Being Charlie Kaufman | Movies | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind poster
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"Clementine Kruczynski has had Joel Barish erased from her memory. Please never mention their relationship to her again. Thank you." - screenplay, 1st draft

I Give It: (script, 1st draft)
Release Date: USA - 19 March 2004 (was November 14 2003), Austria - 16 April 2004, Australia - 15 April 2004, UK - 23 April 2004, Germany - 13 May 2004, Brazil - 21 May 2004, Argentina - 27 May 2004, Czech Republic - 27 May 2004, The Netherlands - 26 August 2004, Denmark - September 2004, Sweden - September 2004, France - 6 October 2004

Official Sites: www.lacunainc.com

www.eternalsunshine.com

Blempho-O! Gymnasium (Official Paul Proch)

Fan Sites: Spotless Minds LJ community, Director File - Michel Gondry, Jim Carrey Online, Admiring Kate, Discover Kate, Kate the Great, Jim Carrey Nettet, Kirsten-Dunst.org, The Jim Carrey Website, Jim Carrey Forever, elijah-wood.com, elijahfan.com
The Pitch: To quote Charlie, "It's about this guy who finds out that his girlfriend of two years has had this surgical procedure which has erased him from her memory. So he's freaked out and trying to live with it and he can't, so he decides to have the same procedure. Most of the movie takes place in his brain as she's being erased, and you see their whole relationship, moment-by-moment, backwards from this sort of bad end to the better beginning. Halfway through, as the memories start getting better, he decides he doesn't want the procedure." (IGN FilmForce, April 11, 2002) And this from Michel Gondry: "...in the middle of the process, he changes his mind and decides to save her. So he takes her out of the memories she belongs in, and puts her in memories she doesn’t belong in, to try and hide her." (Filmmaker Magazine)
The Buzz: This script was a hot read in Hollywood as soon as it came out. (A "slew of A-list actresses" were apparently interested in the female lead, before Kate Winslet got the part. Cos it'd be weird if they wanted the male lead.) Upon the film's release, people were interested to see if Michel Gondry had learned from the mistakes made on Human Nature. The concensus is, he has. While not exactly storming the box office, in one month Eternal Sunshine became Charlie Kaufman's highest-grossing movie.
Cast: Jim Carrey (Joel Barish), Kate Winslet (Clementine Kruczynski), Tom Wilkinson (Dr. Mierzwiak), Kirsten Dunst (Mary), Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood.
Crew: Michel Gondry (Director), Anyonymous Content (Steve Golin's company), Jeff Levine and Guyman Casady (Producers), Universal Focus (Distributor), Ellen Kuras (cinematographer), Valdis Oskarsdottir (Editor), Jon Brion (musical score).

I Say: I loved the sound of this one as soon as I heard about it. I did worry that it might be in territory a little too similar to Being John Malkovich, but I needn't have worried at all. The script is brilliant, it kicks all kinds of creative butt, and it's now officially the Kaufman film I am most looking forward to - living in small-town Australia, it hasn't reached me yet. Man, what is Charlie gonna do next? For a more in-depth look at my thoughts on the script, read the review I did for The Trades.

Latest:

5/5/05 - How about some Eternal Sunshine fan art? You might remember our buddy Claartje, a.k.a cableclair, sent in some extraordinarily good Eternal-inspired art at the beginning of the year. (Go here and find her stuff near the top of the page.) I got quite a bit of positive feedback about those, so methinks you will be interested to know that she's starting to auction some limited edition prints. WOOT. The first auction ends on May 12. FYI, cableclair will be auctioning off 8 copies of this particular piece, one at a time. ("I haven't figured out yet how to sell multiple copies of one item at once.") Well worth the dough.

4/5/05 - Acclaimed fantasy/sci-fi author Orson Scott Card calls Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the two finest science fiction films of all time so far, in an LA Times article that mostly brings down Star Trek a peg or five. It's just a small mention, but I figured it was worth putting up. Plus it's always fun to pick on Trekkies.

Dani draws our attention to some neato wallpapers you can find on the official Japanese Eternal Sunshine website. Mmmm, nice. You'll have to click around a little to reach the wallpapers.

