Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a formalist film. Expressionists work to edit the film so the shots are distorted or stylized from reality in order to portray the deeper meaning behind the film. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind uses the loss of Joel's memories of Clementine to showcase the rawness and truth of love in its formalistic style of form over content. It questions if a relationship is worth having if it is bound to end? Are the memories worth keeping? Nihilism is a philosophical doctrine which suggests that everything is temporary and nothing lasts. A relationship always commences with the optimism that it will last forever, but Nihilism suggests the risk of love is not worth taking if it is all bound to fall apart. In the scene above, the two opposing forces of Clementine and Joel are always being torn apart. The warm colors of Clementine, representing this passion for life and love, as well as impulsivity and anger are attracted to the cool colors of Joel, representing a calmness and levelheadedness perceived sometimes as boring and brooding. The house crumbles around them as Joel's final memories of the two together fall apart as well. The formalist lighting of darkness in the background stresses the symbolic importance of the memories slipping away as a spotlight follows Joel. The light suggests there is still hope in the darkness of losing the memories. Although love is temporary, it is worth the risk. Worth the risk of a house crumbling down in order to save it. Medium cinematic shots of Joel pan at high and low camera angels to his feet and then face emphasizing his nostalgia and remorse over the loss of Clementine. Still, even as the house fills with water and crumbles around them, there is a hope in Montauk. A hope of love. 

The parallel editing of the scene above foreshadows future events and is as ironic as it is painful.  Close up eye level shots follow the dialogue, and hand held camera movements make this scene one of the few elements of realistic cinema. Within Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the realism is used to capture the realistic aspect of there relationship before and after the audience sees it fall apart and come back together again. It makes the audience connect more with the relationship by defining it as something real before using editing to create a formalistic statement on that love. Little is done stylistically to distort the images playing out before the eyes of the audience, natural light and color are used. The conflicting personalities of the two characters shows through their personalities and warm and cool coloring that is associated with Clementine and Joel. Despite the norms of society pushing them apart, the two characters can not help but be drawn to each other. References to there relationship through Clementine's hair color and name emphasis what they have lost yet there dynamic connection. Even the music suggests the irony of the situation playing out before them, Clementine and Joel oblivious to it all. Parallel to the beginning and end of the movie, the same scene has such a different meaning to its audience.