Recent "Eternal Sunshine" News

Winona Ryder is out promoting Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and in an interview with Esquire she mentions meeting with Michel Gondry to discuss the role of Clementine in Eternal Sunshine. Of course we know this eventually went to Kate Winslet.

When she did find a script she liked, her celebrity was such that it, too, began to limit her opportunities.

“There was baggage,” she says. The obsessive interest in her love life. The hoopla that surrounded her. “Trying to convince someone to ignore the noise around me was tough. I saw it in their eyes. I lost a lot of parts because of that.”

She remembers a meeting with the director Michel Gondry, who was casting what would become Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, from a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman. “It was such a brilliant script and we were at this little restaurant and people kept coming up to me and there was a random paparazzi guy outside, which was kind of unusual for me, but I just remember [Gondry’s] face, and trying to convince him that this isn’t normal, and I know it’s not normal.” The part went to Kate Winslet.

“I’m not in any way complaining,” she says. “But there was this whole time when I felt like I would be a distraction, as well. I got it. Certainly, in the 1990s, I became aware of that. And there was a switching-of-the-guard feeling, too. As you get older there are these new, younger actresses. It’s so drilled into you how disposable actresses can be, our shelf life. You hear it all the time.” (Source)

I can imagine her in this role. She probably would've been great, but Kate Winslet was fantastic.

Interesting thread over on Twitter/X, where Hollywood Script Reader discusses the various drafts of Eternal Sunshine and its evolution into what we saw on the big screen.

Don't like Twitter? No problem! The thread's been converted for readability AND listenability by u/pavingmomentum. Click through or scroll down.

A story from the trenches. In September, 2001, when I was working for Focus Features, I was assigned to cover a script called ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND by Charlie Kaufman. (1/27)

You've had a good twenty years to see it by now, but if you haven't ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** Obviously I knew who Kaufman was at the time. In fact I had read his first screenplay HUMAN NATURE when he was more or less an unknown, but I digress. (2/27)

Anyway, it was early on in my career, but I knew it was something special. Going back over my original coverage – I save EVERYTHING – I thought it was one of the most brilliant, beautiful, and downright bizarre scripts I had ever read. IYKYK. I absolutely loved it. (3/27)

Except for the ending. And I knew that if he didn't change it audiences would rise up in revolt and burn the theater to the ground. I actually read the 2nd draft first and the 1st draft a few days later, but for the sake of clarity, let's take this in order: (4/27)

In the 1st draft, Joel and Clementine both undergo the procedure to have their memories erased. Joel goes to the bookstore where Clem works, but of course for them this is the first time they've met. Joel asks her out and they go to a dinner party at his friends' place. (5/27)

His friends recognize Clementine and sit them down to explain that the two of them had dated before. In fact, last time they were together for three years before they broke up and erased their memories of each other. (6/27)

The next day, Clementine storms into the doctor's office and demands he erase the last few days from her memory. Later, Joel is at a bar with his coworker when he sees Clementine across the room with another man. (7/27)

They lock eyes and she smiles at him, but for her he is a total stranger. Sad, right? Way too sad in my opinion. (8/27)

After the emotional roller coaster we've been put through, audiences will want and expect an ending where Joel and Clementine for the most part live happily ever after. And the other people on the development team agree with me because of course they do. (9/27)

So the studio – which at this point was in active development on the project – gives Kaufman story notes and after some grumbling (I imagine), he comes back with another draft. This one is wildly different. (10/27)

It opens in the year 2056 with Clementine as a very old, very unhappy old woman. The rest of the story is told in flashback. Here, Joel and Clem get back together in the end. (11/27)

They decide that for all the pain and sorrow they had to go through to get here, it was all worth it, and they make love. True love wins, right? Not quite. We then cut back to an elderly Clementine as she walks into the doctor's office to have the procedure done again. (12/27)

In fact, this is her sixteenth time. History is doomed to repeat itself forever until the day they die. This ending is in a way even more bleak and depressing so more notes and back to the drawing board once again. (13/27)

By the way, I do not take any credit for how this movie turned out. Nor should the studio. There is no doubt in my mind that Kaufman considered every possible ending and chose the one he thought was best at the time. (14/27)

So on we go to draft #3. Again, wildly different. We're back in the present day, and Kaufman is still telling the story from (a young) Clementine's point of view. At this point I should explain how unusual this is. (15/27)

