Eternal Choices of Lighting and Color

Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the tale of a woman being erased from a man's memory. It's a love story, a fantasy, and a science fiction film rolled all into one. It's a poetic piece of film that captures your heart in a quirky way.

Gondry's use of lighting creates dramatic effects on many of the scenes. The relationship between the two main characters, Joel and Clementine, is personified through the way Gondry chose to light the scene.

When Joel and Clementine are falling in love, the lighting is very bright. The colors are subdued and cool and the scenes feel very calm.

The contrast between Clementine's "Agent Orange" hair and the cool blue of Joel's pillow, ties the two characters together. The colors themselves are cool and muted and create a serene feeling.




As Joel and Clementine begin to fall apart, the colors get a little deeper and darker until at the very end, when Joel is struggling to keep Clementine in his memories, the colors are so deep and contrasted, you feel every emotion Joel and Clementine feel. You, as a viewer, feel their drama.

Now, the contrast between the intense dark that surrounds Clementine and the bright life in her hair and hat, causes the viewer to feel the loss that Joel is feeling as she is erased from his memory.











Gondry also makes great use of angles in his film.


The far away shots of Joel and Clementine shows the loneliness that the two characters feel. When the camera zooms in, you feel the personal connection between them.

The soundtrack in this scene is very organic. You can hear a plane buzzing and the waves crashing and people speaking, but Joel and Clementine are in their own little world. They ignore the outside noise and in doing so, further distance themselves from the society they live in. It's a romanticized isolation. They're both alone, but they're alone together.