Frames of reference

05Jul07

There were numerous frames of reference in Eternal Sunshine. One was reality, shown in the group of scenes at the beginning and end of the movie that take place just before, on, and after Valentine’s Day. The rest of the scenes could be broadly classified as taking place in Joel’s memory, but these can be subdivided into:

Memories that Joel gets to relive as if they were really happening (e.g., the date on the frozen Charles).
Memories in which Joel narrates in a voiceover (e.g., the “dining dead” meal).
Memories which Joel watches take place and with which he can and does interact.
Memories in which Joel is a participant but can “break character” and change the way the scene turns out.
Memories in which Joel relives various moments of his childhood with Clementine in the place of one of the people in the memory.
Memories that had been erased and lingered on in a degraded form (e.g., the faceless beings in the Lacuna offices).
Some events that actually took place during Joel’s erasure (i.e. technicians Stan and Patrick’s conversation about Patrick’s stealing Clementine’s panties) bleed through to memories Joel is reliving.

Finally, a useful indicator for when a particular event is taking place is Clementine’s hair color. Any time she is shown with blue hair indicates something in the present or a memory from the recent past (from about the time of the couple’s disengagement). Clementine has green hair during the couple’s first encounter, and shortly changes it to red when they become romantically involved. She then changes her hair color to orange as their disengagement nears.

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