Screenwriters, in my experience, tend to be a bit precious about their work and, like the rest of us, they don't want to do more than they have to. And so what we mostly see are small, incremental changes between drafts. Baby steps, not giant leaps. (16/27)

This is to say that what Kaufman did is exceedingly rare. Never seen it done before or since. (17/27)

He essentially threw his draft out the window and started over, maybe not completely from scratch, but the same story with a different structure, different characters, different dialogue each time. Not once, but ultimately three more times. (18/27)

Anyway the 3rd draft is the conventional "boy loses girl, boy wins girl" happy ending with Joel and Clem back together again, looking forward to a bright future ahead. (19/27)

But maybe something about that didn't quite ring true because, after another round of notes, Kaufman came back with YET ANOTHER draft – the 4th for those keeping score – that is more or less the movie we know and love. (20/27)

Bittersweet with a note of uncertainty that feels more grounded and realistic, less forced and not as saccharine. In other words, the best of all possible endings. (21/27)

But it took AWHILE to get there – well over a year. not including the time it took to write the draft he had originally submitted. (22/27)

Now the reason this story sticks with me is because not only did it give me some insight into the process of one of the greatest minds in screenwriting history. (23/27)

But also because it was one of the very few times where the script got better and not worse, through the development process. And I've seen a LOT of them go south over the years. (24/27)

More often than not what we see is the "too many cooks" problem where everyone has to put their grubby little paws on a project. To justify their parking space or whatever. Even when leaving well enough alone is the right way to go. (25/27)

Until the whole souffle collapses in on itself. So what's the moral of this story? It's a long, hard road to get a movie made. It takes perseverance and courage and also humility. Believe me, a lot of the notes Kaufman got were...not smart and not good. (26/27)

But he rolled with the punches and got it done. Here's the takeaway, I guess. Kaufman is a genius. And writing is rewriting. Always and forever more #screenwriting (27/27)

BONUS: If you can get your hands on FRANK OR FRANCIS, you should. It's F*CKING INSANE and absolutely worth a read (Source)

As promised, more articles looking back at Charlie's most commercially successful film, 20 years on. We're gonna start with what I think are the two most unique.

Ars Technica goes deep and gets thoughtful with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the philosophy of self, identity, and memory:

Like all good science fiction, Eternal Sunshine takes that grain of actual science and extends it in thought-provoking ways. In the film, so-called "problem memories" can be recalled individually while the patient is in a dream state and erased completely—uncomfortable feelings and all—as if they were computer files. Any neuroscientist will tell you this is not how memory works. What remains most interesting about Eternal Sunshine's premise is its thematic exploration of the persistence and vital importance of human memory.

So we thought it would be intriguing to mark the film's 20th anniversary by exploring those ideas through the lens of philosophy with the guidance of Johns Hopkins University philosopher Jenann Ismael. Ismael specializes in probing questions of physics, metaphysics, cognition, and theory of mind. Her many publications include The Situated Self (2009), How Physics Makes Us Free (2016), and, most recently, Time: A Very Short Introduction (2021). (Source)

Harper's Bazaar tackles Kate Winslet's head with We’re All Still Obsessed With the Hair in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, courtesy of Martine Thompson.

Kayla Casey, a hairstylist based in Los Angeles who wears her hair bright red, recently re-watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a film revered for its use of unconventional hair color. “The way they portrayed hair color in the film and how they switched it up so often was so ahead of its time,” she says.

It’s been 20 years since Kate Winslet played Clementine Kruczynski, setting beauty inspiration boards on fire with her eye-catching rotation of hair colors. If you’ve never seen it, the 2004 oddball science-fictional romance stars Winslet and Jim Carrey as lovers who move forward with a medical procedure to erase all their memories of one another after a painful breakup. Clementine was brought to life onscreen by Winslet’s magnetic performance, Charlie Kaufman’s heartfelt script, and Michel Gondry’s directorial eye—but also, the artfully crafted wigs designed by Peter Owen, which resonate with fans around the globe to this day. (Source)

At The Mary Sue, Teresa Jusino talks about how the film Turned a Toxic Trope on Itself. The trope: that of the manic pixie dream girl.

Sci-fi romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind turns twenty years old today, March 19, 2024. As a huge fan of sci-fi and romantic movies, this one’s always been a favorite. One of the best things about it is the way it uses and subverts one of the most misunderstood and toxic tropes in filmed narratives.

