Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 American
romantic science fictionRomantic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy fiction, describing a fantasy story using many of the elements and conventions of the romance genre.One of the key features of romantic fantasy involves the focus on relationships, social, political, and romantic...
film about an estranged couple who have each other erased from their memories, scripted by
Charlie KaufmanCharles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. His film work includes Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York...
and directed by the French director,
Michel GondryMichel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...
. The film uses elements of
science fictionScience fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
,
psychological thrillerPsychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...
, and nonlinear narration to explore the nature of
memoryIn psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
and
romantic loveRomance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....
. It opened in North America on March 19, 2004, and grossed over
US$The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
70 million worldwide.
Kaufman and Gondry worked on the story with
Pierre BismuthPierre Bismuth is a contemporary artist. Through efficient and often humorous gestures, Bismuth interrupts pre-established codes of reading the images and objects that pervade daily life, from headline stories in newspapers to magazine clippings from gentlemen's magazines, to even the color of the...
, a French performance artist. The film stars an ensemble cast starring
Jim CarreyJames Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
,
Kate WinsletKate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
,
Kirsten DunstKirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
,
Mark RuffaloMark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
, Tom Wilkinson,
Elijah WoodElijah Jordan Wood is an American actor. He made his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II , then landed a succession of larger roles that made him a critically acclaimed child actor by age 9. He is best known for his high-profile role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's...
,
Jane AdamsJane Adams is an American film, television and theatre actress.- Early life :Adams was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Janice, an administrative assistant, and William Adams, an engineer. She has a younger brother, Jonathan, and was raised in Wheaton, Illinois and Bellevue, Washington...
, and
David CrossDavid Cross is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his work on HBO's sketch comedy series Mr...
.
The title is taken from the poem
Eloisa to AbelardPublished in 1717, Eloisa to Abelard is a poem by Alexander Pope . It is an Ovidian heroic epistle inspired by the 12th-century story of Héloïse's illicit love for, and secret marriage to, her teacher Pierre Abélard, perhaps the most popular teacher and philosopher in Paris, and the brutal...
by
Alexander PopeAlexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
, the story of a tragic love affair, where forgetfulness became the heroine's only comfort:
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;
The film was a critical and commercial success, developing a strong
cult followingA cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
and receiving a myriad of accolades, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film was lauded by critics as one of the best and most thought-provoking films of
2004The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...
.
Plot
Emotionally withdrawn Joel Barish (
Jim CarreyJames Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
) and unhinged free spirit Clementine Kruczynski (
Kate WinsletKate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
) strike up a relationship on a
Long Island Rail RoadThe Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...
train from
Montauk, New YorkMontauk [ˈmɒntɒk] is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 3,851 as of 2000...
. They are inexplicably drawn to each other, despite their radically different personalities.
Although they apparently do not realize it at the time, Joel and Clementine are in fact former lovers, now separated after having spent two years together. After a nasty fight, Clementine hired the
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
firm Lacuna, Inc. to erase all her memories of their relationship. (The term "lacuna" means a gap or missing part; for instance,
lacunar amnesiaLacunar amnesia is the loss of memory about one specific event. It is a type of amnesia that leaves a lacuna in the record of memory.According to Steven Johnson, :...
is a gap in one's memory about a specific event.) Upon discovering this, Joel is devastated and decides to undergo the procedure himself, a process that takes place while he sleeps.
Much of the film takes place in Joel's
mindThe concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...
. As his memories are erased, Joel finds himself revisiting them
in reverseReverse chronology is a method of story-telling whereby the plot is revealed in reverse order.In a story employing this technique, the first scene shown is actually the conclusion to the plot...
. Upon seeing happier times of his relationship with Clementine from earlier in their relationship, he struggles to preserve at least some memory of her and his love for her. Despite his efforts, the memories are slowly erased, with the last memory of Clementine telling him: "Meet me in Montauk".
In separate but related
story arcA story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
s occurring during Joel's memory erasure, the employees of Lacuna are revealed to be more than peripheral characters. Patrick (
Elijah WoodElijah Jordan Wood is an American actor. He made his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II , then landed a succession of larger roles that made him a critically acclaimed child actor by age 9. He is best known for his high-profile role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's...
