Eraserhead

Last night I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a very Phillip K Dick-like screenplay from Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich). It’s really good and very understated – more like Memento than Minority Report in the way it handles the Dick-style themes: what is real and what is not, memory, perception.

(*spoilers ahead*)

For me though, by far the best concept was that once the warring couple have their memories of each other erased, they meet again and discover each other all over again. And eventually grow tired of each other again. And so it goes, until the next time. Fated to be together, and (in a sense) fated to be apart. A very Dick-ian projection of Romeo & Juliet (“Two star-crossed lovers...”). And while his mind is being erased, Jim Carrey’s character searches for a place in his mind to hide a single thought of Clementine so that he might remember something of her. And she does the same, and their future rendez-vous is sealed. A metaphor for love that goes beyond just memories?