30/4/05 - Here's a cool little article: an insider's look at what happens once you've been nominated for an Academy Award, as written by Pierre Bismuth. Along with CK and Gondry, he won this year's Best Original Screenplay gong -- Pierre's the artist who came up with the initial concept for the story that would become Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

29/4/05 - Okay, those awards I was too lazy to look up? One of them was an IOMA. Eternal Sunshine took out Best Original Screenplay in Italy's most prestigious web awards shindig. HURRAH. Thanks to clemato, who is not as lazy as my good self. For other winners at the IOMAs, go visit their website or check out this post on the IMDB.

The other award was a Lumière (4 of 'em, actually), given out by the major Portuguese and Brazilian movie reviewers. Eternal took home Best Picture, Best Actress (Kate), Best Original Screenplay (Mr. Rock 'n' Roll) and Best Song ("Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes," Beck). WAHOO.

27/4/05 - I'm pretty sure I heard that Eternal Sunshine bagged two European awards recently. But I can't remember what they were. And I'm too lazy to go looking for the info. So just clap politely for whatever those awards were. YAY AWARDS.

16/4/05 - The two-disc Special Ed. of Eternal Sunshine hits the UK on April 25. If you're a cheapskate, you might want to head on over here for your chance to win a copy. But if you can't answer their question, YOU AREN'T WELCOME BACK HERE.

6/4/05 - A band named Circa Survive have a CD coming out on April 19. It's called Juturna, and track 11 goes by the name of "Meet Me in Montauk," which should be a familiar phrase to most of you crazy cats. The lyrics to a few of the songs sound a little Eternal Sunshine-inspired, too. Who'da thunk it? Thanks to Trevor for the heads-up.

Aussies such as my good self will no doubt be dancing in aisles at news that Eternal's retail DVD release date is STILL April 7. That's, like, PRACTICALLY TOMORROW. And they HAVEN'T EVEN PUSHED THE DATE BACK AGAIN. What is going on in the world? 26/3/05 - Two things from my good buddy mojajoja. They look similar to a couple of older articles I've posted about, but I don't think they're the same and I'm too lazy to check. Envisioning 'Eternal Sunshine': Ellen Kuras, ASC, Buzz Image Group and 'The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. (Actually, I think we already have the second one.) Ellen was Eternal's cinematographer. The first article includes a few downloadable clips from the movie.

17/3/05 -

"I got a couple of bottles of champagne and maybe 20 e-mails, and that was it done," Kaufman says in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. [Talking about the night he won his Oscar.]

Only 20 e-mails?

"Isn't it weird?" he continues. "I thought there would be presents and all sorts of things. Maybe they couldn't get my address or something... I don't know why I get this idea that you get, like you know, watches and cell phones...I don't know what Oscar winners would normally get. But it was really depressing."

Ha ha. Jeez, man. If I had your email addy, I would've sent some congratulations.

11/3/05 - About 3 days ago there was a listing on eBay featuring a great-looking painting of an Eternal Sunshine scene. But I didn't bother posting about it because a) I know you'd rather buy something from Paul Proch, who was basically Eternal's official artist and b) something about the auction struck me as slightly fishy (I dunno what). Anyway, now if you visit the relevant e-Bay page, it's become a Phantom of the Opera auction. So. Y'know. I'm just sayin'.

9/3/05 - clemato's found some piccies of Charlie at the Oscars and a few other events. Haven't seen some of these before. The enlarged versions are watermarked; if anyone has an account, you know we'd love some o' these.

4/3/05 -

"When there are big narrative failings in a piece of storytelling, writers can just shuffle it all up and dump it on someone like me, the director, to try and sort it out. I think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento, there's been a whole raft of these kind of films.

I love those kinds of films. But I knew that if I got my hands on that kind of screenplay, it wouldn't be that anyway... No, I don't have contempt for Charlie Kaufman. He's a brilliant screenwriter as was proved last night at that corporate event.

It was really depressing to watch that program, that corporate program, last night to see how much crap won."

That's John Maybury, Hollywood newcomer and director of The Jacket, making friends everywhere he goes. He also takes a few shots at Million Dollar Baby, The Aviator, and pretty much anyone who isn't Maybury.