), one of the Lacuna technicians performing the erasure, is dating Clementine while viewing Joel's memories, and copying Joel's moves to seduce her. Mary (
Kirsten DunstKirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
), the Lacuna receptionist, turns out to have had an affair with Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (
Tom WilkinsonThomas Geoffrey "Tom" Wilkinson, OBE is a British actor. He has twice been nominated for an Academy Award for his roles in In the Bedroom and Michael Clayton...
), the married doctor who heads the company—a relationship which she agreed to have erased from her memory when it was discovered by his wife. Once Mary learns this, she quits her job and steals the company's records, then sends them out to all clients of the company.
Joel and Clementine come upon their Lacuna records shortly after re-encountering each other on the train. They react with shock and bewilderment, given that they have no clear memory of having known each other, let alone having had a relationship and having had their memories erased. Joel tries to convince Clementine that they can start over, but Clementine states that it could end the same way. Joel accepts this, and they decide to attempt a relationship anyway, starting their life together anew.
Cast
- Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
as Joel Barish
- Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
as Clementine Kruczynski
- Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
as Mary Svevo
- Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
as Stan Fink
- Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood is an American actor. He made his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II , then landed a succession of larger roles that made him a critically acclaimed child actor by age 9. He is best known for his high-profile role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's...
as Patrick Wertz
- Tom Wilkinson
Thomas Geoffrey "Tom" Wilkinson, OBE is a British actor. He has twice been nominated for an Academy Award for his roles in In the Bedroom and Michael Clayton...
as Howard Mierzwiak
- Jane Adams
Jane Adams is an American film, television and theatre actress.- Early life :Adams was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Janice, an administrative assistant, and William Adams, an engineer. She has a younger brother, Jonathan, and was raised in Wheaton, Illinois and Bellevue, Washington...
as Carrie Eakin
- David Cross
David Cross is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his work on HBO's sketch comedy series Mr...
as Rob Eakin
- Deirdre O'Connell
Deirdre O'Connell is an American character actress who has worked extensively on stage, screen, and television.O'Connell began her career at Stage One, an experimental theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts...
as Hollis
- Thomas Jay Ryan
Thomas Jay Ryan is a veteran stage actor who also starred in the 1997 film Henry Fool.Ryan attended Carnegie Mellon University and has worked in such prestigious theaters as the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven...
as Frank
Targeted memory erasure
Targeted memory erasure is a
fictionFiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al non-
surgicalSurgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
procedure. Its purpose is the focused erasure of
memoriesIn psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
, particularly unwanted and painful memories, and it is a mild form of
brain damage"Brain damage" or "brain injury" is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors...
which—to relieve his fears of the procedure, Dr. Mierzwiak tells Joel—is comparable to a "night of heavy drinking". The procedure is performed exclusively by
Lacuna Incorporated. The characters of Joel and Clementine used this procedure to erase their memories of each other. As part of the screenwriting and promotion for the film, a backstory for the technology was made, including a spoof website for "Lacuna, Inc." that described it.
Though the procedure in the film is fictional, recent research has shown it is possible to successfully erase selective memories in lab mice. Such a procedure may lead to cures of post-traumatic stress. There was an episode of Season One of the This American Life TV and radio show dedicated to the science behind this, the findings from which were released shortly before the film was made.
Depictions of the memories
Throughout the film a wide range of film techniques are used to depict both the destruction of Joel's memories as well as his transitions from one to another. These range from quite subtle to extremely dramatic:
- The picture quality and sound resolution of the memory simply deteriorate (one example being when Joel talks with his neighbor in the lobby of their apartment building).
- Use of very limited stage lighting
Modern stage lighting is a flexible tool in the production of theatre, dance, opera and other performance arts. Several different types of stage lighting instruments are used in the pursuit of the various principles or goals of lighting. Stage lighting has grown considerably in recent years...
(such as when Clementine is pulled away from Joel in the train station).
