"Now the third way is what one might call pure cinematics.
The assembly of film, and how it can be changed to create a different idea."
That's Alfred Hitchcock, and in this short clip he demonstrates the power of editing.
If we take a close up of a man, cut to a woman and her child, cut back to the man and he
smiles, what do we think of him as a character?
Now if we were to go back to that same close up, but instead of the woman with her child
we see a girl in a bikini, and back to the man smiling, "what is he now?
He's a dirty old man, he's no longer the benign gentlemen, who loves babys, that's what film
can do for you."
So let's look at a scene from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Joel has taken the day
off work and ends up meeting Clementine, after some convincing he goes upstairs to have a
drink, and before he leaves she gives him her phone number and asks to him call.
"Wish me a happy Valentine's Day when you call!
That would be nice."
What do we think of Joel as a character?
He's shy, he's nervous, the chronology of the film actually places this scene towards
the end, this is after he's already had his memory erased and so as far as his memory
is concerned he hasn't been with a woman in two years.
So maybe she's moving a little too fast for him to feel comfortable, but he likes her,
and calls her, as promised.
"What took you so long?"
"I just walked in."
"Mmhmm.
You miss me?"
"Oddly enough I do."
"You said I do, I guess that means we're married."
"I guess so."
Super romantic right?
It's one of my favorite scenes in the film, but what if we were to put in an additional
scene, if first we saw Joel make a different phone call, would it change how he feel about
him in that moment?
"Hello?"
"Hi, Naomi?
It's Joel."
"I was thinking and uh...I just, I think if we get back into this, all into it fast you
know, without considering the problems we had...you know?"
"Yeah, okay Joel, I suppose you're right.
Okay, I'm going to get some sleep then.
I'm glad you're okay."
"Yeah, you too, I'll talk to you, later."
"Goodnight."
"What took you so long?"
"I just walked in."
For those wondering why this scene doesn't look familar, it's because it didn't make
it into the final cut, it's one of several deleted scenes featuring Naomi, Joel's ex-girlfriend.
We hear her name mentioned a few times but we never see her on screen.
In the film, we do learn that they were together for a few years, before he left her for Clementine
after meeting at the beach party.
Another deleted scene shows Joel after he's had the procedure done, with no memory left
of Clementine he can't remember why he left Naomi in the first place, so operating under
the impression that he hasn't found anybody since Naomi, he returns to something familiar.
"It's been a lonely couple of years really."
"I'm sorry."
"No I'm sorry, you know, I mean...
I don't even know what happened."
This all takes place before he's met Clementine in Montauk, the exact timeline of which is
fuzzy but we can assume it was a relatively small window of time between reaching out
to Naomi and this night, sharing drinks with Clementine.
So this entire scene takes on a completely different meaning, everything that we might
have perceived as Joel being shy or nervous, now looks a lot like guilt, you can even read
it in his body language, as he tries to get up to leave.
The context given by these deleted scenes paints a different picture of Joel than what
we're shown in the final film, exhibiting behavior that makes him seem selfish, and
more impulsive than he likes to let on.
Especially when you consider that this phone call would make the second time that he broke
up with Naomi to pursue Clementine.
We hear mention of the first break up, but it's all sort of glossed over, the impression
given in the film is that it was a mutual decision, or that it was a long time coming,
but another deleted scene reveals that it played out quite differently than what we're
led to believe.
"Bullshit, who is it?
You've met someone."
"No!
I just need some, space maybe."
"The thing is, whatever you think it is you have with this chick, once the thrill wears
off, you're still Joel, with the same problems."
"It's not somebody else, it's not."
Seeing these moments play out for ourselves changes everything that we thought we knew
about Joel.
Like we saw with the old man in Hitchcock's demonstration, how the scenes are put together
can be changed to create a different idea.
These deleted scenes give us a different context that fundamentally changes how we view the
characters of Joel and Clementine, and their relationship together.
One in scene in particular comes to mind.
"I'd like to um, take you out or something."
"You're married."
"Not yet, not married."
He's still with Naomi at this point, they've been in a serious committed relationship for
years and yet here he is, making moves on another woman.
Who is more than happy to go out with him, provided he ends things with Naomi first.
