Skimming the subconscious
A few days before I first saw
”
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
”
I’d had an argument with the guy who invited himself along to
the movie preview with me.
Skimming the subconscious
A few days before I first saw “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” I’d had an argument with the guy who invited himself along to the movie preview with me. I don’t remember all the details of the fight now, but it was something about him flaking out on plans at the last minute – something that was a constant source of friction between us. What I do remember is that in the end, he decided to come along and I made reservations at Il Fornaio in Beverly Hills for dinner before the show. He wore a coffee-stained shirt and didn’t comb his hair. I’d put on make-up and a nice top, and he teased me about dressing up just in case we ran into Elijah Wood.
“Eternal Sunshine,” is a movie written by Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry and it is in some ways an ode to human memory.
At the start of the film Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) have just met on a stormy day near the seashore. They don’t remember each other, but they used to be friends, lovers, roommates – all the things people become when they fall in love. But after an intense fight, Clementine signs up for an experimental procedure that erases Joel from her memory – as well as anything connected to Joel.
In retaliation, Joel decides to erase Clementine as well, but as his first memory of her fades he changes his mind and what ensues is a retelling of the best and worst moments in their relationship as Joel tries desperately to hold on to his love.
Gondry, who is best known for his work in music videos, uses low-budget visual tricks to show how Joel’s memories are collapsing around him – including a gloomy scene at a beach house where Joel’s last memory of Clementine is lost as the house falls apart.
The film is sad and happy at the same time, much as real life is, and anyone who has ever been in a relationship that has gone south – or just had an intense argument with a loved one – will be able to relate.
After watching the film, I spent a lot of time thinking about whether I would ever want to erase someone from my memory. And for me, the answer has always been no.
In the movie, as in real life, it is impossible to selectively erase the good and not the bad. Partly the human brain seems to do a pretty good job of wearing away at the sharp edges of bad memories on its own – that’s why I can barely remember the fight I had with the guy who watched “Eternal Sunshine” with me the first time, but I can still remember the shirt that he wore, how his hair looked and what we ate.
“The Science of Sleep”
Michel Gondry’s more recent release, “The Science of Sleep,” which came out on DVD earlier this year, also plays on subconscious themes. Stephane Miroux (Gael GarcÃa Bernal) has trouble distinguishing between reality and his dreams.
We all lack control over our dreams and sometimes they can be vivid enough to make us think what happened while we were asleep might have really happened in the half-asleep moments before the alarm clock goes off. And we dream about things that seem completely random and sometimes don’t make much sense. I met someone once through a work function and a few weeks later he showed up in a dream.
While most people chalk their dreams up to randomness – I probably dreamt about this guy because I was trying to set up a meeting with him for two weeks because he’s kinda cute – Stephane starts to feel more comfortable in his dream world than in his real life.
When he meets Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), he believes he can bring her into his dream world. Borrowing from “Eternal Sunshine,” Gondry uses simple sets and tricks to create Stephane’s dream world. At first it is very clear to viewers when he is dreaming and when he is awake. In his dreams, he is the host of a TV talk show set inside a cardboard television.
As it becomes more and more difficult for Stephane to tell when he is dreaming and when he is sleeping, his relationship with Stephanie becomes strained. Though both films leap between reality and the subconscious, “The Science of Sleep” lacks a sense of clarity so viewers start to become unsure what has really happened and what hasn’t happened. It is harder to sympathize with the characters when it is impossible to tell what the truth is. The film is also complicated by jumping from English to Spanish or French with subtitles and comes across as too fragmented in the end.
For those who enjoyed “Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind,” “The Science of Sleep” is worth a watch.