- Subtle details fade from view (examples of this being when Clementine's name fades away from the Lacuna postcard that Joel has in his hand or when the books in the Barnes and Noble gradually turn white).
- In one case, time and perspective seem to "loop" (the scene where Joel tries to make up with Clementine after she stormed out of his apartment, Joel finds himself unable to get from one end of the street to another – this also combines the elimination of details such as the displays of stores. Also in this scene, we repeatedly see reflections of the lamp in Joel's apartment floating in the air).
- Overt disintegration of the memories (examples of this include the car falling from the sky, the disappearance of a car that Joel and Clementine are in, the disappearance of a fence, a scene where they run through a train station with the people there "winking out", and perhaps most elaborately, the falling apart of the beach house that Joel and Clementine were in).
- Heavy sound and image distortion, faces appearing blank (when Joel and Clementine enter the erased memory of Joel speaking to Dr. Mierzwiak).
- Cycling between the adult actors and their younger selves (when Joel recalls a humiliating memory of being forced by bullies to hit a dead bird with a hammer, the footage switches back and forth between young actors playing Joel and Clementine and Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey. Joel is apparently able to visualize Clementine's youthful appearance because he had seen a picture of her as that when they were still together).
- Scenes of the film use a trompe-l'œil (or forced perspective
Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It is used primarily in photography, filmmaking and architecture...
) effect, enabling the actors to be seen by the audience as life-sized, yet their characters are existing in a larger world. (Examples are when Joel and Clementine are in the kitchen sink, or when Joel hides from his mother and a neighbor/Clementine under the table in his memory as a child.)
Throughout the film, a useful indicator for when a particular event is taking place is Clementine's hair color. Any time she is shown with blue hair indicates something in the present or a memory from the recent past (from about the time of the couple's disengagement). Clementine has green hair during the couple's first encounter, and shortly changes it to red when they become romantically involved. She then changes her hair color to 'tangerine' orange as their disengagement nears.
Deleted and moved scenes
The shooting script – which has been published as a book – and early drafts contain a fair amount of material that was either left on the cutting room floor or never shot.
A major change that came in editing was that the sequence of scenes where Joel and Clementine are shown (re)meeting in Montauk and then going to the Charles River got moved from near the end of the film to the beginning. According to the Kaufman interview published with the shooting script, this was done to make sure the audience liked Clementine, as without it, their initial impression of her, based upon scenes from the end of Joel and Clem's first relationship, might have been too negative.
Dropped scenes included dialogue on the train, dialogue in Clementine's apartment, scenes with Joel and Naomi (the girlfriend he had before Clementine, portrayed by
Ellen PompeoEllen Kathleen Pompeo is an American actress, known for playing the title role of Meredith Grey on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy.-Early life:...
), Joel in the Lacuna office describing his negative feelings about Clementine in more detail, and scenes showing Joel and Clementine on their first "date". The dialogue from the deleted Lacuna office scene is used later, when he is listening to a tape of himself describing Clementine's personality flaws, and brief moments of the cut scene showing their first "date" are mixed in with the jumble of memories Joel sees of Clementine as the erasure process comes to an end. In fact, much of the content of the film was moved around in editing. A fair amount of scenes were changed on-the-spot by director Michel Gondry, including scenes showing the
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey CircusRingling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is an American circus company. The company was started when the circus created by James Anthony Bailey and P. T. Barnum was merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus. The Ringling brothers purchased the Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1907, but ran the circuses...
in the streets of Manhattan. Another dropped scene was one that took place in a bar where a very drunk Clementine tried to make Joel jealous by coming onto another man (which might have prompted Joel's claim in his taped interview with Mierzwiak that Clementine was very promiscuous). Another deleted scene that appears in the special two-disc DVD set is an extended scene in the doctor's office when Mary Svevo is listening to the tape of her file. Mary is saying in the tape why she should have the procedure done, especially after having to get an
abortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
. Yet another showed Joel and Clementine together on the couch reading the mystery novel "The Red Right Hand", the one Clementine is seen reading in the diner at Montauk where she and Joel (re)meet for the first time.
