Choose a theoretical perspective on film narrative and explore it in relation to no more than two films. You may wish to consider: style; audience/spectatorship; technology; the relationship between ‘reality’ and its representation.

The concept of narrative has been analysed and commented on extensively by a number of scholars (Chatman: 1978, Genette: 1980, Gunning: 1991) to determine both its effect on spectatorship and how audiences react to changes within narrative structure. This essay will utilise complex narratives to examine them in terms of a practical filmmaking technique and what this means in terms of theory. For example, how does the manipulation of classical narrative structure in film change the logical form of a film? How does this change the story of the film? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (, 2004) conveys a complex narrative as the film’s main protagonists, Joel (Jim Carey) and Clementine (), undergo psychological treatment to erase each other from their memories. The narrative plot disrupts space and time within its own reality as Joel effectively ‘wakes up’ within his unconscious state. He tries to ‘run away’ from time itself within his own memories to try and stop the psychological treatment he is undergoing. This idea expresses similarities with Puz- zle films. Puzzle films, according to Warren Buckland, are films that “embrace non-linearity, time loops and fragmented spatio-temporal reality” (2009: 6). This gives the impression that this form of narrative is more complex than one containing a singular flashback (analepsis).

These types of films do not follow a linear narrative and thus do not usually present a clear transition from one time period to another. In order to illustrate this, this essay will highlight the contrast between classical Hollywood narratives and complex narratives, applying the theory of complex narratives to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Page 1 of 12 David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson (1979) employs the idea that narrative typically or- ganises time and space into a cause-effect sequence of events. Cause and effect se- quences can be implied as a constant conversation between characters, meaning one char- acter reaping the effect of another character’s cause. An example of this can be found in

The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939). Dorothy (Judy Garland) runs away from home after threats that her dog Toto (Terry the Dog) will be euthanised after he bites their neigh- bour. This is a ‘cause’ that makes Dorothy run away from her family. Secondly, Dorothy is falsely told that her Aunt (Clara Blandick) is dying which thus causes her to come back home but is separated from her family when a tornado strikes, which leads to a window knocking her unconscious. This therefore illustrates the idea of the ‘cause and effect’ narrative. Every choice one character makes affects another. The cause of her being told her Aunt is dying means that she returns home, but because she ran away after threats Toto would be eu- thanised, she is now separated from her family. The beginning of the film is a classical Hol- lywood narrative structure as its time and space is organised into a logical order.

Within narrative structure comes the ‘plot’ (synzhet) and the ‘story’ (fabula1). Although simi- lar, both of these terms work differently. The ‘story’ includes all occurrences on and off screen and the ‘plot’ orders them. However, this is mostly situated around the idea of clas- sical narrative structure that appeared in Hollywood cinema roughly between 1920 and

1960. Classical Hollywood narratives included linear narratives (plot presented logically) and continuity editing (meaning the style was ‘invisible’ and did not draw attention to itself). This style of narrative provides a stark contrast to complex narratives, on which this essay will focus.

1 Russian Formalist terms. Page 2 of 12 Complex narratives disrupt the logical sense of the narrative by interrupting the ordering of plot. To illustrate this, narratorologist Seymour Chatman (1978) coins the term ‘double time structure’. This conveys the idea that there are two levels of time within narrative structure.

The first is the actual presentation of time through the plot (labelled ‘discourse time’) and the time of events in stories when they happen (labelled ‘story-time’). This implies the idea of disruption between the ordinary 1-2-3-4 time structure within film which could be presented as 2-1-3-4. It gives meaning to the idea of complex narrative structure; the idea is not always logical to follow. To take this further Gérard Genette, another narratologist, puts forward the idea of narrative discourse. He argues that any altering from the classical narrative structure is in comparison to the “the temporal level of narrative with respect to which anachrony is defined” (1980: 48). This brings in the idea of anachrony which can be defined as the differ- ence between time played out in the ‘plot’ and time played out in the ‘story’, usually in the form of flashbacks (analepses) or flashforwards (prolepses). In Classical Hollywood Cinema narrative structure would be presented as 1-2-3-4 but as complex narratives are introduced the anachrony, put forward by Genette, is more difficult to define. This means that the first narrative from which a flashback is taken is not always easy to establish.

