Diane Ying-Chih Jollique Wang

The film art - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

1/20/2019

  Focus Features
The Film art of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

you can not love sci-fi, but you can not not love "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" if you are a lover of love stories and poetry....

The photographic art

The cinematic visuals of the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind perfectly blend into it’s sci-fi nature, which mostly takes place inside the protagonist Joel Barish’s mind, as he undergoes the treatment of erasing the memory of his lover Clementine Kruczynsk.
  Mise-en-scene of the film is represented in an surrealism form, in frames unraveling transitions of space and staircases and fluidity of time, the playful sometimes spooky overlapping of time and occurrences all happening within a frame leaves an etching impression of the films unique narrative style . When Stan Fink, a technician for Lacuna the memory eraser company, sneaks into Joel’s house while and tries to overwrite a flaw by erasing remnant memories of Clementine, in the scene where Joel is experiencing complexion of memory confusion, spectators can see Joel in the clinic chair in foreground, with Stan showing him objects related to Clementine in the front middle ground undergoing treatment. In the second middle ground, Mary the receptionist is taking his reservation the first time he showed up in the clinic. In the background, stands Joel Barish’s past reflection carrying two bulk bags of stuff related to clementine ready for the therapy during his last visit to the clinic. The contradiction of his figure facing his own image in the treatment chair shows of his own self incongruity in seeking to do erasure of the memories with Clementine, with the regrets and pursuit of retaining them. This resonances with the characteristic of Surrealism, which in it’s nature is about releasing the creative potential of the unconscious mind, mostly in form of irrational juxtaposition, fantasy and imaginative images and motion. The director creatively weaved elements of the art into the formation of memories inside the Joel Barish mind-map.
Compared to similar genres Spike Jonze’s fantasy comedy-drama Being John Malkovich, which is also done by the genius screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, similarity a plot depicting the anatomy of the inner human mind-map. The cinematography of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is more elaborated in terms of it’s cinematography color palette. Colors used in the cinematography palette are composed with design traces such as in the memories of Joel’s happiest times with Clementine colors are in bright saturated hue, colorful and vivid. Imaginative super-reality of Joel’s fragmented memory-fantasy tend to be in the most saturated tone. While reality scenes and scenes transiting into the conflict and confessions of the couple, tend to fade in dark and is expressed with dull tones.
Colors in the film seem quite contrast and conflicting yet smartly used. In chromatology complementary colors bring the effect of high-contrast and strong statement. Clementine’s hair color changes according to her intuitive nature, as we follow the couple into different seasons. The colors of her hair transform from blue to red, and orange and green as they grow gradually into a dull couple. As in account to the style of the protagonists costume designs, in the beginning where Joel and Clementine encounter, Clementine wears an orange color Hoodie sweatshirt with blue hair. the composition of these two complementary colors visually suggest Clementine’s poignant characteristic in contrast to Joel’s conservative dark toned jacket and cap, which prominently reflect their distinctive personalities. Clementine’s presence lights up Joel’s life and the setting of room is usually quirky and playful when Clementine enters the frames.



The narrative art

The name of the film “Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind” is a verse from Alexander Pope’s poem“Eloisa to Abelard.” The poem itself is a masterfully conducted exploration of love, human nature and the substance of memory. In the film, Mary the receptionist recites this excerpt of the poem to Dr. Howard Mierzwiak whom she has a history with, and after memory erasure is still madly in love with:

“How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;
Labour and rest, that equal periods keep;
"Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;"

  Throughout the screenplay, the story is processed with complex and confined nonlinear narratives, repetitive dialogues in different times and space, are used in different scenic settings to manifest conscious and subconscious memories and emotions. A similar pattern of narrative style is seen in Alain Resnais <Last Year at Marienbad>, composed with the flow and fluidity of narrative words. The purpose of the narrative form enhances the expression of Joel’s twisted memories and subconscious, as he tries desperately to reconcile with Clementine in his mind map. Not really knowing in reality Clementine is feeling his presence and trying to react. The couple finally think of a way to get back together without their former memories when Clementine whispers “meet me in montauk” in Joel’s subconscious. Although with the narrative form of repetitive lines, there is no redundant dialogue though, deeming the screenwriting very well done. The movie script was awarded an Academy Awards Best Original Screenplay honor, done by Charlie Kaufman, Story by Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth. It is also Listed in Writers Guild of America's list as one of the 101 greatest movie screenplays.

The performing art

The pair of protagonists Clementine Kruczynski and Joel Barish, each played by Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey, seem both the unlikely choice for the role. Compared to their prototyped image in the Hollywood star system, Clementine Kruczynski a spontaneous extrovert with bizzare ideas and behaviors, is everything conflicted with Kate Winslet’s cinematic figure, since her former portrayals of serious roles like good rapport socialites, such as her role in Titanic and Sense and Sensibility. Jim Carrey on the other hand plays Joel Barish the shy and pessimistic introvert, which is also quite the opposite of his cinematic image as a talented energetic comedian. Carrey who typically portrayed high-energy roles, plays a restrained character in the plot of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind . Quoting Rudolf Arnheim, good actors and directors have shown that the best effects are almost always achieved by “acting “ as little as possible. The great actors work with very slight expenditure of muscular energy, they achieve a substantial effect by their presence. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the effect on the protagonists via the psychological curiosity of the “cast against type for the role” has made both the actors successful in portrayal and more successful in capturing the fondness of audience's heart. Which also surpasses Arnheim's theory of acting.