Awards and recognition
Kaufman, Gondry, and Bismuth won the 2004 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10
AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
- Nominated Science Fiction Film
Critical reception
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was met with overwhelming acclaim, and Winslet's performance was generally praised. The film has a 93% certified fresh rating on the
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
website based on 216 reviews. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film is "a twisty, trippy, yet moving take on love, Kaufman-style."
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
commented, "Despite jumping through the deliberately disorienting hoops of its story,
Eternal Sunshine has an emotional center, and that's what makes it work." Ebert later included the film in his "Great Movies" series.
Time Out summed up their review by saying, "the formidable Gondry/Kaufman/Carrey axis works marvel after marvel in expressing the bewildering beauty and existential horror of being trapped inside one's own addled mind, and in allegorising the self-preserving amnesia of a broken but hopeful heart."
In 2006, in issue 201 of
Empire magazineEmpire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
,
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was voted #83 in their
201 Greatest Movies of All Time poll as voted for by readers. That same year, Winslet's performance as Clementine was included in
Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time at #81. Claudia Puig, reviewer in
USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
said about her performance that "Winslet is wonderful as a free spirit whose hair color changes along with her moods. She hasn't had such a meaty role in a while, and she plays it just right."
Carol Vernallis points out that Gondry's experience in directing
music videoA music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s contributed in the film's mise-en-scene and sound design. Vernallis describes some threads of the visual, aural and musical motifs throughout the film, and how some motifs can work in
counterpointIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
.
In November 2009,
Time Out New York ranked the film as the third-best of the decade:
In the past, both director Michel Gondry’s kindergarten arts-and-crafts aesthetic and Charlie Kaufman’s Möbius-stripThe Möbius strip or Möbius band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. The Möbius strip has the mathematical property of being non-orientable. It can be realized as a ruled surface...
tease scripts have come off as insufferably twee and gimmicky. So why does this existential meta-rom-comRomantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...
always leave us teary-eyed and genuinely moved?...[T]he duo finally finds the right combination of high-concept and humanity here, taking the what-if idea of a company that lobotomizes the lovelorn into territory that’s funny, painful, poetic and unsettlingly weird.
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Only the bizarre and byzantine brain of Charlie Kaufman could turn this 2004 story about erasing all memories of love into one of the most romantic movies of the decade."
Slant MagazineSlant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
placed the film at number 87 on their list of the best films of the 2000s.
In a January issue of
The Onion, the comic newspaper's AV Club rated
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as the number one film of the 2000s, beating out the likes of Christopher Nolan's
Memento and the Coen Brothers'
No Country for Old Men. The article states, "It’s the rare film that shows us who we are now and who we’re likely, for better or worse, forever to be."
It has been calculated to be the tied-for-second most critically acclaimed film of the 2000s (behind
There Will Be BloodThere Will Be Blood is a 2007 drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film is based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil!. It tells the story of a silver miner-turned-oilman on a ruthless quest for wealth during Southern California's oil boom of the late 19th and...
and tied with the three
Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
films) by virtue of its number of appearances on prominent 'films of the decade' lists.
It is also one of actor Logan Lerman's favourite films.
Music and soundtrack
The
soundtrackA soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
album for
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was released by
Hollywood RecordsHollywood Records is an American record label owned by Disney Music Group, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.-History:Hollywood Records was founded in 1989 by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner with the idea of expanding the music operations of the company and to develop and promote...
on March 16, 2004.
The score was composed by
Los AngelesLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
musician
Jon BrionJon Brion is an American rock and pop multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer and record producer.-Early life:...
. Other songs featured are from artists such as
Jeff LynneJeffrey "Jeff" Lynne is an English songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer who gained fame as the leader and sole constant member of Electric Light Orchestra and was a co-founder and member of The Traveling Wilburys together with George Harrison, Bob...
's
E.L.O.Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
("
Mr. Blue Sky"Mr. Blue Sky" is a song by English rock group Electric Light Orchestra, featured on the band's seventh studio album Out of the Blue . Written and produced by frontman Jeff Lynne, the song forms the fourth and final track of the "Concerto for a Rainy Day" suite, on side three of the original double...
