eternal sunshine de l'mind spotless..

[Alethia]

The movie blew my nuts off and I had a hard time finding them afterwards.

Next time I see this, I'm wearing a cup.

hahaha, oh my....

[MacGuffin]

Michel Gondry loves movies (for starters, he adores L'Atalante so much, he designed the movie poster seen below in tribute), but when he steps behind the camera, the French filmmaker has no interest in referencing other directors' work. His first film, Human Nature, questions the very nature of what it means to be human. Now, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has the singular distinction of being simultaneously the most surreal and instantly familiar Hollywood film of the 21st century.

With each music video or feature film he tackles, Gondry sets out to invent a brave new world where space, time and all the rules that govern existence are redefined. His film work has benefited by the equally original voice of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Together, they take great pains to reject everything that has come before. "Yesterday I read in a bad paper that Charlie was highly influenced by Memento when he wrote," Gondry says. "In fact, it's actually the complete opposite. We had started to write it two years before Memento came out, and when he heard about Memento, he just wanted to quit." So what are their influences? Find out five projects that have inspired Gondry on account of their sheer originality.



L'Atalante
(1934, dir: Jean Vigo, starring: Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté)
L'Atalante is a French movie from the early '30s. The director, Jean Vigo, died when he was 29. He was not really a surrealist, although there is a certain amount of surrealism in L'Atalante. It is mostly a romantic story about a couple on a boat that goes from the north of France to Paris. The bride wants to visit Paris [so she runs away], and he is really sad that he can't find her. It's so simple, but it's the most beautiful movie. Jean Vigo's first movie, Zero de Conduit, was a complete financial failure, so the only way he could work was to accept this very sweet and romantic script that he didn't like at all, and he ended up making the most inspiring and emotional movie. Because of the simplicity of the story, I think he could really express what he had in his heart. I think films are original if they come from an original place. If you're trying to do a visual for the sake of it or reproduce something you've seen, it could never be touching, but if you have something inside you and you feel better when you put it on screen, maybe that's something original. I'm very pretentious, and I want to be the best that I can, so if I like somebody, I will never try to emulate him because I know I will be below him. I think maybe if I do something different, I have the chance to be on the same level one day.



Le Voyage en Ballon (Stowaway in the Sky)
(1960, dir: Albert Lamorisse, starring: André Gille, Pascal Lamorisse)
The first film I ever saw in my life is called Le Voyage en Ballon. It's a very simple story about a grandfather and his grandson traveling across France in a hot-air balloon. It's all shot on location with a system where they attached the basket of a balloon under a helicopter. It's mostly visual, but it's very pure. It's my first memory of watching movies, like falling in love with Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment or seeing Mary Poppins with her big feet flying and her umbrella, and every time I see it again, I'm never disappointed. I was obviously also intrigued by Georges Méliès. He was the first filmmaker to use the camera as an artifice. He wanted first to enhance his magic tricks with a camera, and most of his tricks are still used now in filmmaking. There's so much ingenuity you can find if you're trying to solve your problem in your own way. I learned to work this way because I bought myself a small 16mm film camera called a Bolex. You can rewind the film, you can double-expose the film, you can shoot frame-by-frame and slow motion, and I learned to tell my story by using my own devices.



The Gold Rush
(1925, dir: Charles Chaplin; starring: Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain)
In Chaplin's The Gold Rush, the scene with the house hanging off the cliff is so iconic to me. It's very technical and very naïve at the same time, and the humor is so pure. Or the nightmare where his friend envisions him as a chicken and tries to eat him. When the guy is trying to run after him, and he opens the door to let the wind blow the guy away, that's the ultimate of ingenuity and creativity in filmmaking. He's so hungry, he cooks his shoe and eats it. This is pure surrealism. In fact, Chaplin was one of the directors to become a figure for the surrealist group in France. To me, Chaplin eating his shoe or him transforming into a chicken is very deep. It's dark, but it's liberating in the same way. The reason I'm reluctant to quote movies is because Charlie Kaufman and I try really hard not to take references from films, but show how things would work in real life. It was very important that it would be honest and it would not be about filmmaking or how people should behave in a love story or anything like that.



