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Just a quick heads up! A Cage Went in Search of a Bird: Ten Kafkaesque Stories (affiliate link!) is out now in the UK, and it'll be hitting US shelves (and e-readers) June 4. It contains a new short story by our guy, called "This Fact Can Even Be Proved by Means of the Sense of Hearing," and I reviewed it here. The TL;DR: if you liked Antkind, you'll probably like this, and if you haven't read Antkind, "This Fact..." gives you a short taste of the same kinda thing. Highly recommended for CK fans. Of course the book contains 9 other Kafkaesque tales, all from writers of  literary fiction. Well worth checking out!

May 30th sees the release of A Cage Went in Search of a Bird: Ten Kafkaesque Stories, (affiliate link!) in which we’ll find a new short story by Charlie, called ‘This Fact Can Even Be Proved by Means of the Sense of Hearing." HOORAY! I have an early copy of the book—big thanks to Charlie’s UK editor Anna Kelly!—so here comes a relatively spoiler-free review of Kaufman’s latest foray into prose fiction, his first since Antkind back in 2020.

If you want to go in blind as to the story’s general plot but want to know basically what you’re in for, I can tell you that readers of Antkind will find the voice here familiar—Charlie’s style is consistent with Antkind, and we have another self-reflective character obsessing over every little thing, including his own thoughts. Again the story is essentially stream-of-consciousness as our character deals with a Kafkaesque conundrum. So if you liked Antkind, you’ll like this; if you thought Antkind would’ve been better if it were less bloated, give this a try; and if you haven’t tried Antkind, you might want to start with “This Fact Can Be Proved,” because it’s a brief but satisfying taste of what Kaufman in book form is about.

The plot, such as it is—and you might want to skip this paragraph, though what I’m about to say will crop up in the first couple of pages anyway—concerns a writer known only as “I.,” who has reached the Q&A portion of a public reading from his newest book. His interviewer asks about a particular quote from the book… and it’s a quote “I.” doesn’t recognise, one he can’t remember having written, one whose presence in his book he cannot understand. Things gradually spiral out from there as we’re taken along with I. and his obsessive thoughts.

I have a feeling this one was inspired by a nightmare of CK’s, or by a fear of his. Come on, the character is named “I.”

The whole thing is pretty funny and odd, fitting of a Kafka tribute, and it sits comfortably within Charlie’s oeuvre as a whole, especially his most recent stuff. (Well, not Orion.) We know that CK is a Kafka fan, and while he’s loath to talk influences, we can see here where his own work and Kafka’s would meet on a Venn diagram.

Worth noting: Charlie’s bio in the back of this book is sort of hilarious, when you put it alongside the bios of other authors in the collection. I got a good chuckle out of it.

Aside from Charlie’s story, you’re in for 9 other literary takes on Kafka-esque tales, and an intro by Becca Rothfield—an essayist, critic, philosopher and author whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and Washington Post. Plus her dog is named Kafka apparently. FULLY QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB.

I’ve said a few times, if Charlie ever ditches film for a full-time switch to prose fiction, I’m on board, and his new story doesn’t change my mind.

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.

New York's Roxy Cinema is screening the films of Patricia Rozema this weekend. Rozema will attend for a moderated Q&A after each film, and on Sunday after Mouthpiece (2018), Charlie will moderate that particular discussion.

That's Sunday April 7, 5:15pm, $17 per person, at the Roxy Cinema in New York. More info and tickets here.

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.

Timothy Lee takes a thoughtful look at Orion and the Dark, along with the rest of Charlie's oeuvre, and examines the recurring theme of mental illness.

Since Being John Malkovich’s release, Kaufman has continued to baffle and impress viewers, as every movie he writes or directs is different from the last: Adaptation; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Synecdoche, New York; Anomalisa, and his 2020 Netflix nightmare scenario I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Fans and critics have tried to pin down Kaufman’s movies using terms like “surreal” or “meta,” but focusing on the structure rather than the content of his work is the wrong approach. It’s more revealing to consider the shared theme that ties all Kaufman’s films together, including his latest, the animated Netflix kids’ movie Orion and the Dark.

Charlie Kaufman’s protagonists have one crucial commonality: their shared mental health struggles. Depression, anxiety, obsessiveness, low self-esteem, and other mental health issues have been key components in all of Kaufman’s movies, explored through protagonists who each have different ways of coping. Whether it’s the driving conflict (in Anomalisa or I’m Thinking of Ending Things) or just a byproduct of the journeys they undergo (in Being John Malkovich or Adaptation), it’s a consistent, prominently featured theme in Kaufman’s work. Having mental health issues is an inescapable fate for a Kaufman protagonist, and at some point, they will inevitably be forced to confront these issues whether they like it or not, often with little success.

[...]

Kaufman himself has said, “There aren’t a lot of happy endings in my movies. I think maybe there aren’t a lot of happy endings in life.” And yet he grants two notable exceptions, for a fictionalized version of himself and a child protagonist.

Perhaps Kaufman sees a bit of himself in Orion and wants to give him the same sense of hope he gave his fictional counterpart from Adaptation. (Source)

I love articles like this--something a bit different from the standard review or interview. (Though I wish we had a couple of CK interviews re: Orion.)

Longtime BCK pal David Rosen checks out Orion and the Dark in the latest episode of his podcast, Piecing It Together. ("A podcast where we take a look at a new movie and try to figure out what other movies may have inspired it.")

It's a good listen! They've also covered Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I'm Thinking of Ending Things and Antkind (granted, not a movie, but a book about a movie, written by a moviemaker).

There's a fun Reddit comment summarising some of the stuff that was in the first draft of Charlie's Orion and the Dark. Scroll past if you don't want spoilers, but you might want what comes after the screenshot:

If you're interested, the first draft can be downloaded here. The script is dated December 12, 2016 and clocks in at 122 pages.

Orion and the Dark is doing impressively in its first week, Netflix's #2 English language movie and #3 worldwide. 10 million views so far!

At this rate it could end up Charlie's most popular film since 2004's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

via BGR and Netflix.