Kaufman's scripts have multiple meanings
By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service
In such brain-bending films as "Being John Malkovich," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "Adaptation," and now "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has fashioned a new sort of movie narrative.
He tells stories not as they are, but as they are perceived in the mind of the film's central character.
"All experience is subjective," Kaufman says. "To do an objective story is untrue to me. 'Eternal Sunshine,' for example, is not about the relationship between Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet). ... It's Joel interacting with Clementine in his head.
"The real Clementine actually isn't in the movie very much. When she talks in much of the movie, it's really Joel talking. I think that's the truth."
In a phone interview, the normally reticent Kaufman talks about his approach to storytelling, though he adds that he has a standing policy of never specifically explaining what his films mean.
"When I write something, I write it complex enough that people can have different reactions to it," he says. "It has lots of meanings, like a Rorschach test. Viewers can have their own experiences."
Born in New York City 45 years ago, Kaufman has emerged as one of the few Hollywood figures who has developed a following through screenwriting alone. For fans of inventive filmmaking, he's become a cult hero.
An avid reader, Kaufman wrote plays and made short films as a youngster. He studied briefly at Boston University and then transferred to the film school at New York University.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and contributed scripts to such TV sitcoms as "Get a Life" and "The Dana Carvey Show." He says the experience made him more forceful.
After he began writing film scripts, he and director Michel Gondry began to plan "Eternal Sunshine." They started with a friend's premise that someone had the memory of a specific person erased from their mind. "... we wanted our story to be very low-tech," Kaufman says.