" was featured in trailers and television spots but not used in the film),
The Polyphonic SpreeThe Polyphonic Spree is a choral symphonic pop rock band from Dallas, Texas that was formed in 2000 by Tim DeLaughter. The band's sound relies on a variety of vocal and instrumental color by featuring a choir, flute, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, percussion, piano, guitars, bass, drums,...
,
The WillowzThe Willowz are a garage rock band based in Anaheim, California, formed 2002. The band's sound incorporates influences from punk, soul, and blues from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The band has released several albums on the label Sympathy for the Record Industry and has done a split single with the...
, and Don Nelson.
BeckBeck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
, in a collaboration with Jon Brion, provides a
cover versionIn popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of the Korgis' "
Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime"Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" is a hit single written by James Warren and first performed by the pop band The Korgis, of which Warren was lead singer....
".
Notably, many of the vocal songs either revolve around memories or the sun.
During the scene where Clementine enters Joel's apartment finding Joel listening to the tape about Clementine while staring at the skeleton painting of Clementine, the underscore is a poignant arrangement of "
Oh My Darling ClementineOh My Darling, Clementine is an American western folk ballad usually credited to Percy Montrose , although it is sometimes credited to Barker Bradford. The song is believed to have been based on another song called Down by the River Liv'd a Maiden by H. S...
." The harmonic voicings are such where the melody is clear up until the point of the line "you are lost and gone forever", where the arranger opted for use of dramatic diminished chords in the harmony thereby understating the fact that the two are gone and lost forever having no memory of each other.
Three
filmiFilmi is Indian popular music as written and performed for Indian cinema. Music directors make up the main body of composers; the songs are performed by playback singers and it makes up 72% of the music sales in India....
songs from old
Hindi filmsBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
can be heard playing in the background. "Mera Man Tera Pyaasa" (
My heart is thirsty for you) from the film
GamblerGambler is a 1971 Bollywood thriller film directed by Amarjeet. The film stars Dev Anand and Shatrughan Sinha. Raja has been abandoned by his biological mother at a very young age, and grows up with Master, a criminal don and card-sharp, who would like Raja to continue working with him on a...
(1971) performed by
Mohammed RafiMohammad Rafi , was an Indian playback singer whose career spanned four decades. He was awarded National Award and 6 Filmfare Awards. In 1967, he was honoured with the Padma Shri awarded by the Government of India....
, "Tere Sang Pyaar Mein" (
With you, in love) performed by
Lata MangeshkarLata Mangeshkar is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional...
, and "Waada Na Tod" (
Don't break the promise) by Lata Mangeshkar from the film
Dil Tujhko Diya (
Gave my heart to you) (when Clementine invites Joel to her apartment for a drink). All the three songs are listed in the original soundtrack credits.
The musical score from the film's opening scenes have also been used in television and cinema adverts in the UK for mobile phone company
VodafoneVodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
.
Music relating to the film
Many bands have referenced the film in song, including
The Morning OfThe Morning Of is a pop/indie/rock band originating from Newburgh, New York. The band's first EP, Welcome Change. Goodbye Gravity, held a steady spot in the Top 50 best selling albums on Smartpunk.com for six months. They also hold a steady spot on PureVolume's Top 100, and top 10 in their pop...
in their song "Tell Me I'm Wrong",
Breaking BenjaminBreaking Benjamin is an American rock band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, currently consisting of Benjamin Burnley and Chad Szeliga. The band has released four studio albums to date and a greatest hits album that was released on August 16, 2011. The group initially went on indefinite hiatus due...
in their song "Forget It",
BaysideBayside is an American punk rock band from Queens which formed in the winter of 2000. The band has released five full length albums since signing to Victory Records...
in the song "Montauk",
O.A.R.O.A.R. is an American rock band composed of Marc Roberge , Chris Culos , Richard On , Benj Gershman , and Jerry DePizzo...
