Charlie Kaufman is most noted for his screenplays for the movies Adaptation (2002), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), for which he won an Oscar in 2005 for best original screenplay, and Synecdoche, New York (2008), on which he made his directorial debut. He was executive producer of Being John Malkovich (1999). If you are familiar with any, some, or all of these movies, you will understand that Charlie Kaufman brings a unique and sometimes confusing, but always challenging, perspective to cinema and literature. These movies are not for the faint of heart or the lame of brain. They require thinking and reflection. They are mindbending and not easily understood without some effort on the part of the viewer. And that is OK. Not everything should be so easy to understand that its audience could be third-graders.
Synecdoche, New York is certainly not easy to understand, but it's worth the effort to try to understand it. Some might say that this movie is inchoate, but I think it's a tapestry and delightfully surrealistic. It does impart incisive wisdom, and it's full of irony, puns, and neuroses. And the soundtrack is compelling, romantic, and nostalgic. Here is a YouTube link to the song that accompanies the closing credits of the film. Perhaps it will motivate you to see the movie and let your comments be known on this blog. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKQqxt7xd20
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The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a brilliant idea about mental and psychiatric do-overs and second chances and wiping the slate clean, as it were. The concept does seem to speak to our mamdy-pamdy way post-WWII Baby Boomers handle their problems: By ignoring them, being in denial of them, blaming anyone else for them but ourselves, and abjectly embracing the notion that we are not responsible for our behavior.
ReplyDeleteBut I still can't help loving that idea of erasing painful memories from my consciousness, never to haunt the hallways of my mind which never go to sleep nor leave me alone. Of course, having been acquainted with these hallways for most of my adult life, post the regurgitated drama and humilitation that they conjure up, I can also claim to have control over these creeping corridors.
I have conjured up my own means of dealing with them. I simply tell them to go away now, and they do. But not before I had to thoroughly and drippingly douse myself with self-loathing and recriminations and sheer embarrassment for at least an upteenth time before my psyche said I was finally cleansed.
How much more simple to strap on a helpful hat or take a proffered pill to achieve the same result. My demons have gotten thee behind me now, but I still love this idea.
Pellinore,
ReplyDeleteYou are still one of the best writers that I have read. I hope you will write short stories and post them. This blog is a real gem! JE