Here it is necessary to introduce the focus of this essay which is the Puzzle film. This can be argued to be much more psychologically integrated form of complex narrative telling.

Miklós Kiss and Steven Willemsen put forward the idea utilising Michael W. Eysenck and

Mark T. Keane’s psychological approach of cognitive theory that, “Narrative complexity [...] can be understood...first [as] a ‘cognitive puzzlement’ that occurs when a film obstructs or suspends its viewer’s construction or comprehension of the story” (2017: 26). This furthers the idea of confusion within the narrative structure and introduces the idea of complex nar- ratives, not only as a tool of practical filmmaking, but as a theoretical perspective. Film itself can obstruct the viewer’s understanding of film by, as stated previously, fragmenting the

Page 3 of 12 spatio-temporal reality. This includes the understanding that the film does not aid the audi- ence in understanding the plot or the story, instead it attempts to literally puzzle the specta- tor. Furthermore, this takes the idea puzzle historian Marcel Danesi (2002) implies that puz- zles are brainteasers, that humans have an instinct to make sense of. In the context of this essay, this suggests that puzzle films engage the spectator to solve a problem, to make sense of the plot.

This essay will now explore this theory within the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

In terms of the narrative discourse that takes place within this film, Joel narrates through voice-over for a lot of the film. From the opening scene on the train it seems to be an awk- ward interaction between Joel and Clementine. On the surface it seems to convey a typical linear narrative of a girl and boy meeting on a train and the man offers to take her home.

However, from the start of the film, the characterisation of Clementine is as a very abrupt character, she takes offence to simple statements Joel makes, if he doesn’t understand what she is saying. This already hints at the psychological nature that this film is going to unpack, seeming to suggest that there is going to be a lot of confusion and up and down rash emo- tions, from which, it could be argued, the narrative structure develops. This means that from the opening scene when Clementine gets angry at him and is then loving again, this back- wards and forwards nature of her emotions depicts the backwards and forwards (through analepses and prolepses) of the plot. To further prove this point, this scene immediately cuts to one of Joel crying as the opening credits roll. This already alters and dismisses the idea from Gérard Genette that there is a starting point from which all narrative discourse takes its place, as it already seems unclear whether Joel crying is the establishing narrative or the scene on the train is. The spatial and temporal structure is already split.

Page 4 of 12 Furthermore, in the ordering of the plot, there seems to be a prolepsis where Clementine and Joel have broken up but she does not recognise him. Within traditional structural narra- tives this possibly would not make sense. As stated previously, it could be that this is put there intentionally to disrupt the flow of the film and to confuse the spectator. Joel is shown a card saying, “Dear Mr & Mrs Eakin, Clementine Kruczynski has had Joel Barish erased from her memory. Please never mention their relationship to her again. Lacuna Inc”. This is another example of how the film “obstructs or suspends the viewer’s construction” (2017:

26). The spectator is left to solely work out and make sense of what is happening with the little facts that are being provided. In terms of the characterisation of Joel, the argument could be made that it is in fact his state of mind that is alternatively the cause of the disrupted ordering of events, rather than Clementine as previously suggested. For example, we see multiple scenes depicted of people in his life interacting and then quick cuts to him sitting alone in his car crying. The argument could be made that, like Clementine, he is very emo- tional and sensitive to changes in emotion.

Furthermore, for the spectator, Joel is the only character that has been properly introduced and so arguably the only means of identification the spectator has so far. Whilst the charac- ter of Joel can’t make sense of the situation himself, the argument could be made that this causes an even more challenging role for the spectator to make sense of what is happening.

Buckland states, “[Puzzle films] are populated with characters who are schizophrenic, lose their memory, are unreliable narrators, or are dead (but without us - or them - realizing)”

(2009: 6). This further conveys the idea that Puzzle films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spot- less Mind don’t have one entity that the spectator can rely on for a sense of security, giving the impression that the spectator is just as lost as the character is. The argument can be made that the character of Joel drives the narrative and with the loss of memory and narra- tion he involves himself in, it further perpetuates the bewilderment of the plot. Elliot Panek

Page 5 of 12 furthers this idea as he suggests in his article, “The Poet and the Detective: Defining the

Psychological Puzzle Film”, that, “Rather than propping the viewers to ask questions about characters within the diegesis, the narration in these films prompts the viewer to question the relationships among character, narration, and the social reality inhabited by the viewer”

(2006: 65). This explores the idea that it is not the character itself here that becomes ana- lysed, it is how they fit into their surrounding and other characters. This could be argued to be true in terms of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as throughout this essay, Joel is the foundation for unpacking a lot of sequences throughout this film. In terms of complex narratives, this all further leads to the idea of disorientation.