[...] Eternal Sunshine is one of Kate Winslet’s most compelling performances in large part because she’s not playing one character, but three:

• Clementine Prime, the OG Clementine we encounter in flashbacks as Joel tells Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) the story of their relationship.
• Clementine 2.0, the Clementine with no memory of her relationship with Joel who bookends the film.
• Memory Clementine, the version of Clementine accompanying Joel through his memories, who’s entirely a creation of Joel’s. (Source)

Michael Grant at The Comeback calls Eternal Sunshine the "best relationship movie ever made."

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind endures because of its relatable hypothetical. Everyone has been in a romantic relationship that didn’t work out how you hoped. If you could, would you erase it from your mind to spare you the lingering pain and regret? Or are you better off keeping those memories even though they cause you sadness and discomfort? (Source)

Collider's Claudia Picado says Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Is the Unsung Hero of ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'.

The film revolves around Joel and Clementine, but the supporting cast made up of Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Kirsten Dunst is more than just comic relief, and Dunst's character Mary becomes its unexpected heroine. Mary is the bright-eyed young receptionist at Lacuna Inc. who is infatuated with her boss, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), the man at the helm of Lacuna's memory removal service. For the majority of her screen time, Mary incessantly sings Howard’s praises to whoever will listen, including her boyfriend Stan (Ruffalo), gushing about his intelligence and all the good he does for the world. When it's revealed that Mary herself was subjected to the procedure to erase her memories of her past affair with Howard, she is heartbroken, but her reaction plays a vital role in Joel and Clementine's story and calls attention to just how unethical the procedure is. (Source)

RogerEbert.com's Matt Zoller Seitz tells us Why Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Remains Unforgettable

"Eternal Sunshine" is the most perfect film ever made from a Charlie Kaufman screenplay, although Kaufman’s self-written directorial debut “Synecdoche, New York” is an altogether greater, or at least more grandly ambitious, work. Michel Gondry’s decision to shoot almost the entire film in a handheld, quasi-documentary style and have all the special effects appear to have been accomplished in-camera (i.e. through trickery on the set itself, in the manner of a filmed stage production) even when they were digitally assisted doesn’t just sell the idea that everything in the story is “really happening” even when it’s a memory: it blurs the line between what’s real and what’s remembered, an integral aspect of Kaufman’s script that informs every line and scene. The “spotlight” effects created by swinging flashlights on dark streets and in unlit interiors are especially disturbing. When the characters run or hide in those sorts of compositions in sequences, the film boldfaces its otherwise subtly acknowledged identity as a science fiction movie. Past and present (and possible future) lovers Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) might as well be rebels in a Terminator film, scampering through bombed-out panoramas and trying not to get zapped by a machine. (Source)

Jane Steventon from RTE chimes in to call the film an unflinching meditation on love and memory:

When writing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Charlie Kaufman could not have known about the seismic impact of social media in years to come. How we now lurk on our former lovers' profiles, view their photos, analyse their posts and remove images – metaphorically wiping the slate clean and willingly deleting our past.

This relatable angst of ridding ourselves of past memories of heartbreak is the premise of director Michel Gondry’s masterpiece, which is 20 years old this month. (Source)

And finally we have the New York Times behind a paywall with ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’: Still Hard to Forget. Which I'm sure is good, but, y'know... Paywall.

And while I'm here I just want to add, back around 2003 or so there was a website called The Trades, and they asked me to review a copy of CK's first draft of Eternal. I called the script the best thing Charlie had written up to that point, and I'm glad to see that 20 years on, people who do not run Charlie Kaufman websites think likewise. (These days, my fave CK film is Synecdoche, though I still believe Eternal Sunshine is the best script he's written.)

Loads of places published pieces on Eternal Sunshine in the last month or so, to celebrate the film's 20th(!!) anniversary. I posted some links here, I'll be posting more later this week, and I'm posting some right here as well:

Scott Tobias from the Guardian calls Eternal Sunshine a love story that's impossible to forget:

One of the reasons why Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, now 20 years old, ranks among the best love stories of the 21st century is that it makes the unique argument that failure is an essential, precious part of romantic experience. It’s only human to want that pain to go away, but the film suggests that literally making it so would be a wish on a monkey’s paw, offering some short-term relief, perhaps, but with unanticipated long-term consequences. People usually have many more failed relationships before one that succeeds, after all, and the accumulation of experience and memory not only means something, but that meaning isn’t static. Bitter moments can turn bittersweet. (Source)