3/3/05 - Videos ahoy! Okay, longest version of Charlie's speech. It's 10MB and starts with Samuel L. Jackson walking out, introducing the category and whatnot. (Ends with Charlie and co beginning to walk offstage - unfortunately we miss the bit where they launch into the Potato Rap, complete with breakdancing.) If you don't want that because you're on dialup or pressed for time, you still have two shorter options: "The Oscar goes to", and the speech only. (The clips I uploaded earlier in the week.) They're in Windows Media format, and a major thank-you to Twink Schiff for those. If you want an avi of the speech, here ya go, compliments of Florin. MPEG-4 is more your style? You can grab the same clip here, thanks to Julie from Morgan and Wong Online. If you're a Kaufman fan, you should really check out Darin Morgan some time.

Thanks to rObix for assistance with the uploading, and for a couple of new Oscar photos added to the gallery today. Even more new ones came in via the great Maria. Sample pic: Charlie starts a game of peekaboo at the afterparty. I hear that game raged into the wee hours of the morning, until Sean Penn told everybody enough was enough.

1/3/05 - 3rd Update: A slightly longer clip of Charlie's Oscar speech. It starts with Sammy L. Jackson announcing the winner and goes through until Charlie and co. begin heading off-stage. Thanks again to Twink. More later. Oh, and go easy on the downloading -- these clips are hosted on BCK.com. So don't download it fifty million times or something daft, cos it costs me $$.

2nd Update: *sigh* So this is what it's like to run a site about an Oscar winner.

If for some reason you missed Charlie's speech, a) YOU IDIOT, and b) here's a Windows Media clip. It's a bit over 2MB. Big thanks to Twink Schiff for sending it in. I'm in the process of adding a couple of different sizes and file types and whatnot. But that should satisfy you folks for now.

I sense that bandwidth usage is gonna go way up this month, so I might as well remind you kind folks that bandwidth costs money, and you can always show a little love by donating a tiny bit of money to BCK, in order to keep it alive. You have no idea how much it helps.

1st Update: Got an email from Morten, who raises an interesting point that will keep me awake for weeks:

OK, so there was no shout out in the traditional sense from charlie yesterday, but you came pretty damn close: anna is a variety of potato, as well as the name of a potato dish (potato anna or pommes anna). Are you sure charlie really has a daugter named anna...?

o_O Whoa. Mystery. But that's good enough for us: CHARLIE SAID POTATO, OMIGOD.

Added a few pics from the event to the gallery. There'll be more to come. Thanks to Tram for those, and to rObix for the new banners you see up top. ^^^

Video coming soon, meanwhile you can head on over here, click on Video > Press Room Interviews and search for "Writing (Original Screenplay)" and watch Charlie and co. backstage. Charlie gets a little irritated with one member of the media.

*sigh* MORE SOON.

28/2/05 -

*choke, faint* CONGRATULATIONS CHARLIE KAUFMAN, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth on taking out Best Original Screenplay. I really was not expecting the win, cos I'm a pessimist, but it's thoroughly deserved. And now I don't have to say a bunch of crap about how it's good enough to be nominated. Cos you know that isn't true when you win. We'll have more pics and stuff later, but for now I say: WHOOOOOOOOOOO!! About damn time. Thanks to Juztin for the pic above.

Transcript of the speech, thanks to Dan (we'll have a video up shortly):

Uhm...thanks to the Academy...[looks up at monitor and sees his time limit dwindling[...29 seconds...27 seconds...uhm...that's really intimidating...uhm...I...uh...I'll try to look somewhere else [turns head to his right]. Uhm...there's so many people...uhm...worked so creatively on this movie and so...I, I feel like this award is for all of them...and I most especially want to thank Kate Winslet...and Jim Carrey...and director Michel Gondry....and uhm...producers Anthony Bregman and Steve Golin...and...uhm...[looks into monitor again]...I'm s'posed to wrap up now and...uhm...[looks to his right]. No, I don't want to take my time...I want to get off the stage...uhm...so thank you. "Hi" to my daughter, Anna.

