I had a discussion with a former film Professor about the ending of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He sees it at a very positive outlook of relationships. He says, they're meant to be a work in progress. There's always going to be problems, but you have to work through them. He also says that when entering a lifetime commitment you must see the other for all their flaws and except them. Just like in the scene there towards the end when Clem and Joel hear themselves on the tape actually warning themselves about all the pitfalls of each other, and why it didn't end up working out.
I watch this ending and I see nothing but depressing pessimism about love. These two are DOOOOOMED! They will always fall in love, and they will always end up hating each other. The fact that they know this and yet say, "So What" is the very downfall of love. "Love is blind" is not a good thing.
Recall the beautiful scene in the very end of the two running on the beach, and then it plays back, and then it plays back, then fades to oblivion... masterful image! It's exactly what I'm saying, they are doomed to repeat the past they haven't been burnt from. In the commentary, Gondry started to talk about the shot, but Kaufman stopped him and asked to let the viewer interpret what it meant. Damn that Kaufman. So smart.
I know this feeling of being doomed to love someone. If I had my memory erased and one day saw my one ex in a restaurant or something, I would think about her for the next 6 months and would try to figure out who she was and would try to meet her. I know that if we were Facebook friends without me knowing her, her status updates would blow my mind with how cool she was, and I would desperately want to meet her. But I now know that it would end badly.
(Give it 3 years and thousands of tiny wrong doings and there would be a split that will end in screaming and cursing and throwing, along with years of painfully recovery including a screwed up perception of love and relationships and the fear of ever falling in love and committing to that sort of thing again.) Those things that we loved about each other will no longer hold any value and might even begin to annoy us. Bitter to the point of no reconciliation.
Synecdoche, New York is less about love and more about living a life. Love is involved, and is usually what causes you to look back on your own life with guilt and the feeling of failure. It's portrayed as very selfish and one sided, its very lonely and desperate, and the memories of you're lost loves never go away. They are your drive and your ruin. Much like in Being John Malkovich.
He gave up his whole life for this girl. She ends up selfishly screwing him over.
But... to end on a positive outlook. Charlie Kaufman (the character) in the film Adaptation, asks Donald Kaufman (his brother) why he wasn't bothered by the girls in high school who laughed at him behind his back. He replied,
"You are what you love, not what loves you."
We own Synecdoche, New York but I'm afraid to watch it because I'm afraid it'll make me really depressed
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ReplyDeletet's the most depressing movie I've ever seen. But, if you haven't already screwed up your life, it may not be that bad. Watch it while you're young.
ReplyDeleteYou will love it. Roger Ebert said it was the best movie of the decade. You'll have to watch it 3 or 4 times to really absorb it. And maybe read all of the message boards about the little things in every minute of the movie that people miss. The first scene alone has nearly 50 subliminal things going on. Layers upon layers of ideas about what art is or should be, and what it mean to be an artist.