Their entire relationship is built on an act of betrayal, which may be why Joel is so quick
so suspect Clementine of cheating on him.
"Now see Clem, I assume you've fucked someone tonight, isn't that how you get people to
like you?"
That seed of distrust grows throughout their relationship, tearing apart everything that
they built until neither of them can take it anymore and try to go back to the start
with a clean slate, only to wind up doing the exact same thing the second time around.
Now, at this point you might be thinking, well, these are deleted scenes, so how can
we consider them when analyzing the film if they didn't make it into the final cut?
And it's a fair question to ask, but remember, this plot involving Naomi still exists in
the movie, it's just buried under layers of subtext.
We do hear her name mentioned "Maybe I should get back together with Naomi", we do find
out that they're still together before he starts dating Clementine "I do sort of live
with someone though" We just never see the messier details, but just because we can't
see something, doesn't mean it isn't there.
Just because a memory has been erased, doesn't mean that it didn't happen.
In the film, we hear Dr. Howard explain how the procedure works.
"There's an emotional core to each of our memories, and when you eradicate that core,
it starts its degradation process."
So it's not so much about erasing memories, as it is erasing the emotions that are attached
to those memories.
Which is a really elegant metaphor for the process of editing a film.
It's not necessarily about the scene itself, it's about the feeling that that scene creates.
The editorial process involves a series of creative decisions made from start to finish,
you can think of it as two different branches, one deals more with choosing the right take
of a particular scene, how long to let a shot linger before cutting, and other general visual
sequencing or pacing, and the other deals with editing from a more top down perspective
concerning the story and the characters.
It not only matters what information you give to the audience, but how you deliver that
information, and in what order.
It's all about about creating a feeling, so what feeling, were the filmmakers trying to
create?
"I have this averse reaction to Hollywood romances, they've been very damaging to me
growing up I feel.
And as I got older and I realized my life wasn't like that you know it became kind of
depressing, and then I thought well, kind of, real life is more interesting and maybe
I should try explore that and not put more damaging stuff in the world."
The thing about love is that it's messy, and complicated, and we don't often see movies
that explore that honestly, because how do you explore a relationship in an honest way
without creating something so cynical that no one identifies with it, while remaining
sentimental enough without it feeling fake?
The answer lies in the editing.
Everything about the way this film is structured serves to better establish a sense of empathy
for Joel, so if Joel believes that Clementine is the answer he's looking for, then some
part of us has to believe that too.
It's why their memories are presented in a reverse chronology.
We see their memories play out from the worst of their moments together, working backwards
to when things were going great.
Essentially causing us to feel the same nostalgia for their relationship that Joel feels.
We're so used to films playing out in chronological order that it feels like their relationship
is getting better as the film goes forward, despite the exact opposite being true.
Saving their best moments for last allows those darker final memories between them to
fade in our mind, just as they fade from Joel's.
But the film suggests that those memories are never really gone, how else could they
find each other again in Montauk even after the procedure?
The fragments of those memories still linger, and carry with them significant implications
for their future whether they want to confront them or not.
To borrow a line from Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia".
"And the book says we may be through with the past, but the past is not through with
us."
We are molded and shaped by our past, for better or worse our past becomes a part of
who we are, and trying to run from it doesn't change that fact.
So whether or not Joel likes to admit it, finding and pursuing Clementine was a direct
reaction to his relationship with Naomi, he's overcompensating in the opposite direction,
because she's nice, but dull, and it all feels a little austere while they're together, but
then there's Clementine, she's different, she's exciting, right from the start with
her orange sweatshirt.
This is why Naomi's scenes were cut from the film, but why she's still part of the story.
Because she's still a part of Joel, but as Dr. Howard said, there's an emotional core
to our memories, and once that emotional core has been removed, the memories begin their
degradation process.
Joel doesn't love Naomi anymore, and without the same emotional core at the heart of those
memories, they too, begin to fade like the rest.
But they're not quite gone, memories like that never really are, some part of those
moments will always stay with us, even if they're hidden from plain sight.
And rejecting those memories will only lead you to make the same mistakes that landed
you with such painful memories in the first place, for no mind is truly spotless, but
maybe we can still find our own eternal sunshine in spite of that.