Vivien Silvey Is a Postgraduate Student at ANU
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ILM TECHNIQUES IN ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE ^ SPOTLESS ternal Sunshine of the soundtrack in Eternal Sun- structure underscores the Spotless Mind (Michel shine all serve to convey the notion that without awareness Gondry, 2004) is not your tenderness, confusion, of the past, history is doomed average love story. It has miscommunication, pain and to repeat itself. Told in a more in common with hope that accompany non-linear, circular structure, arthouse films like Punch- romantic endeavours. They the story ends where the film Drunk Love (Paul Thomas underscore the film's mes- began, with Joei (Jim Carrey) Anderson, 2002) and Garden sage that when you have and Clementine (Kate Winslet) State (Zach Braff, 2004) than loved and lost, it is better to meeting and beginning to fall it does with glossy and remember, mourn and honour in love. Unbeknown to them, predictable Hollywood roman- that loss than to remain in it is not for the first time. As it FILM tic comedies like What ignorance of pain and the turns out, they have erased Happens in Vegas (Tom happiness you once had. each other from their memo- ÍTEXT Vaughan, 2008) or Made of ries after their two-year Honor (Paul Weiland, 2008). Narrative: right back relationship fell apart. Having The innovative use of narra- where they started 'met' once more, however, VIVIEN tive, mise en scène, cinema- they are again attracted to 139 SILVEY tography, editing and the Eternal Sunshine's narrative each other and their courtship 1931 2009 FILM <TEXT is repeated. In the last Eternal Sunshine's circular tells Stan he is now dating married boss. Dr. Howard scenes of the film, the truth narrative also criticises the Clementine, We then see Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson). It about their past relationship idea that ignorance is bliss, a Patrick repeating things to turns out that, like Joel and is revealed to them and they concept raised in Alexander Clementine that Joel had Clementine, Mary and face uncertainty as to Pope's poem 'Eloisa to previously said to her. These Howard previously had an whether they can trust in the Abelard' (1717) from which plagiarised lines are disturb- affair, Mary had her memory future of another one. the film draws its title. ing because Clementine of it erased, but is again Nevertheless, they decide to Instead of bliss, ignorance Is does not know that they evidently attracted to him. keep seeing each other shown to lead to deception originally belonged to Joel, When Howard's wife discovers them once again flirting, she tells Mary the truth. Shocked that her old in a non-linear circular structure, the memory has been violated, Mary goes back to the clinic story ends where the film began, with and sends out the patients' Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate files to their owners. This is T how Joel and Clementine discover the truth about their Winslet) meeting and beginning to fall in love. past and presumably how many other people do. There Unbeknown to them, it is not for the first time. is room to believe that after this point Mary will be able to move on and form a roman- despite what the future may and pain. Running parallel to since he has been erased tic relationship with Stan. hold. Like Groundhog Day the central story is a subplot from her memory. Patrick's With lost memories not so (Harold Ramis, 1993), this involving the employees at behaviour testifies to the much restored as acknowl- concept of a moment in time the Lacuna clinic (whose deceit which ignorance edged, the essential mes- being repeated and recon- name implies 'lacunar permits. sage of the film is that sidered puts into practice amnesia', a type of selective people require memories in Nietzsche's idea of 'eternal amnesia) who perform the Further echoing the complex- order to grow and learn from return', showing that what memory erasure. While Lacu- ities of Joel and Clementine's their experiences, no matter makes these people heroic is na technicians Patrick (Elijah story, Stan is in love with how painful or shameful they the fact that they embrace Wood) and Stan (Mark Lacuna's secretary Mary may be. their inevitable attraction to Ruffalo) are erasing Joel's {Kirsten Dunst), but she in 40 one another.