The Works of Tex Avery
My next choice is not a movie, but a collection of cartoons by Tex Avery. He is another of the surrealist idols, yet he is so unknown by American audiences. They know Bugs Bunny, and they vaguely know he invented him, but they don't know his work as an artist. His cartoons are so visceral and liberating. For example, he did some stories like this one with the little penguin [named Chilly Willy] where a dog is supposed to guard a bear who's sleeping for the winter. The penguin hits the dog with a hammer, and the dog runs three miles on top of the hill to relieve his scream. It's so impossible. Later, he has to run but his limbs are busy, so he runs on his butt. His butt becomes like legs and run him away. When you are at the end of the possibilities, he can always find another way out, and I really like that. It's absurd, but in its own world it makes sense.



Back to the Future
(1985; dir: Robert Zemeckis; starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd)
I always come back to Back to the Future as a very broad science fiction movie with comedy. A lot of films about the future have this kind of smoky, dark feeling. They are mostly influenced by Ridley Scott, and before that, you can trace the big influence of science fiction movies from Forbidden Planet to 2001 to Star Wars, and then you would have Alien and Blade Runner. Obviously, Back to the Future doesn't belong to this type of film. There's a dark side to it, but there is no attitude. I don't like systematic darkness and slickness in movies. I [prefer] absurdity and humor. I remember seeing a concert by The Cure in 1980 in Paris. It was so inspiring because instead of showing you how complex and technical they were, the music was so simple, you wanted to go back home and create your own music. I think filmmaking or any form of art should have the same inspirational capacity. Sometimes people will come to me and say, 'I saw your DVD, and it inspired me to make my own work,' and it's really an achievement to do that.

[grand theft sparrow]

The penguin hits the dog with a hammer, and the dog runs three miles on top of the hill to relieve his scream. It's so impossible. Later, he has to run but his limbs are busy, so he runs on his butt. His butt becomes like legs and run him away. When you are at the end of the possibilities, he can always find another way out, and I really like that. It's absurd, but in its own world it makes sense.

Please God, let him win the Best Director Oscar next year so we can hear his acceptance speech.

[Slick Shoes]

Sweet mother of God did I love this film! It sent chills down my spine. Kate Winslet was so good I actually forgot it was her a couple of times..

[Pubrick]

mutinyco or GT.

place ur bets.

[grand theft sparrow]

Yep, smidgen is a word.  Cool word as that, though not as cool as "canoodling."

Nothing is as cool as "canoodling." Spread the word!

[cine]

Yep, smidgen is a word.  Cool word as that, though not as cool as "canoodling."

Nothing is as cool as "canoodling." Spread the word!

'Spread the canoodling' is more like it.

[©brad]

all i'm gonna say is be careful, cuz the last thing you want to do is get arrested for theater hoping.

[Ghostboy]

I swear, though, you can't get arrested! Honestly! They'll just ask you to leave if you can't manage to talk your way out of it.

[ono]

Haha, wow.  Eternal Sunshine is already in the Top 250 at IMDb.  This is faster than Kill Bill.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338013/  Not that it means anything all too important, but it's so nice to see that this film has such universal appeal (at least among Internet film geeks).  #232, 8.7/1,865.  That's just impressive.

[cine]

I swear, though, you can't get arrested! Honestly! They'll just ask you to leave if you can't manage to talk your way out of it.

Yeah, I was just about to say. . .

One strategy I suggest using if you are asked for your tickets (I've never actually had to do this but it would obviously work) and could potentially be caught:
You must be with somebody of course for this to work. If a worker comes in and says, "May I please see your tickets?" one of you very innocently turns to the other waiting for the other to take out the tickets. Dialogue would go something like this:
*A looks at B*
B: What?
A: You have the tickets. He wants to see them.
B: You got the tickets.
A: No, I said you get the tickets while I was in the washroom.
B: I thought you said you were getting the tickets when you got OUT of the washroom.
A: No! Why would I do that? That's stupid.

Etc.

And then you would apologize and leave to purchase your tickets.

[Ghostboy]

mutinyco or GT.

place ur bets.

Mutinyco already wrote about it in his own 'special' thread that was immediately locked. He liked it.

It's all on GT.

[myadopteddaughter]

saw the movie for the first time the last Friday. it rocked my little white girl socks off.

it changed my life, i swear, i left the theatre and everything was beautiful and bright, and I was so happy.
i am such a loser....but I hope someone else felt like that...

[grand theft sparrow]

saw the movie for the first time the last Friday. it rocked my little white girl socks off.

it changed my life, i swear, i left the theatre and everything was beautiful and bright, and I was so happy.
i am such a loser....but I hope someone else felt like that...

You are not alone.

[modage]

hacksparrow, you wear little girls socks?