«Du soleil plein la tête» teaches us that loving is an art... and so is titling!

Cinema Wednesdays - Special edition: Love in the movies - Kelly Lambiel

Never has a title so unflattering or so inadequately described the work of which it is the emblem. Fortunately, it is under its English name that’Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind made a name for itself and still appears today on the many more or less official and all relative lists of «once-in-a-lifetime films». It is also under this title, which literally translates as «eternal radiance of the immaculate spirit» (we agree on that one), that it has carved out a special place for itself in a category that is, to say the least, crowded and often "unseen". namby-pamby, love movies.

A Story Almost Like Any Other

It all starts on Valentine’s Day, of course. This «holiday invented by greeting card salespeople to freak people out,» as the voiceover by Joël Barish (Jim Carrey)—melancholic and rebellious—tells us. The guy is clearly coming out of a complicated relationship. Although he’s not quite sure why—and seems to be waking up from a massive hangover that’s lasted a long time (it’s been two years since he last wrote in his journal)—he heads to the beach instead of going to work. There, he meets Clementine Kruscynski (Kate Winslet). A sense of déjà vu.

She’s as sassy as he is uptight. She’s as impulsive as he is serious. These two are so different that they’re clearly meant for each other—it’s obvious. Something draws them together and unites them, despite the fact that they’re such an unlikely pair. And for once, it’s not a morbid fascination stemming from a poorly managed Freudian complex or a twist of fate orchestrated by Eros and Thanatos, tantalizing the protagonists’ taste for risk and causing the beauty to fall for the beast—or the overlooked class valedictorian to fall for the girl who turns heads but wants him. Far from embodying a pair of stereotypical antagonists, their story finds its beauty in simplicity.

Yet a few days ago, through a company that specializes in this sort of thing, Clémentine decided to erase Joël from her memory, and he is now preparing to do the same. Who hasn’t dreamed, in the desperate moments following a breakup, of being able to erase painful memories? Who hasn’t told themselves they were too foolish not to see it coming, or too blinded not to understand their partner? We then discover their entire story in reverse, from their last meeting back to their first. From the heartbreak to the first spark. From boredom to the excitement of those early moments.

At first, like Joël, we understand why they broke up, but as we retrace the course of his memories, we no longer know why they parted ways. From shouting and tears, we move on to tenderness and closeness. Starting from the worst to return to the best, thinking about it the other way around and wondering how all that beauty could have turned into hatred, remembering the reasons why we fell in love. A stroke of genius from Charlie Kaufman, who delivers a masterful screenplay here, inspired by The Red Grass and L’Heartbreaker by the equally brilliant Boris Vian—which you now have time to read and listen to!

A work that borders on perfection

Michel Gondry’s work is no exception. To enhance this fragmented narrative, the director blurs the boundaries of space and time. We thus move from one scene to the next by walking through a door, watching the setting crumble or become too vast for the characters it contains. Amid memories that are by turns soothing and tumultuous, realistic and dreamlike, we try to follow Joël as he’s lost between the past and the present, the way he reshapes his lived experiences, and the comments he unconsciously picks up from the employees tasked with erasing his memory. The pace is fast, the experience intense, and at times zany.

This is also what gives Jim Carrey a few moments of respite—a few minutes during which the parts of his face—which usually seem to have a mind of their own—can let loose with a few funny faces. For here he plays a character a world away from the whimsical ones we’ve come to expect from him. And it’s clear that it suits him well! It’s also a pleasure to see Kate Winslet in the role of a young woman who is both fragile and impetuous, a bit out of her element, and whose hair colors—and the names she gives them—reflect her shifting moods.

The supporting characters, played by a casting clearly not gross (Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Kirsten Dunst) are also quite puzzling. At first glance, they seem as uninteresting as they are unnecessary, yet they help establish a contrast between the gravity of what Joel is going through and their complete nonchalance. Moreover, it’s clear that they, too, have been through a lot and are trying to hide the loneliness that gnaws at them. This is particularly true of Mary, who seems a bit lost and whose admiration for her boss, Dr. Mierzwiak, raises questions, or of Patrick, who is so insecure that he’ll go so far as to impersonate someone else.

Finally, some point out the somewhat clichéd nature of the message—that our experiences shape us, no matter how painful they may be, and that it would therefore be a mistake to erase them. Others regret that the film emphasizes the idea that, despite everything, we are destined to love certain people, and that we always end up finding our way back to each other. For my part, without giving too much away about the final scene—a true gem—I think that’s not the point, and that interpreting the ending that way means failing to grasp the subtlety of this work.

For me, its beauty lies entirely in a single question that, in my view, sums it up perfectly: If I knew how it ended, would I still experience it, or would I deliberately deprive myself of the happiness this story has brought me, however brief it may be? Eternal Radiance of the Immaculate Spirit, taken from a poem by Alexander Pope recounting the passionate love story of Heloise and Abelard (you have time to look it up), is a mysterious phrase that much better captures all the hidden depth in this work of apparent simplicity, which has now become, and rightly so, a cult classic.

Write to the author: kelly.lambiel@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Universal Pictures