^ memory, the creepy Patrick turn has a crush on their Mise en scène: both the clinic and in the in the process of the memory Joel and Clementine meet remembering people memories of their times erasure, the objects associ- both times (before and after and places together. ated with Clementine blur the erasing procedure) on and are placed In disorient- the wintry beach, since this A key aspect of any film is The clinic itself is presented ing contexts, showing the sets the tone for their the mise en scene, or the like a dentist's office, with disintegration of Joel's turbulent yet beautiful affair. things that appear within the cramped corridors and memory. Clementine and camera frame. Objects, dishevelled piles of paper. Joel's bed is suddenly Nostalgia is evoked by the locations and costumes all These all suggest the fact transposed onto the snowy use of sunlight and a light form part of the mise en that the human mind is not an beach where they first met, haze in Joel's home-centred scène, helping to create the orderly, precise entity; that, in the table set of the Chinese memories, as well as in film's themes and moods. In fact, memory is a place that is restaurant where they ate those set in his childhood. Eternal Sunshine much of the jumbled and complex. The regularly is shown at one Gondry's DVD commentary mise en scène is used to glimpse of an old lady in a point in an otherwise empty points out that the filmmak- evoke nostalgia for Joel and chair that would not be out of room, and the titles in the ers used a type of smoke in Clementine's relationship. In place in a hairdressing salon Barnes & Noble bookstore certain scenes to convey a order to undergo the memory recalls the famous image where Clementine works realistically homely atmos- erasure, Joel has to gather from A Clockwork Orange become blank like the fading phere. In the scenes when together all the objects that (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) (or photos in the Back to the Joel visits his friends and remind him of Clementine. The Simpsons episode 'Dog Future trilogy (Robert when he and Clementine are Emptied of these quirky, of Death') where the protago- Zemeckis. 1985, 1989, in bed during the day. this colourful knick-knacks Joel's nist is forced to watch films 1990). Sand is a motif haziness lends naturalness apartment seems bare and and listen to Beethoven as a throughout the film, symbol- to the settings, underscoring drab, reflecting his emotional method of social recondition- ising the way in which Joel's the everyday nature of the blandness when Clementine ing. Other shots of people in memories are slipping story. These homes are filled is absent. Throughout the the waiting room holding through his hands. At one with the sunlit dust motes film these objects reappear memorabilia of dead pets and point Joel is shown buried that lay claim to our pres- in their original contexts, failed sports careers show up to his neck in sand, ence in time and space. showing how they first came how painful memories are an unable to free himself from Joel's memories are thus to form his impression of her aspect of everyday life. The this loss. In his last memory effectively evoked as vibrant personality. For offer of a 'quick fix' to these to disappear, the house physical moments as well as example, the potato dolls, problems is ultimately shown where the couple first met emotional ones. Joel's paintings of Clemen- to be an ill-fitting solution to crashes down around them and the floorboards turn to tine and the mug with her the problem. The two scenes set in Joel's photo on it are shown in sand. It is significant that childhood exploit aspects of 1931 2009 FILM <TEXT size and consciousness, Clementine comforts Joel, At points of panic during the Joel as the procedure draws highlighting the distortions of her pink cowgirl hat and his chase, the camera tends to to its hideous conclusion. the memory erasure. In the red cape underscoring their show Joel and Clementine Meanwhile, in the apartment kitchen scene, Joel is respective resourcefulness from high angles and In wide the lighting on Stan and sometimes played by Jim and disappointment. shot. When Joel and Mary remains steady, alerting Carrey and at others by a Clementine bolt through a us to the fact that their story little boy of the right age for Cinematography: train station, the camera is taking place in reality as the memory. Forced per- closer and turther looks down at their distant opposed to the chaotic mess spective (where things close figures as if they are little apart of Joel's mind. to the camera seem large, specimens trying to escape and things in the distance The cinematography in a Petri dish. The camera also Editing: balancing the seem tiny) and gigantic Eternal Sunshine is used in a views Joel from a distance real world and the furniture are used to recreate shortly before this when he variety of ways to emphasise world ot memory the memory vividly. Joel's the moods of the characters curses the heavens, yelling behaviour also alternates and their relationships. Early 'Can you hear me? I don't The editing plays a crucial between babyish and adult, on when Clementine ap- want this any more! I want to part in the construction of this uncontrollable fluctua- proaches Joel on the train, call it off!' His helplessness in the circular narrative.