Furthermore, Matthew Compara in his essay, “Art cinema and New Hollywood: multiform narrative and sonic metalepsis in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” argues that the film utilises two elements to add to its complex narrative structure, the first being sound bridges and the latter being sonic metalepsis. Compara puts forward this idea that Eternal

Sunshine of the Spotless Mind uses sound bridges to, “metaleptically link the multiple onto- logical levels of the film’s multiform narrative” (2009: 120). Metalepisis is the narratological phrase coined by Gérard Genette (1980) to explain the overlapping of boundaries in diegetic levels of narrative. For example, in the film when the doctor is explaining to Joel that he needs to collect any information with anything regarding Clementine, this switches to be- come a voice-over narration with him collecting the items and then re-overlaps with the scene of him bringing the items to the doctor. This means that the scenes are blurred to- gether by one sound bridge. It becomes hard to tell whether there has been an analepsis or a prolepsis. To further this, Buckland states that, “In the end the complexity of puzzle films operates on two levels: narrative and narration. It emphasizes the complex telling (plot, nar- ration) of a simple or complex story (narrative)” (2009: 6). This depicts further what Compara explains as narrative and narration being two separate entities within complex narratives, in

Page 6 of 12 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, they blend together making the narrative much harder to follow. To reiterate the original point from Genette, this does not work for all nar- rative sequences as puzzle films deny the spectator the establishing scene to aid them in puzzling the narrative together.

In addition, Compara’s idea of sonic metalepsis is revealed when Joel undergoes treatment to have Clementine removed from his mind but he subconsciously regrets it. Whilst he is unconscious and undergoing treatment he cannot wake up and tell the doctors to stop and so the spectator is subjected to watching Joel metaphorically and physically run away from his mind. Compara states, “Joel’s full awareness of these matters marks the transition into yet another phase of narration characterization by an ever-increasing number of spatial and temporal disruptions, in which his self-consciousness is represented visually through several doppelgänger scenes and sonically through echoes, feedback, and distortion” (2009: 127).

This portrays the idea that all of the filmic elements within this film are purposefully there to disrupt the spatial and temporal narrative structure. In the scene where Joel and Clementine break into another person’s house, Joel is not only in the memory as it is being played, but he is also awake and fully conscious of the need to hide from the map that is being created of his memories of Clementine. As said by Compara, Joel knows when they are being caught as there is sonic echoes, feedback, and distortion where he can hear the doctors. This fur- ther aids the idea of the Puzzle films within this form of complex narratives. All at the same time, Joel is unconscious in his bed, playing out a memory, and is running away from the memory. To the spectator each ‘Joel’ is the real Joel, they have all blurred together. To further prove this, William Eggington puts forward the idea that, “Ontological metalepsis […] occurs when the boundaries separating ontologically distinct diegetic levels are erased and the two worlds ‘bleed’ together” (2001: 209). This encompasses what happens to the narra- tive structure in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which can be identified as a Puzzle

Page 7 of 12 film with a complex narrative as the narrative structure is hard to identify. As explained, the original ‘double time structure’ put forward by Seymour Chatman “‘bleed’ together” within this film.

Whilst applying the theory of complex narratives to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is useful in terms of understanding what this theory does and how it contradicts previous analysis of narratives. This theory is limited as it does not take into account what is happen- ing within society at the same time. Whilst it may be the case that complex narratives do fragment the spatio-temporal narrative structure, it does not make room for any other expla- nation. It could be an interesting point to mention here the idea of Michel Gondry’s auteuristic nature and why this is poigniant. Gondry is a French director whose films mostly deal with the idea of surrealism, the idea of a dream like state. Just like Eternal Sunshine of the Spot- less Mind in which Joel is trapped in his dream like state, he also directed The Science of