Inverse's Barry Levitt says The Best Sci-Fi Romance of the Century Predicted Our Bleak Relationship With Technology:

Watched today, the film has a striking prescience. There’s a chilling quality to the replaying of memories that Joel experiences while deleting Clementine. As he tries to cling to specifics, details from his memories literally fade away. It’s not unlike the way we process memories in the digital age: scrolling through your phone’s camera roll to recall treasured private moments, poring through your exes' social media accounts to see if you’re still a fixture, reading through old text messages to try and figure out who was responsible for the breakup. (Source)

Hasitha Fernando looks at the story behind Eternal Sunshine at Flickering Myth:

Starting its journey as a conceptual art experiment Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has gone on to win the hearts and minds of audiences and film critics through its unique exploration of romantic relationships and their inevitable fallout, all brought to life through Michel Gondry’s remarkable visuals, Charlie Kaufman’s fiercely original script and a duet of exquisite performances by both Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. (Source)

Some good bits of behind-the-scenes trivia in that one, and also this one at indieWIRE:

10 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’

'Eternal Sunshine’ was developed and pitched in the late ’90s, as Kaufman took his time to write the screenplay. In 2000, however, he very nearly abandoned the project altogether when Christopher Nolan released his thriller ‘Memento,’ about a man who suffers from retrograde amnesia attempting to solve a complex mystery. Kaufman worried that the film’s themes were too similar to ‘Eternal Sunshine,’ and nearly canceled the project altogether. However, he ultimately made the project after producer Steve Golin convinced him to continue. (Source)

Even the film's music has stayed in in the hearts and minds of people, says Sage Dunlap at Paste:

20 Years Later, Jon Brion’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Score Remains Unforgettable

In his compositions, Brion combines impassioned strings and electronic production to translate a character’s mental landscape into an evocative sonic profile. Eternal Sunshine is no exception, and it marks the first of Brion’s two scores for a Kaufman screenplay. Brion also composed music for Synecdoche, New York, where he, once again, excelled in bringing sound to a surrealist representation of a character’s mind; in Eternal Sunshine’s case, Brion captures post-breakup Joel in awake and sedated states—withdrawn in the former, disoriented in the latter, aching in both. To make up for the character’s lack of spoken transparency about his feelings—something Clementine points out—Brion’s score becomes key for bringing Joel’s thoughts to the surface. (Source)

And we ain't done yet with the commemorative Eternal articles! I'll be back with more soon.

Yeah, you read that right. 20 years ago today--or tomorrow, depending on where you are--Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was released. It remains Charlie's biggest commercial success, earned him his only Oscar so far (he was previously nominated for Malkovich and Adaptation, plus an Animated Feature nom for Anomalisa in 2015), and around the globe raked in other awards and accolades too numerous to mention. The WGA still ranks Eternal Sunshine as the #24 greatest screenplay of all time (#23 is Gone With the Wind, #25 is The Wizard of Oz; Malkovich is at #74, Adaptation #77). Wikipedia will tell you that the film has inspired songs, a video game, and Ariana Grande's latest album.

The film came out when social media was in its infancy, and dedicated fan sites--like the one you're at now--were still very much a thing. I remember communicating with webmasters from Kate Winslet websites, Jim Carrey sites, Elijah Wood sites... People were making oodles of fan art, poring over details in the film's trailer... Good times, good times.

ANYWAY. I'm not the only one aware of the film's 20th anniversary, because a few retrospectives have been popping up online.

Jane Steventon of The Conversation writes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at 20: an unflinching meditation on love and memory:

When writing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Charlie Kaufman could not have known about the seismic impact of social media in years to come. How we now lurk on our former lovers’ profiles, view their photos, analyse their posts and remove images – metaphorically wiping the slate clean and willingly deleting our past.

This relatable angst of ridding ourselves of past memories of heartbreak is the premise of director Michel Gondry’s masterpiece, which is 20 years old this week. (Source)

The BBC's Laura Martin tells us How Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind offered a warning about modern love and relationships:

A hit with both critics and the public alike, it grossed $74m at the box office, earned Kaufman, Gondry and their collaborator Pierre Bismuth an Oscar for best original screenplay, and in 2017 was named one of The New York Times's best films of the 21st Century. Two decades on from Eternal Sunshine's release, it's a mark of the film's emotional and intellectual brilliance that it's still in the public consciousness. Indeed, Ariana Grande's new album, released a couple of weeks ago, is called Eternal Sunshine in tribute to the film, with her video for new single We Can't Be Friends recreating scenes from it – something which may encourage a whole new Gen Z reappraisal.

