Investigation: Charlie Kaufman as a Writer

Introduction:

Whenever I'm making anything I always have four artists in mind: Paul Thomas Anderson, Eric Andre, David Foster Wallace, and Charlie Kaufman. Of these the first two I have explored to the greatest degree in my film making with Anderson inspiring my dramas and Andre inspiring my comedy. And I rip off Wallace in essentially every short story I write.  However, I have done minimal work really inspired by Charlie Kaufman. In my next project I plan on making a tribute to his work. In my opinion no artist has better reflected the deep existential dreed inherit to being human as well as Charlie Kaufman. His films discus universal ideas of what it means to be human, typically using the subject of the artist to represent this struggle. He addresses these big problems through the use a distinct meta-film style.

 

Scope:

Since Charlie Kaufman is such a dominate film maker in my mind, I cannot contain my thoughts on him to just one blog post. So, in this blog post I will be focusing on his films during the period in which he was just a writer. Namely: Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I will contain my analysis of each film to their written material as the directorial style is inconsistent across these three movies. I will discus the movies he both wrote and directed at some point in the coming weeks. After this post and the directorial one, I will be making a blog devoted to the major criticism that he needs a director to shape and cut his scripts. 

Early life and work

Born in New York City, Charlie Kaufman spent most of his early life living in Massapequa on long island and then West Hartford, Connecticut. He then attended college at Bostin University transferring to NYU half way through. This mid-Atlantic upbringing influences many of his movies as they are almost all set or feature sections in New York City, Long Island, or an unnamed small town. After college Kaufman wrote spec scripts for various comedy shows while working as a customer service phone The Star Tribune in Minneapolis. Throughout the 80s Kaufman remained on the fringes of the entertainment industry, until he received attention for the scripts he was writing and moved to Hollywood. Upon moving to LA he started working on the sitcom Get a Life. After the show's cancelation Kaufman worked as in house comedy writer for Fox sitcoms. In 1996 Kaufman was hired as a wittier for The Dana Carvey Show, which provided him with his first real industry clout. 

Being John Malkovich

This film was originally written as a spec script in 1994 with no real intention of it ever getting produced. The script was passed along throughout LA until Francis Ford Coppola saw it and connected Kaufman with his son in law Spike Jones. The film is about an unemployed puppeteer, Craig, who can't find a job within his craft despite his apparent talent. At the request of his animal obsessed wife he gets a job as a records keeper. His new job in on the 7th and a half floor, and the celling's are half as tall as any  normal office. At his new job he meets Maxine who he falls madly in love with. One day while moving a cabinet at work Craig finds a portal that allows you to see through the eyes of John Malkovich. He tells Maxine this and they start a business allowing people to be john Malkovich. Craig's wife, Lottie,  goes through the portal and discovers her transsexuality and fellow love for Maxine. Maxine starts a romance with John Malkovich, but only when Lottie is in the body. Madly jealous, Craig goes into Malkovich and controls him--puppeteer logic.   He uses Malkovich's existing fame to propel his puppetry career. Meanwhile the owner of the company Craig worked for is trying to live forever by jumping from body to body, but needs Craig to leave to do this. Malkovich's body and Maxine are having a child, however it is revealed that she connived this child while Lottie was in Malkovich. Craig eventually gives up control leaving Malkovich. The owner gets to live forever. Maxine and Lottie live together and raise the child. Craig goes into the portal one more time, however it now lead to Maxine's daughter where he cannot take control. (If you think that was a detailed plot synopsis, I am missing huge sections of the plot)

Being John Malkovich was arguably the most ambitious movie ever made when it came out, only for Kaufman to top himself over and over again. This self indulgent ambition has been the mark of Kaufman's career as an artist. This movie is not only ambitious in its plot but also in the way it is written, the film actively uses terms like "Metaphysics" with no regard towards the conventional standard of making movies absolutely accessible on a linguistic level. Additionally, in this film Kaufman establishes the  surrealist dialogue that would define his writing style. 

This film also sets up many of the themes Kaufman would use throughout his work, such as existentialism, art, and love. This film and Synecdoche New York are Charlie Kaufman's least focused films in terms of message. Both are simultaneously about everything and nothing. In my view this film can only be analyzed by looking at individual sections. For example the symbol of the portal representing the universal desire to be somebody else, however when you look into your own head it is absolutely horrifying as represented by the scene above. Being John Malkovich above all else represents Charlie Kaufman calling his shot on who we would be as a writer.

Human Nature

 

Due to a lack of streaming service availability I have not been able to see this movie and cannot effectively comment on it. Based on what I know about it, Kaufman is playing into his theme of love and is exploring what it means to be humans from a more biological/anthropological prospective. However, I cannot say any of this without any authority. I did not want to completely ignore this film (as I'm about to do with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind ), but I don't want to take significant time discussing it.    

Adaptation 

 

After the success of Being John Malkovich Kaufman was offered a to write and adaptation of The Orchid Thief by Johnathan Demme. Kaufman accepting, which sent him into a personal spiral of trying to adapt a book that resisted adaptation. Instead of directly adapting the book Kaufman wrote a script about the process of attempting to adapt the book. Upon seeing the script Demme recognized it was outside his talents, but wanted to stay on and produce it with Jonze returning to direct. This film has my favorite script of any film ever made. 

Of Kaufman's movies this one is most directly about making art. The film's essential message is that while it's good to break the rules of screen-writing from time to time, a good artist should recognize the value in tropes and conform to them sometimes while still breaking some rules. Kaufman would never follow this message again after Adaptation. I will be further exploring this film in my recreation of it and in my comparative study (Coming soon!)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind  

In Being John Malkovich there is a sequence in which Maxine and Lottie go through Malkovich's unconscious. This movie takes that idea and extends it through a story about two lovers erasing each other from their memories. The movie uses the idea of erasing memory to represent the falling in and out of love. In its current state the movie has a fairly hopeful ending, however originally Kaufman wrote a devastating ending in which the two characters erase each other over and over again until they are in their 80s. Of Kaufman's movies this is his only real mainstream success that most people have seen and it won him his Oscar.

 

Kaufman's work can be divided into two main categories: Simple plots with a complex structure, or complex plots with efficient structures. This movie represents the former, while Adaptation represents the latter. Ultimately this is a simple plot about the way we relate to our memories influencing our subjective interpretation of the world. In my opinion this movie is fine. It is not earth shattering but not bad either. However, I think this movie is important as it gave Kaufman a black check to do as he liked in his self-directed films. Synecdoche New York would never have been allowed to be as insane as it was without this movie.

Chalie Kaufman as a Director coming soon..

 Work Log:

(I have lost steam on the "This is: the Avant Guard" and am now going to work on the script for my next film for a little. I will probably come back to the project in a week or so)

Monday: No school 

Tuesday: Pre-wrote script-story

Wednesday: Pre-wrote script-characters 

Thursday: Pre-write script-events 

Friday: Began visualizing how the film would look and updated the style of my blog