If you ever ask me what is(are) my favorite book(s) or movie(s), you'd probably have an empty answer. Still, there are some that had such an impact on me!, and this is the case for Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The movie and its script, the one I just read, have the essential elements in the perfect balance to make it great as it is. Teo, Yugin (2013). "Love, longing and danger". Science Fiction Film & Television. 6 (3): 349–368. doi: 10.3828/sfftv.2013.24. ISSN 1754-3770. S2CID 191331765. a b c d e f g h i j Cohen, David S. (February 17, 2016). "From Script to Screen: 'Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind' ". Script Magazine. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016 . Retrieved July 4, 2018. Storyteller (February 1, 2022). "16 Things You Didn't Know About 'Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind' ". culturacolectiva.com . Retrieved March 9, 2022.

To be fair to Kaufman, the novel’s central preoccupations are a lot more abstract than that line of questioning would suggest in any case. Like his films, it gleefully unravels any sense of a stable reality. “That which the mind creates,” one character in it declares, “is also real.” Perhaps there’s even a timeline in the quantum universe where Charlie Kaufman is a fireman. What? The Bafta and Oscar-winning Charlie Kaufman? The guy whose directorial debut was described by Roger Ebert as the best movie of the decade? The neurotic screenwriter “Charlie Kaufman” as adorably characterised by Charlie Kaufman in Charlie Kaufman films? That Charlie Kaufman? What a loss to spend much time with someone, only to find out that she’s a stranger.” — Joel Barish The exposition of this script differs from the information needed to truly piece together Joel and Clementine’s relationship (which in a manner of speaking, has an exposition of its own).

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Official Trailer)

It seems like Gondry is fine with that, though. While he was reluctant to go into too much detail about the picture, he did admit the film's core themes of heartbreak and relationships breaking down were drawn from his own life.

Jane Adams as Carrie Eakin: Joel Barish's friend. She is in a troubled relationship with Rob Eakin. The book is stuffed to its mad gunwales with gags and ideas and scattershot erudition, and my strong hunch is that readers will find it ... challenging. But if anything, its comic sensibility is what will pull them through. Kaufman says that looking for the funny has been a constant in his work since he played a rooster in a school play at the age of 10. “I was a very shy kid, but somehow I managed to make my way into this production,” he says, “I played a character who was funny and I got laughs from the audience – and I was just hooked. a b c d e f g Kleinman, Geoffrey. "Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry - Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind". DVD Talk . Retrieved July 4, 2018.

That willingness to pull focus makes Kaufman an intellectual pleasure but, it should be said, a slightly frustrating interviewee. He is scrupulously genial and polite, and happy to talk about theories of spacetime, but extremely reluctant to say anything on the record about the book’s more sublunary themes and ideas. a b c d e Tobias, Scott (March 17, 2004). "Interview - Michel Gondry & Charlie Kaufman". AV Club . Retrieved July 4, 2018.

a b c Hornaday, Ann (March 19, 2004). "Head Over Heels in Love". The Washington Post . Retrieved September 29, 2018.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 American romantic science fiction comedy-drama film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry. In brief: Elijah Wood joins Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". The Guardian. December 20, 2002 . Retrieved July 9, 2018. While he was working on Eternal Sunshine, Kaufman was getting recognition for Adaptation., Being John Malkovich, and Human Nature. The industry was paying attention, and then, Jim Carrey got a hold of an early draft of Eternal Sunshine. At this point, Carrey was best known for his broad comedic turns in films like Bruce Almighty (2003), How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Dumb and Dumber (1994), and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), but the character of reserved Joel Barish"hit a nerve" with the actor. Meanwhile, Gondry had been courting Kate Winslet for the role of erratic Clementine. Winslet was equally passionate, citing Clementine as "entirely different from anything [she'd] ever done." Kaufman's script and the prospect of working with Gondry also proved to be an attractive combination for Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood, who took on smaller roles than they were generally playing at the time. Similarly, Kirsten Dunst read the script in 2001 and knew right away that she wanted to be part of the film.

Feiwell, Jill (December 8, 2002). "Ruffalo springs for 'Eternal' ". Variety . Retrieved July 9, 2018. Hammett Knott, Matthew (October 11, 2012). "Heroines of Cinema: Valdis Oskarsdottir, and the 'Invisible Art' of Editing". IndieWire . Retrieved July 9, 2018. The versions of Joel and Clementine that Joel sees in his memory are not real, but they are interpretations or projections of the real people. Therefore, the conciliatory conversations they have over the course of the film are essentially a figment of Joel's imagination. In an interview, Michel Gondry described having conversations with his dying father in his mind, and thought it tenuously possible to have subconscious interactions with someone you know really well. Joel's mental version of Clementine is not too far off from the real Clementine, a synthesis of her mannerisms, effects, and reactions over the two years they spent together. Nevertheless, Joel's subconscious self finds an element of closure in his relationship with Clementine; and his anger dissipates, leaving him with her final message: "Meet me in Montauk." His conscious self then takes the instruction, so Joel and Clementine are able find each other again. Deniala b c d Placa, Kaia (March 31, 2017). "Undercover Indies: What Makes 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' So Unforgettable?". Film Independent . Retrieved July 5, 2018. Part of it for me may just be that I always try to think past the original idea,” he says. “So that if I have, for example, a portal into John Malkovich in a story, then I have to think of all the iterations of that, and I come to: what if John Malkovich goes into his own portal? This thing that people say is my style ... is just the way my brain works. I do have an OCD kind of quality to my thinking.” The title of the film is a quotation from the 1717 poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope. It uses elements of psychological drama, science fiction, and a nonlinear narrative to explore the nature of memory and love. [1] Kaufman resolved the first problem by making Joel lucid and able to comment on his memories and solved the second by making the memories degrade instead of immediately erasing, with complete erasure occurring at awakening. [20] Kaufman's original name for the screenplay was 18 words long, as he had wanted a title that "you couldn't possibly fit on a marquee." [27] He eventually decided on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a title originating from the 1717 poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope. [28] Filming and post-production [ edit ] Montauk station, where Joel and Clementine meet each other again after the erasing of their memories.