesn't express these needs to his partner.

 

[Joe Schwartz]

Appropriately enough, I misremembered the first line. Joel actually says something like, "You erased me first, now I'm erasing you!" There's no indication that they've erased each other before.

And in the second case, I think it's Stan who says, "He seems to be developing some sort of resistance to the procedure." I agree now that Joel is developing this resistance over the course of a single procedure.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Just saw this tonight. Absolutely fantastic. I loved BJm, and was entertained by Adaptation. But as stated before, this film has a warmth about it that the others did not. Can't wait to own it on DVD.

My only fear for this film is that it will become the next Lost In Translation. I think come Oscar time there's going to be huge buzz on this film and its actors just like LiT. And the mainstream audience is going to view it at home and not like it. This move is clearly not meant for everyone.

Ebert had an interesting theory about LiT in his latest Answer Man column that suggests those that really loved the film saw it theatrically, and those that saw it for the first time at home weren't drawn in as much. I haven't watched LiT at home yet, but I loved it theatrically.

 

[TheLongshot]

To be honest, unless the studio pushes it, it will probably be forgotten for the most part at Oscar time. It might get an Original Screenplay nomination, but that's probably it.

Jason

 

[Stephen_L]

Earlier in the thread I commented that Joel and Clementine received their Lacuna files awfully fast after the receptionist discovered her relationship with Merzwiak. After reviewing the film I realized that I'd made a mistake. There are two full days, not one covered in Joel's second meeting with Clementine: the Montauk day ending with Joel heading home with Clementine's number written on his hand, and the 'honeymoon on ice' on the frozen Charles that occurs at the end of the second day. That gives the files plenty of time to reach them.

Seen it four times now, and it remains a very rich satisfying experience. In Barnes and Noble, the screenplay is on sale. I read a portion of it and was very impressed with some of the material that was left on the cutting room floor. For example, Joel and Clementine as a game continue to create hair color names throughout the story. (In addition to Agent Orange, there's Old Yeller, and Brown vs. The Board of Education) Very funny stuff.

 

[ZacharyTait]

I've watched LIT 3 times at home and I love it more and more each time.

 

[Haggai]

Apparently Kate Winslet and Michel Gondry are going to be on the Charlie Rose PBS interview show tonight. The show's website has them listed as guests, along with a couple of other segments with different guests (one with Helen Mirren, one about Israeli/Palestinian issues--entertainment and politics are often side by side on this show!) My guess is that they'll be on for about 15-20 minutes worth, so hopefully there'll be some interesting stuff in there. I'll report back here if there is.

 

[Sam E. Torres]

does the show also include journalist cokie roberts? cause that's what it says will be showing tonight on my station.

 

[Haggai]

That's tonight's show, Winslet and Gondry were on last night. It was fun to see them talking about their experiences making the movie, but they didn't add anything too revelatory. Gondry has a very thick French accent, and Kate said that she often acted as a sort of translator on-set for everyone else because she had no trouble understanding him. She also said that as opposed to the introverted character that Carrey played, she approached Clem as if she was playing "the Jim Carrey character," a very extroverted and quirky role. That seemed like an interesting way of thinking about the two main roles.

 

[Nick C.]

Anyone happen to read Salon/Stephanie Zacharek's review? To quote the relevant paragraph...

Color me confused, but is the 'devastation' Zacharek is hoping for the end of the relationship, for the couple to give up (give in to fate) after they received their audiotapes?

 

[DavidS]

Any word on the DVD yet? This film abruptly disappeared from all the screens in my area a few weeks ago...

 

[Brent Hutto]

Yeah, a few weeks went by before we could return for our second viewing and...it was long gone. I guess this is what they refer to as a movie with "no legs".

I haven't seen any mention of the DVD, either. We would love to see it at least once more in the theater but will definitely be buying the DVD the day it comes out.

 

[Bruce Morrison]

I think Eternal Sunshine is one of the great films - but one plot-related question is nagging me! It concerns the erasing of Mary's memory of her relationship with Howard.

I assumed that their relationship started when Mary was already working at Lacuna, and that was how they knew one another to begin with. But after her memory of Howard had been erased, I'm wondering how Mary could continue working there. Do we assume that the process wiped her memory of their personal relationship but not their working relationship. In other words, she could still remember that she worked at Lacuna and that Howard was her employer, but had no memory of their personal relationship.

Is that how others saw it? I'd be interested to hear your views.

 

[Haggai]

Good question, Bruce. The effect of the process is described as erasing everything associated with the person you want expunged from your memory, so it would presumably be impossible to separate the personal and working relationships. So how did she keep working there? I guess she worked something out with Howard before the erasing (and Stan would have known about it as well) where she would somehow be notified about a job opening there and get re-hired, or something like that.

 

[Richard Kim]

Even though I love this film to death, I too have a plot-related question that's been nagging me.

In Joel's first memory of Clem at the beach party in Montauk, he talks about her orange sweater that he loved, and eventually grew to hate. How could Joel know this, since all of his later memories of Clem have been erased?

 

[Bruce Morrison]

And another little question! When Joel arrives home on the evening when he's due to have his procedure done, he and his neighbour briefly meet while collecting their mail. We see that his neighbour has received something in a Lacuna envelope, although we don't know the contents.



The neighbour is aware of Clem (he mentions her in a brief conversation about Valentines Day plans), so I guess Joel would have included him in the list of people to whom Lacuna should send their standard cards. So I'm assuming that's what the envelope contained. I guess Lacuna would have a policy of sending out those cards in advance of the procedure being done, to avoid any possibility of accidental references in conversations immediately after the procedure. Or do you think there's another possible explanation for the Lacuna envelope?



When Clem arrives at Joel's apartment building at the end of the film, a man leaving the building recognises her and says hello, which puzzles Clem as she no longer remembers him. I think this was the same neighbour again (although I need to double-check that on the DVD). Although he might have been told that he shouldn't mention Clem to Joel, there's no reason why he himself can't talk to Clem. Of course he wouldn't have known that Clem had also had her memories of Joel (and his friends) erased, since Clem presumably wouldn't have thought of including him in HER card list!



It's an amazing film that gets us thinking so much about all these subtle plot points, isn't it!

 

[Quentin]

quote:In Joel's first memory of Clem at the beach party in Montauk, he talks about her orange sweater that he loved, and eventually grew to hate. How could Joel know this, since all of his later memories of Clem have been erased?

Technically, he couldn't. But, then again, technically, you couldn't be watching his memories with a voice-over narrative from him. So...is that really Joel knowing and saying that? Or, is that a helpful narrator? Since there are not true rules saying which, there is no contradiction.

quote:So I'm assuming that's what the envelope contained.

You guess right!

 

[Haggai]

quote:In Joel's first memory of Clem at the beach party in Montauk, he talks about her orange sweater that he loved, and eventually grew to hate. How could Joel know this, since all of his later memories of Clem have been erased?

Was it clearly established that the memories are erased in reverse chronological order, from most recent to oldest? I'm not sure about that. Also, since Joel has been trying to evade the erasers for a while by the time we get to his first memory of meeting Clem, maybe the Lacuna guys had somehow skipped some of his subsequent memories of the sweater in their efforts to "locate" him.