No mention of a potato, but do we care? Nah. You could tell he was dying to do something potato-related. Yup. Major thanks to all who participated in the You Say Potato campaign: maybe we sent our vibes the way of that winner's envelope. In any event, we laughed, we cried, and we promoted an important vegetable.

Oh, and to Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor: I take it all back. I LOVE YOU GUYS.

Oh oh, and to all the experts who knew exactly why Charlie would not win: NYAH NYAH NYAH. (Hey, I don't have to be humble.)

21/2/05 - New Eternal Sunshine scans courtesy of clemato are in this direction. EW predicts an oscar win for Charlie with 35% of the votes, followed by 30% for The Aviator.

20/2/05 - 2nd Update:

That's Charlie with the statue he won at the WGA Awards this weekend. (Shared, I guess, with Michel G. and Pierre Bismuth, who had "Story by" credits.) WAHOO and all that. Full list of winners. Thanks to Tram.

1st Update: Box Office Prophets held their 4th annual Calvin Awards and Eternal did big business. Awards for the film itself, Charlie, Michel, Kate, the entire cast as a whole, and the "Meet me in Montauk" scene.

Similar news from the First Annual Smoppies. Charlie and Michel won for Best Screenplay, Valdís Óskarsdóttir deserved her Best Editing gong, "Best Dramatic Elements or Scenes in a Film" (the goodbye-at-the-beach-house scene - one vote ahead of Dogville's finale), Best Collaborative Pair (Kaufman/Gondry), Best Smart Film and Best Film. It tied with Kill Bil Vol. 2 as the most-awarded flick. At the same site, one of their film critics sums up the year in film with a Top 10 countdown, among other things. Eternal clocked in at #2, behind The Passion of the Christ.

All of that comes to us courtesy of the great clemato, who coincidentally runs Kate the Great.

18/2/05 - Charlie Kaufman was interviewed on the Leonard Lopate radio show, Valentine's Day. Appropriate, eh? Zip on over here to listen to it. It's streaming, which is a bummer. But it's Charlie, which is not. Thanks to Tram.

14/2/05 - clemato tells us that if you head on over in this direction, go to "BBC News: Video and Audio," find "Best screenplay nominees," click on it and shout "Go you big red fire engine!", you'll find a video interview with Charlie near the end of the clip. So go do that.

13/2/05 - Wasn't gonna update today, but the BAFTAs have been given out, so I might as well. Congrats go to our friend Valdís Óskarsdóttir for taking out Best Editing (how she missed an Oscar nom is beyond me) and our even better friend Mr. Charlie Kaufman for Best Original Screenplay. Michel, Jim and Kate were nominated, too. Full list of winners is over here. Charlie previously won BAFTAs for Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, proving that Brits are way better than Americans. Although Charlie's American. So. I TAKE IT ALL BACK. Thanks to "long live the swede" and Ross for the good news.

Update: Anna has posted a transcript of Charlie's speech.

Thank you very much, um, thanks to BAFTA, er, I didn't prepare anything either. Um, I want to thank, um, producers Steve Golin and Anthony Bregman. Obviously, um, director Michel Gondry. Valdis Oskarsdottir who I'm very happy got the award and um, Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet and all the other actors and er, I'm nervous and I'm gonna go.

12/2/05 - Nobody gets sick of hearing what Eternal Sunshine won this week, am I right? With that in mind, the London Film Critics' Circle dished out a few awards this week, and Charlie won the Best Screenplay category. Kate Winslet and Eva Birthistle tied for Best British Actress, and now they must mud wrestle for the title. We won't talk about what won Best Film - we won't even mention that it was Sideways. All the winners.

Meanwhile, proving that Aussies rule, they've had their say in the At the Movies viewers' poll (meaning we've had our say, what with me being Aussie and all... except I didn't vote, but anyway) and you'll never guess what came in 1st. I'm pretty surprised, because the flick didn't get a ton of publicity here, didn't seem to stick around too long - didn't even reach my town.

9/2/05 -

Those are this year's Oscar nominees. Charlie's on the far left and Kate's four to his right, alongside Leonardo. Thanks to Tram and clemato for that one. [UPDATE: Messed up the link, but it works now.]