in the song "Love and Memories",
Backseat GoodbyeBackseat Goodbye is the stage and recording name of pop-folk singer-songwriter Chad Sugg.-Career:Chad started the solo-project his freshman year at Middle Tennessee State University in August 2004...
in the song "Technicolor Eyes",
Epik HighEpik High is a South Korean indie hip hop group from Seoul, South Korea. The group is composed of Tablo, Mithra Jin and DJ Tukutz...
in the song "Free Music", Christmas Fuller Project in the song "Meet Me in Montauk",
The AutumnsThe Autumns are an American indie rock band based in Los Angeles, California, comprising Matthew Kelly , Frankie Koroshec , Dustin Morgan and Steve Elkins .-History:...
in the song "Clem", Sarah Jaffe in the song "Clementine", Signalrunners with the track "Meet Me in Montauk", and
Circa SurviveCirca Survive is an American alternative rock band from the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania suburb of Doylestown, formed in 2004. The band consists of vocalist Anthony Green, former singer of Saosin and members of the now-defunct This Day Forward....
in the song also titled "Meet Me in Montauk" as well as several other songs on their 2005 album,
JuturnaJuturna is the debut album by American rock band, Circa Survive. It was released on April 19, 2005 through Equal Vision Records and reached #183 on the Billboard 200 on May 7, 2005. As of July 19, 2006, it has sold 74,896 copies....
.
Rapper
Jay ElectronicaTimothy Elpadaro Thedford , better known by his stage name Jay Electronica, is an American hip hop recording artist and record producer...
sampled songs from the soundtrack on his mixtape, "Act 1: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)." "Your Ex-lover is Dead" by Stars is also a reference to the film, and the video to the song is also reminiscent of the film due to the band performing lying down on an iced over lake. Vienna Teng has said that her song "Recessional" was inspired by the film.
Ryan StarRyan Star is an American singer-songwriter and musician from Long Island, New York. He was also a reality television contestant on the CBS show Rock Star: Supernova.-Biography:...
's "Losing Your Memory", from the album
Songs from the Eye of an ElephantSongs from the Eye of An Elephant is the first solo album by singer/songwriter Ryan Star. It was first released independently on Stone Crow Records in 2005...
, includes the lyrics "I wake in Montauk with you near." In the context of the song, it is a clear reference to the film.
Dream popDream pop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s, when bands like The Passions, Dif Juz, Lowlife and A.R. Kane began fusing post-punk and ethereal experiments with bittersweet pop melodies into dreamy, sensual soundscapes. The term was almost...
group
MemoryhouseMemoryhouse is a dream pop group from Toronto, Ontario, signed to Sub Pop. Memoryhouse consists of Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion . Their sound has been described as similar to that of Beach House.- Reception :...
sampled Jon Brion's score cue "Phone Call" for their 2010 single "Lately".
Film setting and locations
The film is set largely in the Long Island suburb of
Rockville CentreRockville Centre is a village located in Nassau County, New York, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the village had a total population of 24,023. The town is made up of middle to upper middle class residents, most of the wealthier residents residing on the north side of town near the...
, in
Montauk, Long IslandMontauk [ˈmɒntɒk] is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 3,851 as of 2000...
, and in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
According to the end credits, it was filmed in and around
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
,
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
,
MontaukMontauk [ˈmɒntɒk] is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 3,851 as of 2000...
,
Mount VernonMount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It lies on the border of the New York City borough of The Bronx.-Overview:...
,
WainscottWainscott is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 628...
, and
YonkersYonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
; also
BayonneBayonne is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is a peninsula that is situated between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east...
and
West OrangeWest Orange is a township in central Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 46,207...
,
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. The Barnes and Noble scenes were filmed at the Columbia University Bookstore. Clementine's house was filmed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Some of the scenes in Yonkers were filmed along Riverdale Ave and Valentine Ln. Also, the Charles River scene was filmed at FDR State Park in Yorktown, New York.
