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The Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind By Charlie Kaufman

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Bianca Rincon ENGL 300: Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind The Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, immerses viewers in a space of artistic expression from one scene to the next. Manipulating light and color in its filmic style, it stamps the viewer’s ticket and takes them on an emotional roller coaster ride, capturing the same distortion that Joel feels in his life and mind as he undergoes a procedure and loses his memory. Deftly, the film captures the effects of the memory erasing procedure by drawing readers into the subjective world held in Joel’s mind. Cinematography, editing, and mise-en-scene work together to create a space where the audience can feel the emotion provoked by the characters and narrative in an incredibly genuine way, hand-held cameras used to further highlight this effect. The film follows Joel Barish and his relationship with Clementine Kruczynski, passionate but highly dysfunctional in nature. The film stretches over a couple of years, showing both its peak and nadir, leading to the end of their relationship. Joel, hurt and perplexed, realizes that Clementine has undergone a memory erasing procedure at Lacuna in an endeavor to erase any trace or memory of Joel. Upset, he finds the doctor and demands the same operations. Trapped in his mind, he relives memories as they are erased and realizes the importance of his past, his relationship with Clementine, and what that means to him. Joel

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