Variety thinks this might be Charlie's year for an Academy Award.

Screenplay consideration is currently divided into two categories: adapted and original works. Now may be the time, however, to add a third subgroup: everything by Charlie Kaufman.

Kaufman is up for a third time -- "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation" were also nominated -- for his off-the-wall script "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," for which co-star Kate Winslet also landed a nom.

"Adaptation" losing out to "The Pianist" was certainly a surprise in 2003 but chances are that Kaufman will make amends now, finally cashing in for a script that bends time and imagination. His works throw structure out the window -- something voters looking for originality should appreciate.

The Acad bestowed a leading 11 noms on "The Aviator" and included screenwriter John Logan on that list as well. He spent five years -- and 15 drafts -- on the Howard Hughes biopic and had to whittle it down to a specific period of Hughes' life: from the making of "Hells Angels" to some 20 years later, when his legal battles to keep control of his airline and his compulsions were consuming him.

Unlike Kaufman, Logan had to do exhaustive research on his script, needing to stay true to the authenticity of the period -- from the early 1930s to the mid-1950s -- and voters might want to reward him for all that intensive homework.

I'm hopeful. But I'm also a pessimist. Thanks to Maria for sending along the link.

8/2/05 - Why 'Sideways,' 'Sunshine' deserve Oscars for writing. You can skip the first few paragraphs, which are about THE BASTARDS. Needless to add, Michael Wilmington has good things to say about the Eternal screenplay, too.

31/1/05 - In the January '05 issue of Empire UK, they've named their top films of 2004, and Eternal Sunshine hit the #1 spot. wOOt. clemato grabbed a few scans for us.

30/1/05 - The International Cinema Society held their awards thingo a couple of days ago, and Eternal Sunshine featured in a big way. Michel Gondry took out Best Director, Jim Carrey tied with Jeff Bridges (The Door in the Floor) for Best Actor, Kate Winslet snagged Best Actress, and the guy who has his sexy rock 'n' roll head at the top of this site won Best Screenplay. IN YOUR FACE, Sideways, which took out nothing except #8 in the Top 10 films of '04. (At this point I should note that I haven't actually seen Sideways. I'm just IN YOUR FACING it out of pro-Charlie principle.) Eternal Sunshine ranked #2, behind Richard Linklater's Before Sunset. Thanks to clemato (Kate the Great), who found the info at Oscar Watch. Meanwhile, Eternal's up for Best Foreign Film in the Cesar Cinema Awards in France.

The Paul Proch auction's over - you snooze, you lose. Winning bid was $510 and I'm interested to know what the winner is going to request. TWO INCH STICK FIGURE, I say, in black crayon. If you weren't the winning bidder - and let's face it, there's probably only a 1 in 5 chance that you were - there's might be something at Blemph-O Gymnasium you'll like instead.

28/1/05 - Just a quickie. Right now Paul Proch's auction has 10 hours to go, so if you want to get in, the clock's tickin'. And if you're wondering whether it's for real (I've received a couple of emails about this), I can confirm that it is. Feel free to bad-mouth me on LiveJournals if I am wrong.

27/1/05 - Two reminders: Paul Proch's auction is still running. And if you're an Aussie, go read Monday's update, then drop Roadshow a polite but somewhat whiny email.

Onto other stuff...

Here's the obligatory Reaction Quote re: getting nominated for an Oscar:

I'm very happy with the nominations Kate Winslet and I received. I'm also very happy with the movie itself and the immensely creative work that Kate, Jim Carrey, Michel Gondry and the rest of the cast and crew did. It was a great privilege to work with all of them on this movie.

Onya, Charlie. And from Kate:

I can't believe it. I am ecstatic! This nomination means so much to me. To be remembered for a film that was released a while ago...I am unbelievably honored and completely overwhelmed.

*group hug*

Thanks to Stefanie, Tram and clemato for those, and Tram also sends along a slightly longer bit from Charlie on being nommed:

Charlie Kaufman (screenwriter, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) was at home in LA

Q: How did you find out?

A: I wasn't sleeping very well, I was up coughing all night, and I heard the phone ringing. It was a message from my agent, and then there was a message from Focus (Features).

