Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Over dinner, artist Pierre Bismuth proposed a provocative idea to Gondry: what if you received a card in the mail stating that you had been erased from someone’s memory, and that you should no longer attempt to contact them? A love story in reverse, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind centers on the painful relationship between melancholic Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and eccentric Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet). Clementine hires a company to erase all of her memories of Joel, and he angrily reciprocates. This wildly imaginative (yet ultimately honest) “fevered dream of love” (Wall Street Journal) garnered Gondry, Bismuth, and Charlie Kaufman an Academy Award for best original screenplay. 2004, U.S., color, 35mm, 108 minutes.