54 trivia about the Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind!

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind is an American controversial, romantic movie.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind caused a lot of positive comments and until today is still considered one of the best romantic movies ever with really deeper meanings. So let’s dive into this spectacular movie…

1. Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind was filmed in 2004.
2. The title of the film is originated from the 1717 poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope.
3. It’s an American romantic, science-fiction, comedy-drama film.
4. The film uses elements of the psychological thriller and a nonlinear narrative to explore the nature of memory and romantic love.
5. It was written by Charlie Kaufman & Pierre Bismuth.
6. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
7. Kate Winslet received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress.
8. Movie’s director was Michel Glory.
9. The couple is portrayed by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.
10. Nicolas Cage was an early consideration to play Joel though.
11. Other members of the cast are Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Tom Wilkinson.
12. It opened in North America to wide acclaim on March 19, 2004, and grossed over $70 million worldwide.
13. The film developed a cult following in the years after its release.
14. It is considered by many critics as one of the best films of the 21st century.
15. The story follows an estranged couple who have erased each other from their memories, then re-met and started dating again.
16. Their names are Joel & Clementine.
17. After a huge fight, Clementine hired a firm to erase her memories with Joel.
18. Firm’s name was Lacuna and it comes from Latin.
19. Lacuna in Latin stands for missing parts.
20. Lacunar amnesia is losing the memory of a specific event.
21. In the script, Lacuna office was in the same building as the one in Being John Malkovich.
22. Kaufman said: “I added it for myself, for fun”.
23. It turned out to be unfeasible to use the same building for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
24. When Joel finds out about Clementine’s decision, decides to do the same procedure, too.
25. The whole story takes place in Joel’s mind during this memory erasure procedure.
26. A separate story arc occurs during Joel’s memory erasure.
27. It’s revolving around 2 other Lacuna’s employees
28. . Patrick, one of the Lacuna technicians performing the erasure.
29. He’s been using Joel’s memories and his mementos of Clementine to seduce and date her in the present.
30. And Mary, the Lacuna receptionist, is dating another technician, Stan, but has feelings for the head of Lacuna Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, who is married.
31. During Joel’s memory erase, Mary, discovers she had previously had an affair with Dr. Mierzwiak and agreed to have the affair erased from her memory after Dr. Mierzwiak’s wife found out.
32. Devastated by this discovery and by the power of the procedure, Mary quits her job and steals the company’s records.
33. Then she’s been mailing all of Lacuna’s clients the tapes of each client recounting their memories to be erased.
34. In the present, Joel and Clementine meet at the Montauk train station and are eager to begin what appears to be a new and exciting relationship.
35. When they both find their Lacuna records mailed to them by Mary, they are shocked and disturbed by the bitter memories they have of each other.
36. Clementine attempts to leave, saying that the relationship could end up going the same way it did in the tapes.
37. But Joel pleads with her, sensing their deep connection.
38. They realize that flaws in their relationship are inevitable but decide that they are meant to be together nonetheless.
39. When Mark Ruffalo surprises Kirsten Dunst, Michel Gondry had Ruffalo hide in a different part of the set each time so that Dunst would be genuinely shocked.
40. The moment on the train when Kate Winslet punches Jim Carrey was unrehearsed.
41. Mark Ruffalo and Kirsten Dunst shot a sex scene but it was cut for length.
42. At first, the script started 50 years in the future.
43. In that story, Clementine tried to erase Joel more than 15 times.
44. Clementine’s hair “change” color for the viewers to understand in which phase the relationship of the couple is.
45. Kate Winslet used wigs, even though she was willing to dye her hair.
46. The red hair represented the happy days during their relationship.
47. The kinda orange hair is when their relationship starts sinking and conflicts between the couple begin.
48. The blue hair means a new start in general.
49. And the green hair is for the birth (or the rebirth) of their relationship.
50. Kaufman and Gondry had been pitching their film since 1998, two years before Christopher Nolan’s Memento .
51. Most of the visual tricks were done in the old-fashioned way.
52. Gondry likes it when unexpected problems such as weather issues force him to think on the fly.
53. The script included ice and snow in the scene in the ocean.
54. Luckily in New York City, it snowed and the lake froze as it was hoped.