Geog/Film

The language of "being John Malkovich"

In the film, characters use a variety of phrasings to describe what "being John Malkovich" is like:

• JM Corp promises customers the ability to "be someone else."
• Lotte, after her first experience, says, "I knew who I was." And Craig reponds, "You weren't you. You were Malkovich."
• Maxine describes an experience of seeing "two people" looking at her "with complete lust and devotion through the same pair of eyes."
• After learning of Lotte and Maxine's meeting, Craig says, "You were with him, right? And she was with him."
• After starting to assert control, Craig compares Malkovich's body to a "suit", and says all he has to do is "make friends with the Malkovich body".
• Even after years of "being John Malkovich" Craig still refers to Malkovich in the third person. When he is being pressured to leave he says, "If I leave Malkovich, I'll just be me."

What are the gradations of meaning in these phrasings? Which way of expressing the connections between mind, body, and identity make the most sense to you? Would you take issue with any of the ways that the characters see these connections (for example, in class it was suggested that Maxine was merely seeing what she wanted to see when she claimed to feel both Lotte and Malkovich looking at her with desire)?

The puppets

The one question from the preview for Being John Malkovich that we did not address at all in class is the one about puppets and puppeteers:

What is the narrative purpose of making Craig a puppeteer? What is the semiotic function or effect of the repeated references to puppets and puppeteering? How do these relate to your understanding of mind/body relationships in the film?

The writer as auteur

From the standpoint of auteur theory, the director is seen as the "author" of a film (see Edgar-Hunt, chapter 1). Both Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich were scripted by Charlie Kaufman. Can you cite thematic or formal elements common to those films that could make an argument for the writer as a film's auteur? It is important to note that the two films were directed by different people. As with the discussion of Christopher Nolan as auteur, you can cite other films written by Kaufman here.

Open entry on BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

Use this entry for a general discussion of Being John Malkovich.

5/45/85: BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

Here are the 5/45/85 frame grabs for Being John Malkovich.

From five minutes.

From forty-five minutes.

From eighty-five minutes.

 

Preview for BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

Here are keywords and questions to think about during our screening of Being John Malkovich:

1. Keywords: the body, space, place. How do people get in and out of Malkovich's body? How do the film makers show the audience what it is like be in his body? In what way does the film prompt thinking about the body as a place?
2. Keywords: outwardlookingness, space. How does the film explore outwardlookingness through the idea of inhabiting someone else's body? What happens when Malkovich goes through the door and into his own body? What does this experience suggest about relationships between mind and body and how we place ourselves in space? How are the people who enter Malkovich's body, other than Malkovich, affected by the experience? How does that change who they are?
3. Keywords: space, the body. What is the narrative purpose of making Craig a puppeteer? What is the semiotic function or effect of the repeated references to puppets and puppeteering? How do these relate to your understanding of mind/body relationships in the film?