Q: What do you think about Kate Winslet's nomination?

A: "It's tremendous. All the actors brought so much life to the parts."

Q: Who will you vote for in your category?

A: (Laughing.) You know, that's a toughie. I don't know, but I might vote for myself."

Q: What does the nomination mean for you?

A: "I haven't been working for nominations. It's hard to break down the different jobs on a film, and (a nomination) is a reflection of the work of a lot of people: the actors, the director and a very creative team of people working on a movie. (The nomination) means the movie is recognized as a whole. I don't think you can separate the screenplay from the movie or the actors from the movie as a whole. It's one thing."

Q: What's next for you?

A: A script for Spike Jonze to direct and working on a play.

26/1/05 - Okay, Oscar nominations have been announced and overall a pretty picture has not been painted around our Eternal Sunshine gang. Charlie hasn't even been nominated!

I jest about that last bit. Charlie's nominated... but Kate Winslet's the only other Eternal contender. To be brutally honest, this is almost exactly the way I figured it would pan out, though I suspected Eternal would be in there for Film Editing. This makes things a little tough for Charlie. Without contenders in any of the other categories (other than Kate), it'll be hard for him to take the Oscar. But we can pray and offer sacrifices, and hopefully it'll turn out well. We're all behind Charlie.

Full list of nominees can be found here and if you wanna take a crack at predicting the winners, you can do it at the official site. Thanks to clemato (Kate the Great) for that.

Now that the nominees have been announced, I'm gonna start flogging You Say Potato 2005 to death. TELL YOUR FRIENDS. SPREAD THE WORD. JOIN THE POTATO ARMY.

Don't forget to check out that Paul Proch auction if you're interested. (See yesterday's news.)

25/1/05 - Time sensitive: Paul Proch (Eternal Sunshine's artist) is auctioning off a piece of original artwork that'll be made according to the winning bidder's specifications. So if you place the winning bid, you might say something like "Alrighty, I'd love a watercolour of two blindfolded dental hygienists trying to make a circle on an Etch-A-Sketch," and Paul will get to work on it for you, quite possibly with a puzzled expression on his face. The piece of art will be signed and dated. Anyways, click on the link above for all the info, go visit Paul's official site to get a feel for the kind of stuff he does, and drop him an email if you have questions. Bidding ends January 28.

Annnnd Elena's our heroine of the day, for turning up an audio interview with Charlie over here. Scroll down a teensy bit, and you can stream it via Real Player, or download it via Windows Media. He discusses, of course, Eternal Sunshine. But they also touch on a bunch of other stuff. Goes for about 20 minutes - well worth listening to, cos most of us rarely get to hear him speak.

24/1/05 - Attention Aussies

You might have noticed that we seem to be getting screwed by Village Roadshow. Eternal Sunshine was released here on Dec. 16 for the rental market. Okay, no big deal. Originally it was set for an August '04 release, ditto the retail date. The retail date has been constantly pushed back -- to September, October, December and then February '05. But a couple of weeks ago it vanished from many of the online Aussie DVD stores' "Coming Soon" lists, and I wondered why. So I emailed Village Roadshow (who I didn't particularly like as far back as March '04, for reasons we shan't go into here) and they inform me that the retail date has been pushed back. Again. To April 7. Which you might as well take with a grain of salt, since all the other dates turned out to be BS. I have no idea why the date keeps getting pushed back. For all I know, maybe the decision-makers are in the USA. Maybe we should find out what's up. You may want to drop them an email and ask them yourselves. Do it politely - the guy who replies to emails is not the guy who calls the shots, none of this is his fault - but do it in hordes. Maaaaaybe the fans can convince them we deserve an earlier release date. Stranger things have happened. Similar to the Potato '05 campaign, spread the word and see if we can get a whole bunch of (POLITE) Aussies to email Roadshow. Let me know how it goes; also let me know if you find out why we're being treated this way.

21/1/05 - Still hunting for some Golden Globe pics of Charlie, if anyone wants to shoot a few my way.

Guardian Unlimited readers recently voted for their fave films of '04. Where did Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind show up? Thankies to Stefanie.