The sentiment underscoring the film's high-concept – and which gave it its title – comes from the 1717 Alexander Pope poem Eloisa to Abelard, which is quoted by the Lacuna Inc worker, Mary (Kirsten Dunst) in the film. "How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!" the verse runs – which, boiled down, translates as "ignorance is bliss". However, the movie, through its compelling representation of the workings of the mind and the complex science of memory and dreams, depicted using Gondry's signature lo-fi creative aesthetic, proves that this idea is a fallacy.  (Source)

There's a Cultured Vulture piece called 5 Movies That Will Make You Feel Old in March 2024, and you'll never guess which one's at #4:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of those rare films where all the parts came together to create movie magic. We have Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry’s excellent script, Gondry’s assured direction, as well as the talents of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in the leading roles. It is one of those films that honestly feels life-changing – there’s life before Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and then there’s life after.

[..] If you have ever experienced heartbreak, you will know how tempting it is to desire complete erasure, so you don’t have to hurt anymore. But what happens when you do? If we are the sum of our relationships, will the erasure of one change our lives for the better, or will it make things worse?

If you’ve never seen the movie, now’s the perfect time to do so. (Source)

Then for old times' sake, courtesy of Dazed, here's the latest in a very long line of could-we-one-day-selectively-erase-memories articles:

Just three years after the release of Eternal Sunshine, researchers found that injecting an ‘amnesia drug’ could take the emotional sting out of unpleasant memories. Then in 2009, a team at the University of Toronto succeeded in essentially selectively erasing memories in mice by injecting a toxin into the amygdala, the part of the brain which processes emotions. Since then, a number of different methods for manipulating memories have been studied by psychologists and neuroscientists across the world, such as inhaling xenon gas, taking propranolol, using lights, and playing sounds to people while they sleep. (Source)

There may be more Eternal anniversary articles in the next couple of weeks. Anything worthwhile crosses my radar, I'll let you know.

Didn't have Ariana Grande on the BCK bingo card, but here we are!

March 8 sees the release of Grande's new album, and it's titled Eternal Sunshine. I don't think the film has been mentioned by Grande is any media releases so far, but come on. Connecting the dots, this certainly means it's her favorite film of all time and Kaufman is obviously her favourite screenwriter. RIGHT?

Ariana Grande has announced her new album: Eternal Sunshine will arrive March 8 via Republic. News of the Positions follow-up comes on the heels of this month’s lead single “Yes, And?” and its Paula Abdul–inspired music video.

The new album title likely refers to Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s beloved 2004 film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. Grande, a big Carrey fan, starred alongside him in the second season of Showtime’s Kidding. Gondry was among Kidding’s executive producers and directed several episodes.

In 2019, after filming Kidding with Carrey, Grande wrote online, “thankful for the most special experience of my life.” She continued, “nothing is crazier than getting to work with and spend time with someone whom you’ve idolized and adored since before you could speak. actually, what’s even crazier is discovering that person to be more special and warm and generous in person than you ever could’ve imagined.” (Source)

Kate Winslet recently dropped by the Intelligence Squared podcast and gave a nice shoutout to Eternal Sunshine's Clementine as one of her favourite, pivotal roles. Via Far Out Magazine:

“I think a favourite for me is Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” she began. “But you see, the period from Titanic till then, which is about six or seven years, that period of time, making those choices to do smaller films and take risks and be in things that sometimes barely even saw the light of day, I think all of that instinctive behaviour on my part as an actor in making those smaller choices, I think all of it paid off. So I think Clementine is probably one of my favourites, yeah.”

Written by the acclaimed Charlie Kaufman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is undoubtedly Winslet’s best film and it also features the best performance of her career. Unlike the period pieces she mostly featured in, this 2004 work of art conducts a surreal psychological examination of the nature of a romantic relationship. Kaufman won the Academy Award for his screenplay, and Winslet earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

Winslet said, “It’s really fun to take risks and it’s really fun to play lots of different characters. Clementine was the most eccentric part that I’ve ever played. I just had so much fun doing her. What an unlikely pairing. I mean, you wouldn’t imagine that Jim Carrey and I would ever do a movie together.

