Spotless Mind Themes

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, produced in 2004 and directed by Michel Gondry, is the type of film that challenges one to think about the relationships in his or her own life. If, one day at random, a best friend, significant other, or family member suddenly didn’t remember their relationship with someone, to what extreme would that forgotten person go to hold on to a memory before it slips away from them as well? The film explores this idea when Clementine erases her boyfriend Joel from her memory; he isn’t supposed to know this and in turn does the procedure himself. These issues are addressed through Pudovkin’s editing principles of leitmotif, simultaneity, and parallelism, which convey to the audience the importance of relationships

In one of the very first scenes of the film, Joel thinks his neighbor has staged a hit-and-run on his car, leaving it damaged, and this start to his day is part of what spurs him to take the train to work and ultimately meet Clementine again. In Joel’s memories, Clementine was intoxicated on the last time she sees him and says she wrecked his car to which Joel reacts angrily and calls her pathetic. Joel is shown crying in his car on multiple different occasions, and whenever it is shown, the side with the damage is facing the camera. This motif of his car relays the theme that relationships are complicated, but his car is a constant reminder of Clementine and the impact that she had on his life. Furthermore, in it was in Joel’s car is that the first time the pair discovered that they had their memories of each other erased because of a letter Clementine opens on their way to Joel’s house. Joel thinks she is playing a cruel joke on him and kicks her out of the car. The car has come to symbolize all the times when Joel has hit rock bottom, and the fact that Joel is shot so often in his car dictates that without Clementine, he is incapable of finding happiness. She has done emotional damage to him, and physical damage to his car, but in the end, Clementine is the one that brings liveliness to his previously depressing