Waking Life and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Waking Life and Eternal Sunshine are both different styles of movies; however they both made me think in similar aspects.

Although Waking Life was animated it did not follow the general stereotype. The style of movie was very different than anything I have ever seen before. The story line consisted of many thing s I think about but never talk about, or hear anyone talk about. It consisted of many deep thoughts and conversations about life and consciousness. One scene in the movie really drew my attention, the one with Ethan Hawke and the other lady, in the apartment bedroom.I was fascinated to listen to them talk about consciousness, and lack there-of. The movie as a whole had this unique essence about it. The entire script just, seemed to make sense. There was a message in everything, no wasted or useless space whatsoever. I am pretty sure my eyes never strayed from the screen throughout the entire movie. Afterwards, as after viewing any enlightening or touching thing, I looked at things with wider eyes and in a slightly deeper, more analytical way. One night later that week, I had a dream, it like most of my dreams, was a little weird and hard to remember; however, one thing that I do remember is being in a car and trying to turn on the overhead light, and having it not turn on. Immediately after I awoke I thought about Waking Life and the scene in which the main character was talking with this man about how to distinguish consciousness from dreams. One of the things he mentioned was that in dreams you can't adjust lighting. I found it a little weird that this actually happened to me, maybe it always does and I just never notice. I never noticed again, but I still found it interesting. Overall, the topics covered within this movie have really stuck with me.

Eternal Sunshine appeared to me to be similar to a chick-flick romance film. That is, it appeared to be that way at first. However, as the plot developed, I started noticing several more interesting aspects of the movie. For one, it was clearly not your average story. It had the unusual quality of being science and brain related all while avoiding technicalities but certainly making you think and wonder more about life,love, and the risks we take. This was not an emergency room, or hospital movie, but rather an exploration of the brain. The thing is, this was expressed so beautifully and artistically. Not only that, but, as Lindsay had mentioned earlier, Michel Gondry's use of light played a big role in adding emotion and depth to the movie. The transitions used between scenes were also seamlessly done. This technique was great in keeping consistency and fluidity throughout the movie as to give less chance in diverting the viewers attention. Although, I find it hard to believe that one would be bored viewing this movie. Music is another common thing used in movies such as this to add emotional value, to make the audience responsive. On another note, this movie could possibly one of my favorite. I have to admit that I fall under the common girl stereotype of being emotional and liking, publicly proclaimed "chick flicks." This movie not only connected with my emotions and thoughts but it made me feel what the characters felt. After viewing this movie I could not believe that I had never previously even heard of it. For this reason I am probably going to look for more , not so popular, movies either from this director or similar.