“When I was sent the script and was asked to do it, I just thought, ‘Well, there’s no way I’m not going to do this’ because I knew that it would be a totally new experience and very challenging, which it was both of those things.” (Source)

This is a bit of a fluff piece, really, but Kate's fans might be interested in The Things' write-up on how Eternal Sunshine opened people's minds to the kinds of roles she could play.

“[Kate] got the part because I’d interviewed all the most famous actresses of the time – because Charlie Kaufman’s script was very good – and she was the only one to give any negative comments on it. Basically, she was the only one not licking my ---,” Gondry said in an interview with The Daily Beast on the 10th anniversary of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Gondry went ahead to explain the elements that didn’t sit well with Winslet in the script, saying: “She said that it was a little bit repetitive in some places, and we shouldn’t shy away from being more sentimental.”

[...] “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was the biggest turning point for me because that was when people stopped seeing me as the ‘English rose in a corset’ from an industry perspective. People saw that I was capable of other dimensions,” said Winslet. (Source)

)NEAT. The Eternal Sunshine soundtrack is coming out on vinyl! July 17's the date.

Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, the 2004 movie follows an estranged couple (Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet) who have erased each other from their memories. The soundtrack features score, composed by Los Angeles musician Jon Brion, as well as songs from artists E.L.O., The Polyphonic Spree, The Willowz, and Don Nelson. Beck, in a collaboration with Jon Brion, provides a cover version of the Korgis' "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime". Jon Brion has composed music for numerous motion pictures, including Magnolia, Synecdoche New York, and Lady Bird. Orange Swirl 2LP.

1. Theme - Performed by Jon Brion
2. Mr. Blue Sky - Performed by ELO
3. Collecting Things - Performed by Jon Brion
4. Light & Day - Performed by The Polyphonic Spree
5. Bookstore - Performed by Jon Brion
6. Section 2 (It's The Sun) (KCRW) - Performed by The Polyphonic Spree
7. Wada Na Tod - Performed by Lata Mangeshkar
8. Showtime - Performed by Jon Brion
9. Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes - Performed by Beck
10. Sidewalk Fight - Performed by Jon Brion
11. Some Kinda Shuffle - Performed by Don Nelson
12. Howard Makes It All Go Away - Performed by Jon Brion
13. Something - Performed by Willowz
14. Postcard - Performed by Jon Brion
15. I Wonder - Performed by Willowz
16. Peer Pressure - Performed by Jon Brion
17. A Dream Upon Waking - Performed by Jon Brion
18. Strings That Tie To You - Performed by Jon Brion
19. Phone Call - Performed by Jon Brion
20. Nola's Bounce - Performed by Don Nelson
21. Down The Drain - Performed by Jon Brion
22. Row - Performed by Jon Brion
23. Drive In - Performed by Jon Brion
24. Main Title - Performed by Jon Brion
25. Spotless Mind - Performed by Jon Brion
26. Elephant Parade - Performed by Jon Brion (Source)

It's a regular Kaufmanfest over at the Piecing It Together podcast, and WE DON'T MIND ONE BIT. The Kaufman drought has broken, at least for now, so Piecing is making the most of it and so are we.

After tackling Antkind and I'm Thinking of Ending Things, they're winding back the clock for a look at Eternal Sunshine.

On the 7th installment of our Missing Pieces series, Catherine Gonzales joins me to discuss one of the best movies… ever. The Charlie Kaufman written, Michel Gondry directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This is our 3rd Charlie Kaufman project in a month, which makes me very happy. Puzzle pieces include Annie Hall, Memento, Punch-Drunk Love and 500 Days Of Summer.

As always, SPOILER ALERT for Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and the movies we discuss! (Source)

As always it's a really good listen. Thanks to David for the heads up!

An Ames window is an optical illusion, and the guy who invented it--Adelbert Ames Jr.--is perhaps better know for inventing the Ames room, which is the kind of forced-perspective illusion Michel Gondry used in parts of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Boing Boing posted a couple of cool videos about the window and the room today, as well as a relevant Eternal Sunshine clip.

That's Dean Hutton on The Curiosity Show. Man, I used to watch that show when I was a kid. Was cool!

And here's an Ames room:

And here are Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet getting all Amesy in Joel Barish's childhood home:

Aaaand now I want to watch the movie again.

