Here are several photos taken behind-the-scenes during production of Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Production still photographer: David Lee © Focus Features.
Having heard his friend complain about her boyfriend for what seemed to be a hundredth time, French artist Pierre Bismuth asked her if she would erase him from her memory if such an option was at her disposal. He soon passed this idea to his friend and filmmaker Michel Gondry, who liked the sound of it and discussed it with Charlie Kaufman, with whom he worked on Human Nature. From a simple discussion in a cafe, therefore, sprung out a film that many believe to be one of the very finest produced in this century. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a heartbreaking yet beautiful, insightful and above all hopeful movie about love, memory and loss, is literally unlike anything we’ve seen before or since. If you remember 2004 and the time this film was released, you might have been misled by the ill-conceived promotional campaign into believing this was a romantic comedy, a happy love story with two exquisite actors, performing in an unexpected collaboration. Gondry knew the promotion was deluding and even harmful to his film, because he sensed that what he had in his hands was a unique gem of a film, whose concept, range of emotion and depth far surpassed what people sought and found in traditional romantic comedies. Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, a phrase taken from Alexander Pope’s poem Eloisa to Abelard, is a masterfully conducted exploration of love, human beings and the nature of memory.
Written by Kaufman, based on Bismuth’s idea and with Gondry’s input, the film is a stylistically impressive result of the cooperation of one of the most intriguing screenwriters in the world and a filmmaker with a distinct visual style and sense of storytelling. A complex narrative structured in a non-chronological order features unforgettable main characters, but it’s also accompanied by nicely developed support from the characters of Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst and Elijah Wood. But the chemistry and realism that Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey manage to produce is astonishing. It is safe to say that, with Eternal Sunshine, Carrey successfully escaped the confinement of silly comedies such as Ace Ventura or The Cable Guy, as the comedian’s performance proved the depth and range of his dramatic capabilities. Winslet, on the other hand, enthusiastically grabbed the chance to portray the charming Clementine, simply because female characters of such colorfulness and complexity can be rarely found in cinema and she wanted something different from the work she’d done up to that point. Two talented actors with everything to prove, a tragic love story shaped brilliantly by Kaufman and Gondry’s skillful, manipulative and out-of-the-box direction in which he put his experience of shooting music videos into feature film practice. The recipe for the most significant dramedy of the period.
Director of photography Ellen Kuras is to blame for the distinct visual style of the picture, just as Jon Brion’s remarkable score sets the tone and enhances the surreal atmosphere of this gorgeous hybrid of film genres. A solid box office success at the time of its release and the Academy Award champion in the Best Original Screenplay category, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a film you cannot cut out of your heart once you let it in.
‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’: An Unforgettable and Heartbreaking Exploration of Love, Human Beings and the Nature of Memory
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