19/1/05 - BCK's on a mission! Whaaaat? Allow me to explain.

So we didn't get to see Charlie give us a Golden Globe shout out by saying "potatoes" during his speech. (See Sunday's update.) Not his fault - he was gypped. Thanks to the Oscars, the good news is that Charlie gets a second crack, as do we, and the odds are better there. (Only one other Globe nominee could be nominated against Charlie at the Oscars, cos the other noms were adapted rather than original.) And anyway, the likelihood of him saying "Potatoes" or giving us a wave at the Globes was pretty slim, since I gave him only a day's notice.

The Oscars are a good month away. (Feb 27.)

So we're gonna kick off a campaign called You Say Potato 2005. What's that? In a nutshell: we're trying to get a shout out from Charlie on Oscar night - a mention of the site, the web community, whatever. And if that's too hard, he can just work the word "potato" into his acceptance speech or a red carpet interview - it'll be a little signal to us fans. OR he could wear a tuxedo with the word "POTATO" emblazoned across it in huge block letters, to avoid the awkwardness of saying "potato" live on stage. Or he could carry around a potato and wave it at the cameras. Or attend dressed as Mr. Potatohead. ANYTHING.

"Sign me up! What can I do to help?" Well, Charlie ain't gonna give a shout-out or say potato unless he knows that we want him to. To increase the chances of this idea reaching Charlie, feel free to create website logos, buttons and banners, and plaster them on other sites or message boards, with a link back to this page: http://www.beingcharliekaufman.com/potato.htm. If you see Charlie on the street, or you sit next to him on a bus, please corner him and politely explain the idea in a calm, thoughtful, non-stalkerish manner. Maybe it would help if you are also dressed as a potato, just for a visual aid. I'm sure he'll dig it. I should've thought of this idea months ago. We could've taken out full-page ads in Variety.

Power to the people! All the way with LBJ!

18/1/05 - Film Four's Top 20 Films of 2004 have been announced. Where does Eternal Sunshine come in? You'll have to click 'n' see. Big thanks to our pal clemato (Kate the Great) for that, and this:

BAFTAS, baby. Eternal's up for 6: Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (woot! no competition from THE BASTARDS), Actor, Actress, and editing (go Valdís!).

If you subscribe to those fancy-pants news photo services, and come across any snaps of Mr. Rock 'n' Roll at the Globes (preferably without watermarks)... *bats lashes*

17/1/05 - It was an honour just to be nominated... BASTARDS. Oh well. At least they seemed humble...

16/1/05 - Best of luck to Charlie at the Golden Globes, from his pals here at BCK. You should really give us a shout-out if you win. Or just say the word "potatoes" during your speech and we'll know it's a signal to us. Best of luck also to the rest of the Eternal gang, too.

The WGA's screen nominees have been announced. Charlie's in there for Best Original. (Michel and Pierre Bismuth also get a mention, which is cool.)

Dan Leigh, Eternal's Production Designer, is nominated for an Art Director's Guild award.

And the Editors Guild have Eternal Sunshine up for a nod in the Best Comedy/Musical category.

If you aren't sick of awards yet, you might want to go over to Moviefone's 10th Annual Moviegoer Awards and lend Eternal a helping hand.

Remember, Charlie: POTATOES. POTATOES. POTATOES.

13/1/05 - So, Eternal Sunshine took home nada from the Broadcast Film Critics' Awards. We don't need those guys anyway.

Screen Actors' Guild Award nominations have been announced and Eternal pops up in the shape of Kate Winslet under the Female Actor category.

Meanwhile the Online Film Critics Society gave awards to Michel Gondry (Best Director, duh), Kate Winslet, Charlie "Rock 'n' Roll" Kaufman and our friend Valdis Óskarsdóttir (Best Editing). Thanks to clemato from Kate the Great.

Some random trivia. In an apartment scene with Clementine, Joel's holding an issue of New York magazine. Our pal Seis found the actual issue (June 11, 2001, for those playing at home), which carries the headline "What NY Couples Fight About," and a Clem-like red-haired chick on the cover (also a dark-haired sort-of-Joel-like fella).

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