Charlie Kaufman: Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

[Lux]

anyone seen those?


they are a new breed of movie, a blend between comedy and drama. although Adaptation is a good blend, Eternal Sunshine is more of a drama with humorous elements scattered throughout the plot. they are two of the most brilliant movies i've ever seen. poignant, simple, and OH does kaufman mess with the element of time, and so perfectly. *keeps ranting to self* i cried at both, needless to say after the movie as well. i walked out of the latter movie sobbing like i havent cried in years.

charlie kaufman is a genius screenplay writer. best i've known. i think he also wrote Being John Malkovich.



they are a must see. must. MUST see.

[PowerPuff Grrl]

It is nice to see a movie these days where the writer (of all people!) is actually the headliner of the movie and not the actor or drector. When was the last that happened, the 60's with Samuel Goldwyn?
I dunno.

Anyhoo, I did see all of his movies, Malkovich being my favourite. Eternal was nice, only for Kate Winslet (because I love her) and Mark Ruffalo dancing in tightie whiteys. Jim Carrey was... tolerable, which is amazing because usually when I see his face I have the sudden urge to slap him upside the head.

I didn't like Adaption though. Maybe it was because of the hype but something just put me off about that movie which made me sooo reluctant to see Eternal.
Kind of like what happened when I saw Human Nature, which was Kauffman's first movie. Let's just say that if Malkovich is a must see movie, then Human Nature is a must NOT see movie.
***shudder***

[russkayatatu]

I haven't seen them, although I saw "Being John Malkovich" a long time ago.

I think the reason that you don't often hear about writers is because most of them become hyphenates to protect their work - directors in particular have a lot of control over films. M. Night Shyamalan got a lot of press for writing "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs" and "Unbreakable" - of course, he also directed those movies - but even Charlie Kaufman was executive producer on "Adaptation" and "Being John Malkovich."

It's always good to see writers praised, though because screenplays are probably the most important part of the movie, everybody else builds off of them - without the writer, the actors and the director would just be standing around wondering what to do

Thanks, I'll be sure to check them out sometime.