Probably not a difficult question. Eternal Sunshine came in at #43, between Donnie Darko and Predator. That's a trio you don't see every day. Kind of an odd Top 5, too: Bladerunner, Alien and The Empire Strikes Back are the top 3, The Matrix is #4 and 2001 rounds it out.

Memory-tampering is a genre staple often reserved for amnesiac thrillers and mind-bending actioners. Not so with Eternal Sunshine, director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman instead using it to explore the nature of the human condition – in particular heartbreak. What happens when love goes sour? And what if you could erase the memories — both bad and good — from your mind? Would you go through with that? After learning his ex, Clementine (Kate Winslet) already has, Jim Carrey's Joel decides he will too. But as he explores what made them meld together and then fall apart, he starts to realise that he still has feelings for her. If its tech is fictional, the emotions in Eternal Sunshine are completely real. (Source)

There is not a lot going on in the world right now, other than COVID, hence little Charlie news to report.

American Cinematographer recently re-ran an old feature on Eternal Sunshine, though, so here's that. (I assume it's old, and I assume they re-ran it. It showed up in my alerts for some reason a few weeks ago, and I don't think it's a new piece.) It's a good read if you haven't seen it before. Lots of pics and interesting insight.

The film’s director of photography, Ellen Kuras, ASC, notes that director Michel Gondry, whose acclaimed music videos “often deal with the morphing of time and space,” was ideally suited to visualize a story whose primary setting is the boundless realm of its protagonist’s memory. However, Gondry was eager to depart from the hermetic, studio-bound experience he’d had on a previous Kaufman project, Human Nature. With its slippery shifts between reality and distorted memories, Eternal Sunshine required a look that could blend location shoot authenticity with unpredictable flashes of whimsy. Kuras, whose own work often strikes a balance between raw and stylized imagery (notably on Summer of Sam; see AC June ’99) proved a perfect match. (Source)

If you couldn't be there, io9 went to the Eternal Sunshine live read a week ago, and they've put up a good piece on the event. Makes me want to see the film again.

They comment a couple times on changes Michel Gondry made to the script. I don't think that's entirely accurate. Everything we've heard in the past indicates that Charlie and Michel worked closely together--Gondry didn't take the script and run, it was a team effort. That said, still a good article.

Probably the biggest change between the script and the film was that Joel’s ex, Naomi, plays a rather large role in the script. She’s not in the film at all, though scenes were reportedly filmed with Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo. So here, actor Bridget Regan read the part and gave it a grounded sweetness that made you realize both why Joel loved Naomi, but also why they could never be together. Regan and actor Ryan Hunter each played multiple, smaller roles during the read as well, helping round out the cast.

Their shining moment came near the end of the story when Joel and Clementine are sent their Lacuna tapes. The script requires the two characters, who in the present don’t know each other, to listen to one another’s voices from the past, when they knew each other very well. How do you do that without overdubbing or recording? Well, Hunter and Regan read the taped dialogue as Starr and Thompson reacted to them, staying in character. It was a powerful, funny, and smart choice by Haley, whose every decision was absolutely spot on. (Source)

Says WinkReport:

Among those particularly anxious about the disease is actor and screenwriter Kumail Nanjiani. After six new cases of the virus were reported in Los Angeles County, where he lives, he cancelled plans to participate in a star-studded table reading to be held Wednesday night.

By developments, I mean the recent cases of coronavirus diagnosed in LA. I live with an immunocompromised person so I need to be extra careful and avoid crowds right now. I need to do everything I can to protect those I love.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) March 5, 2020

“I love this script and everyone involved here, but in light of recent developments I have decided to pull out of this table read,” Nanjiani wrote, mere hours before the performance. “I feel bad about it but it’s the only choice I could make. I’m sure my replacement will be someone talented and awesome, should you decide to go.”

He elaborated in a subsequent tweet, writing, “By developments, I mean the recent cases of coronavirus diagnosed in LA. I live with an immunocompromised person so I need to be extra careful and avoid crowds right now. I need to do everything I can to protect those I love.” (Source)

Listen, it could be worse. I live in Australia, and out here right now there are restrictions on how many packets of toilet paper you can buy, because crazy people are emptying the shelves of toilet paper. PEOPLE ARE LOSING THEIR GODDAMNED MINDS.

WHY TOILET PAPER, OF ALL THINGS?!

Anyway, where was I? Kumail's out of the table reading. That sucks.