Notably, the Cast for this film is an assortment of familiar faces: Kirsten Dunst as Mary Svevo, the receptionist for Lacuna, Mark Ruffalo as Stan Fink, a technician for Lacuna, Elijah Wood as Patrick an assistant working in Lacuna, and that is trying to counterfeit Joel and win the love of Clementine. And finally Tom Wilkinson from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, founder of Lacuna the memory erasure clinic.

Fig 1 .Clementine played by Winslet wears a T-shirt that says “love is…” hinting the curious
bondage that cannot separate the two even with a memory erasure going on.
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The pictorial art

The pictorial art of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind is a mindful one. From Clementine’s hair to the souvenirs of Clementine that Joel later collects to takes to the Lacuna Clinic, details are depicted and closely associated to one another like motifs and symbols that draw clues to the plot, waiting for the spectator’s observable eye to unwrap. Such as in the scene of Clementine’s confession toward Joel while he is half awake. Clementine holds a mug with her picture print, in the picture she is in orange hair, which is Joel’s best image of her. He calls her “Tangerine” their secretive nickname, which is later used by his Counterfeiter.
The picture on the mug is like“ a picture within the picture “ in this frame. As if another piece of time is etched into the present narrative.

“ a picture within the picture “ Fig2. Focus Features

The orange color of her hair is a smooth and comfortable contrast with orange’s complementary color, a blue pillow as a base in the frame. Carrey wears a dark green shirt complementary to the reddish shades of Winslet’s orange hair. The frame looks like a harmonious idyllic evening nap and they look like idea lovers.
Although, quickly the visual frame dims in a darker light before the fade out dissolve transition, when Joel defends of his closure by suggesting that Clementine’s talkativeness is rather of annoyance, leaving Clementine agitated. The pictorial art here resembles theatrical features such as dramatic use of light and shadow, dimming contours, areas leaving spotlight in the middle focus. The visual effect is similar of the technique “Tenebrism” commonly seen in rembrandt’s oil painting style, used in works such as “The Night Watch”.

The most classical of the movies cinematic visuals in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
is the high angle shot of the scene where Clementine takes Joel to the "frozen Charles", a frozen lake near the suburbs. Clementine suggests that they lie down, while Joel stay’s hesitant and suspicious that the ice is going to break. He lies down with her anyways, surprisingly finding himself in his happiest, as later is revealed in his diary excerpt, and in his subconscious confessing it to Clementine. The shot taken with the couples lying near a fracture of ice has been highly discussed. Whether intentional designed or randomly shot, the scene is a masterpiece a.k.a mastermind of the director’s projection. On the movie poster of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the crack on the frozen Charles appears to be a crack on the mind of Jim Carrey.

Fig 3. Clementine and Joel lying on the "frozen Charles".
Joel: I could die right now, Clem. I'm just... happy. I've never felt that before.
I'm just exactly where I want to be. Focus Features

The audiovisual art

In the first beginning of the movie, where Joel meets Clementine in the train station of Montauk, Clementine tries to start a conversation with Joel. A playful background music foliates Clementine’s blooming voice, the music wit fully hints Clementine’s characteristics and foreplays the mingling effect of chemistry between the two protagonists with a playful style. By elements of the sound, the music composer flawlessly lures the spectators into the plot and character; we are driven into the mindsets and mind map of Joel Barish; his anguish, his restlessness and his suspense; we comprehend the anger and hurt of Clementine,
and taste the joyfulness of their happy love life. In terms of audiovisual art, the movies soundtrack impeccably empowers the visual storyline enhancing sentimental emotions along the way, as we feel the gradually increasing intensity of melancholy, and of Joel’s inner mind conflict of holding on to the memory of Clementine, whilst enduring the treatment of erasing the memories of heartbreak. Joel’s psychological thrill and fear resonances throughout the movies sound effects. We watch him desperately hide memories of Clementine into the resistant territories of the mind map such as shame (humiliation) and horror. Done by Jon Brion, Best Score Soundtrack Album Grammy nominee for 1999’s ”Magnolia”, Jon Brion receives another nomination for “Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind”, which is well accredited.
The music scores are seamlessly well-designed, even the movies theme song "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" (The Korgis cover done by artist Beck) associates to the cinematic visuals as we recall, in the beginning of the film when the title appears, Joel is crying are driving in his car listening to "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime", before he ejects the tape and throws it out the window. As the film comes to an end when the film credits starts to display, we hear the song again. The song creates a beautiful melancholy, leaving viewers lingering in emotions of the unfathomable force of love that makes two fault-finding lovers want to start again. The power of theme songs is one of the forces in movie that cannot be undermined. It’s a component that brings out emotion from another space, if well selected and designed.
Repetition of sound and lines deem compatible to the surrealism form of visual display, and is notable and well composed in this film. Nevertheless, the Cherry on the top, is it’s theme song "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" which is all other else that is unexplained yet informative in emotion and understanding.
You can not not love the eternal sunshine on the spotless mind...

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