Sleep (2006), which deals with a man, Stéphane Miroux, who has vivid dreams that often prevent his ability to exist in reality. This gives substance to the idea that the sense of reality and temporal fragmentation that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind unpacks could not be related to the theory of complex narratives at all and is instead centred around the auterist trait to depict surrealism on screen. However, to reflect on this it could be related to the social and historical context in which this film was released. David Denby, whilst writing for

The New Yorker, put forward the idea of a group of filmmakers who were including complex narratives within their Hollywood films. He stated, “[The directors] may be trying to jolt us into a new understanding of art, or even a new understanding of life. In the past, mainstream audiences notoriously resisted being jolted. Are moviegoers bringing some new sensibility to these riddling movies?” (Denby, 2007). This reveals the idea that these directors, includ- ing Michel Gondry, were doing something new. Before this film was produced it can be

Page 8 of 12 argued that complex narratives were very much kept within art house cinema and main- stream Hollywood films kept to the traditional classical narrative structure. The argument could be made here that directors such as Gondry were bringing these complex narratives out of art house cinema to reflect the society in which their films were being produced. For example, the notion of complex narratives depicts an individual struggling to deal with life on screen, could this therefore reflect that life in reality was getting harder? Were these characters, whose lives were in chaos, in fact more relatable in this format?

Whilst taking all of this into consideration, on the one hand this essay has explored complex narratives (the Puzzle film) as a theoretical perspective within the context of a mainstream

Hollywood film. The idea that the spatio-temporal reality is fragmented on screen provides confusion for the spectator as opposed to a film which has a logical temporal order. How- ever, it has also unpacked the work of auteur directors at this time such as Michel Gondry, who seemed to be doing something new. His narrative seems, as Elliot Panek suggested previously, to be investigating the ways in which characters integrate into society rather than the characters themselves. This is juxtaposed with the traditional Hollywood cinema trait of using male protagonists such as Rock Hudson. This means that the argument could be made that Hudson, and others synonymous with him during this period had their good looks and sex appeal as the drive for narratives within Classical Hollywood cinema. Within Eternal

Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it could be evaluated that the spectator identifies with Joel’s state of mind rather than seeing him as a character with good looks. This puts forward the concluding idea of why there is a need for such a complex narrative. Using the original example of The Wizard of Oz, this depicts a dream like state using one singular analepsis.

This need for a narrative so complex that it no longer has an establishing scene from which anachronism can be defined says a lot about the society in which films are now being cre-

Page 9 of 12 ated. Perhaps the argument could be made that seeing a character so lost on screen pro- vides a much more relatable protagonist on screen, a character that not only deals with heartbreak but one who has to fight to keep his own memories whilst getting lost within his own mind. This possibly conveys the idea of there being calm within chaos, that identifying with the character Joel on screen brings a sense of calm within the confusion, as he is a relatable character. Whilst the spectator does have to work out for themselves where the narrative has moved logically, having the protagonist as a relatable character from the spec- tator provides comfort and an intriguing watch for spectators in amongst the complex narra- tive.

Page 10 of 12 Bibliography

1. Bordwell, D., Thompson, K. (1979). Film Art: An Introduction. New York: Newbery Award

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2. Buckland, W. (2009). Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema. Ox-

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3. Chatman, S. (1978). Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. United

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4. Campora, M. (2009). Art cinema and New Hollywood: multiform narrative and sonic mar-

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5. Danesi, M. (2002). The Puzzle Instinct: The Meaning of Puzzles in Human Life. Indiana:

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6. Denby, D. (2007, 26 February). The New Disorder: Disordered narratives in film. The

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7. Eggington, W. (2001). Reality is Bleeding: A Brief History of Film from the Sixteenth

Century. Configurations, 9(2), 207-229.

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10. Gunning, T. (1991). D.W.Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film: The Early

Years at Biograph. United States: University of Illinois Press.

11. Kiss, M., Willemsen, S. (2017). Impossible Puzzle Films: A Cognitive Approach to Con-

temporary Complex Cinema. United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press.

Page 11 of 12 12. Panek, E. (2006). The Poet and the Detective: Defining the Psychological Puzzle Film.

Film Criticism, 31(1/2), 62-88.

Filmography

13. Fleming, V. (Director). (1939). The Wizard of Oz. United States: Metro-Goldwyn-

Mayer.

14. Gondry, M. (Director). (2004). Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. United States:

Focus Features, , This Is That Productions.

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