All of the train scenes were shot aboard a
Metro-North RailroadThe Metro-North Commuter Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, or, more commonly, Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service that is run and managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority , an authority of New York State. It is the busiest commuter railroad in the United...
train along the New Haven Line, and the
Mount Vernon EastThe Mount Vernon East Metro-North Railroad station serves passengers at Mount Vernon, New York, via the New Haven Line. The station is the first station north of the junction where the New Haven Line splits from the Harlem Line and is the only station on the line before it changes from third rail...
train station substituted for the
Rockville Centre stationRockville Centre is a station along the Babylon Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is officially at North Village Avenue and Front Street north of Sunrise Highway in Rockville Centre, New York, but the station property spreads west to North Center Avenue and east to North Park Avenue...
.
Home video
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was released on
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in the U.S. in separate
anamorphic widescreenAnamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
and full screen editions on September 28, 2004. Both editions carry
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
Dolby DigitalDolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
5.1
SurroundSurround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...
, English
DTSDTS is a series of multichannel audio technologies owned by DTS, Inc. , an American company specializing in digital surround sound formats used for both commercial/theatrical and consumer grade applications...
5.1 Surround and
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround tracks. Bonus features included on this disc are:
- Feature Commentary with Director Michel Gondry and Writer Charlie Kaufman
- Deleted Scenes
- A Look Inside Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- A Conversation with Jim Carrey and Michel Gondry
- The Polyphonic Spree "Light & Day" Music Video
- Lacuna, Inc. Commercial
A special two-disc widescreen Collector's Edition DVD was released in the U.S. on January 4, 2005. Features on Disc 1 are identical to the single-disc edition. Bonus features on the two-disc edition include:
- Collectible Packaging and Booklet with Photos
- A Conversation with Kate Winslet and Michel Gondry
- Inside the Mind of Michel Gondry
- Additional Deleted / Extended Scenes
- Anatomy of a Scene: Saratoga Avenue
- "The Misadventures of Superdog" by Joel Bar(r)ish (22 second Easter egg accessible just below other features)
A
HD DVDHD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
edition was released in the U.S. on April 24, 2007, with a
1080p1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
/
VC-1VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard, which was initially developed as a proprietary video format by Microsoft before it was released as a formal SMPTE standard video format on April 3, 2006...
video transfer, and both English and French
Dolby Digital PlusDolby Digital Plus is a digital audio compression scheme. It is an incompatible development of the technologies used in the earlier Dolby Digital system. E-AC-3 has a number of improvements aimed at increasing quality at a given bitrate compared with legacy Dolby Digital...
5.1 Surround tracks. This edition includes all the bonus features from the two-disc Collector's Edition, sans the collectible packaging and booklet.
A Blu-ray edition was released in the U.S. on January 25, 2011, with a
1080p1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
/ MPEG-4 AVC video transfer, and English
DTS-HD Master AudioDTS-HD Master Audio is a lossless audio codec created by Digital Theater System. It was previously known as DTS++. It is an extension of DTS which, when played back on devices which do not support the Master Audio or High Resolution extension, degrades to a "core" track which is lossy. DTS-HD...
5.1 Surround and French DTS 5.1 Surround tracks. This edition also includes all the bonus features from the two-disc Collector's Edition, sans the collectible packaging and booklet.
See also
- Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
- Eloisa to Abelard
Published in 1717, Eloisa to Abelard is a poem by Alexander Pope . It is an Ovidian heroic epistle inspired by the 12th-century story of Héloïse's illicit love for, and secret marriage to, her teacher Pierre Abélard, perhaps the most popular teacher and philosopher in Paris, and the brutal...
- Lacunar amnesia
Lacunar amnesia is the loss of memory about one specific event. It is a type of amnesia that leaves a lacuna in the record of memory.According to Steven Johnson, :...
- Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
- U0126
U0126, is a highly selective inhibitor of both MEK1 and MEK2, a type of MAPK/ERK kinase. U0126 was found to functionally antagonize AP-1 transcriptional activity via noncompetitive inhibition of the dual specificity kinase MEK with IC50 of 72 nM for MEK1 and 58 nM for MEK2...
External links
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind review by Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...