Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

• Jim Carrey: Joel Barish
• Kate Winslet: Clementine Kruczynski
• Kirsten Dunst: Mary
• Elijah Wood: Patrick
• Tom Wilkinson: Dr. Howard Mierzwiak
• Mark Ruffalo: Stan

Do not forget mine! ( Original title: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind ') is a romantic drama directed by Michel Gondry from 2004 starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in the lead roles.

With over $ 72 million and grossing nearly nine million moviegoers Gondry's second feature film is to be so far the most successful by far. At the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards and Golden Globe Awards 2005, he received several nominations and won, among others, the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman.

Action

Framework for action ( 1)

On the morning of Valentine's Day 2004 Joel Barish wakes up dazed in his bed. He stands up and makes his way to work. On the platform, waiting, he suddenly decides otherwise and takes the train to Montauk by the sea. On the beach he sees a young woman in orange sweatshirt red; he has a desire to get to know them, but also inhibitions. These outweigh him even at the second meeting in a coffee shop and the third on the way back on the train. Now it takes - Clementine - the initiative and opened the conversation; despite all the opposition they approach each other. He goes with her ​​to where - playful, but not entirely frivolous - even the word marriage falls. He breaks on calls from home immediately back, they arrange to meet the next evening and spend a romantic night on a frozen river. Back before Clementines apartment, they would prefer to him and says goodbye to only briefly to get her toothbrush. While Joel is waiting in the car, appears an unknown young man who asks him dumbfounded: Can I help you? With this question, the background of which neither Joel nor opens the viewer to the overall story breaks off first. The incision is indicated by a leap in time: accompanied by the opening credits, we see Joel go crying and yet it has been desperately in the car through the night.

Internal action

The audience learns now in an extensive flashback that constitutes at the same time the main part of the film that Joel and Clementine have been a couple for about two years. In one of the more and more deepening crisis situations, it was not accidental Clementine ( it is - unlike him - the Impulsive ), which has been subjected to a novel method in which selectively all memories can be erased at a particular event or a particular person. Since Joel knows nothing, it is as if he wants her bring his gift for Valentine's Day, completely perplexed that they him in the bookstore where she works as a stranger treated - and abundance also unabashedly turtelt to all with an Other of which he perceives only the name Patrick, but not the face.

When he accidentally solved the mystery falls shortly thereafter in the form of a confidential patient information to the responsible signatory company Lacuna in the hands, Joel decides to undergo the same procedure. At his example you can now see how the procedure vonstattengeht. After a short consultation ( the head doctor, Dr. Mierzwiak, trying to slip through preferential treatment of Joel to make amends ) takes place in two stages. First, Joel must remove all him reminiscent of Clementine items from his home and put into practice, where with their help a neural map of his brain and a deletion program be created. The actual deletion process is then the following night - instead of dwelling in Joel's - the before Valentine's Day. He puts himself with drugs in deep sleep and then is joined by two academic staff of the company to a device that locates the memories in the brain and deletes.

What happens that night in Joel's apartment, is told in an outer and an inner layer that overlap each other and influence. The outer relates to the four employees of the company. First, admits Patrick, the younger of the two present, the Other, Stan, that he has, in this love in the night when the method was applied to Clementine. Later, he gets a call from her and goes to her - also due to the arrival of Secretary Mary, who has come apparent to amuse themselves with Stan. The both do also extensively while Joel's program runs on autopilot. A sudden fault but forces them to call Dr. Mierzwiak. Him to fix the error succeeds. During Stan's absence opens him to Mary that she loved him. The subsequent exchange of intimacies is observed from outside not only of Stan, but also of Mierzwiaks woman. In the ensuing heated situation, the most surprising revelation follows: The Love for Dr. Mierzwiak is only for Mary itself a novelty, the deletion procedure was also to her already - used - with success.

The inner - and at the same time more important, more extensive - level of the narrative that night is what is happening in Joel's brain. The viewer can watch it, what memories he has of Clementine and how this gradually cleared. Joel lived through retrospective - anything but chronologically - again the ups and downs of their relationship dating back to the beginning of when he met Clementine on a beach dressed in their orange red sweatshirt for the first time. The complication that leads to Dr. Mierzwiaks intervention arises from the fact that Joel attempts to " get out ", as he realizes how valuable is some of what he is threatened to be lost. Since this is prevented, he falls to the original idea with Clementine to flee to places of his memory, with which he has not previously been associated - such as his childhood - and they "hide" there almost to. But this also fails. All direct "wires" to Clementine are capped. And yet it seems that the subconscious mind retains signals, enabling him to return to the way it wants to go. Such signal-like messages found in particular in two of the last episodes who dreams the character of ( desired ) and imploring statements include how: It would certainly be different if we could start again new ( Joel ) Do not forget me, exert yourself but to ( Clementine ), and their shared We meet in Montauk.

Framework for action ( 2)

Before the frame story continues, start and end point of the first part will be taken up again and connected to the internal action: first, Joel awakening that happens immediately after the departure of Dr. Mierzwiak and Stan; then Clementines return from their apartment to a waiting car in Joel. The viewer has been developed up to that point, both the identity and the confusion of the young man in front of the car: It's Patrick, who taking advantage of Joel's memory ( sstück ) s has spent the rest of the night with Clementine, now again want to her and apparently believes that - gone wrong anything at Joel's erasure process must be - contrary to all previous experience.

If his appearance without consequences for the progress of the action, another fact is all the more immediate: In an act of revenge - and redress - Mary has effect service of all patients whose file by mail, which also contains an audio cassette on each before has explained the treatment, why does he want to undergo it. Clementine is now bringing their mail with the car to Joel and can play the cassette clueless. Both are shocked and separate again. Clementine finds it not last long, runs to him and meets at precisely the moment a when his cassette runs, containing not less hurtful than her. One of these details then acts but stronger than the mutual attempt at rapprochement; she runs away, and this time Joel is running after her.

The final image shows both cocky on a snowy beach: knowing what problems will happen to them, they want to try again with each other.

Reception

The film played in theaters worldwide over 72 million dollars - including 34 million in the United States - and therefore provides Michel Gondry's most successful film dar. The film reached in the U.S. cinemas around 5.5 million visitors, followed by the UK with 1.1 million visitors and France with around 600,000 visitors. In Germany the film was one of 196,000 visitors, 63,000 in Switzerland and in Austria 31,000 visitors.

Criticism

Filmdienst 10/2004: A ludicrous tragicomedy about the complex of ideas "memory / memory." The exuberant book offers endless opportunities and confronted with new, unexpected twists. Worn by convincing actors, the film opens up a philosophical discourse and love juggling virtuoso with the potential of cinema.

Voice Actors

• Stefan Fredrich: Joel Barish
• Ulrike Stürzbecher: Clementine Kruczynski
• Marie Bierstedt: Mary
• Timmo Niesner: Patrick
• Lutz Riedel: Dr. Howard Mierzwiak
• Matt Norman: Stan

Awards

• Best Original Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman

Other nominations:

• Best Actress: Kate Winslet

• Best Original Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman
• Best Film Editing: Valdís Óskarsdóttir

Other nominations:

• Best Picture
• Best Actor: Jim Carrey
• Best Actress: Kate Winslet
• Best Director: Michel Gondry

• Best Screenplay
• Best Picture (Musical / Comedy )
• Best Actor (Musical / Comedy ): Jim Carrey
• Best Actress (Musical / Comedy ): Kate Winslet