For some reason I felt that I hadn't seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in a while so I decided to pop it in and listen to the commentary by director Michael Gondry and write Charlie Kaufman. First off, man is this movie and listening to these guys a mind-fuck! To say this movie is confusing is an understatement, yet there is a payoff to understanding these characters and realism to the relationships in it that make it accessable and relatable to a lot of people, including myself. What interested me listening to their discussion of the film this time around was their reason for structuring it in 2 different time periods, making me not really know which part is happening now or in a flashback. They build up the suspense using this memory erasing company who is taking away Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet's relationship as they run through his past trying to escape the memory being destroyed around them. This idea of erasing memories of a loved one is a very cool premise and I really appreciated the paranoia and suspense they build as Jim Carrey tries to hide these events with Kate Winslet in his own past, fighting back as the details literally disappear around him. Using a variety of camera tricks to show forced perpspective of his youth and a twisted view on the world seen through flashbacks, we ultimately are forced to ponder if it was a good or bad idea that they erased eachother as this slow exposure of the problems they had together made me kind of wish I could erase the heartbreak i've felt as well. Overall, this movie is surprisingly complex and yet creative in a way that not many films today are. using multiple time periods to show an alternate reality of fighting the controlled memory loss of a loved one, I was reminded by these guys how much I like this movie and the performances within. The ultimate question is, could you believe you had a serious relationship with someone if it was presented to you but you had no memory of it? This idea of fate and them meeting at the end after it all gives me hope.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (1994) - 9/10
For some reason I felt that I hadn't seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in a while so I decided to pop it in and listen to the commentary by director Michael Gondry and write Charlie Kaufman. First off, man is this movie and listening to these guys a mind-fuck! To say this movie is confusing is an understatement, yet there is a payoff to understanding these characters and realism to the relationships in it that make it accessable and relatable to a lot of people, including myself. What interested me listening to their discussion of the film this time around was their reason for structuring it in 2 different time periods, making me not really know which part is happening now or in a flashback. They build up the suspense using this memory erasing company who is taking away Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet's relationship as they run through his past trying to escape the memory being destroyed around them. This idea of erasing memories of a loved one is a very cool premise and I really appreciated the paranoia and suspense they build as Jim Carrey tries to hide these events with Kate Winslet in his own past, fighting back as the details literally disappear around him. Using a variety of camera tricks to show forced perpspective of his youth and a twisted view on the world seen through flashbacks, we ultimately are forced to ponder if it was a good or bad idea that they erased eachother as this slow exposure of the problems they had together made me kind of wish I could erase the heartbreak i've felt as well. Overall, this movie is surprisingly complex and yet creative in a way that not many films today are. using multiple time periods to show an alternate reality of fighting the controlled memory loss of a loved one, I was reminded by these guys how much I like this movie and the performances within. The ultimate question is, could you believe you had a serious relationship with someone if it was presented to you but you had no memory of it? This idea of fate and them meeting at the end after it all gives me hope.
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