Film Analysis - Week 41 - Being John Malkovich (1999)

Film Analysis – Week 41

Being John Malkovich (1999) – Directed by Spike Jonze

Starring: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz and Catherine Keener

This film is a Comedy/Fantasy about a lonely puppeteer, Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) finding a portal to the mind of popular actor John Malkovich. This broad new concept was something that had very rarely been seen before and therefore gave a very unique insight into the realms of fantasy that had never before been explored. The film uses John Malkovich as an entry point into the meta-physical explanation of existence and ponders/plays with the idea of this fantasy existing, where host bodies can be used in order to pass down generations worth of people and to experience a new way of life forever. The film touches on these subjects while also contributing to a love story underneath the surface. Three main protagonists Craig, his wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) and Maxine Lund (Catherine Keener) each play a part in a triangle in which they use John Malkovich to live out their sexual fantasies. This incorporates the meta-physical aspect of the film and opens up questions to the audience about bodies being used as ‘vessels’ as one may only exist as an essence that resides within a body. The film very cleverly draws in an audience by attaching it to our real world, in a time where actor John Malkovich was very popular, they take his fame and exploit it as one of the key elements of the film, leading the characters in the film to notice him and his past actions. This film explores themes of existentialism in the way that it discusses meta-physical aspects of living. It also tackles the underlying love that each character has to play with while living their daily, and now supernatural, lives.

My main interest in the film came from its origins as a screenplay. The fil was written by well-known and accomplished writer Charlie Kaufman, who went on to write such a creative and imaginative film as ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ (2004) directed by Michel Gondry. Kaufman’s writing talents have allowed him to explore real world situation and emotions, mostly tied to love, and broaden them into a world of supernatural and fanciful ability. For example, this film touches on the real subject of life, such as the control of one’s self and of others, and incorporates it into the actions that characters take into the film. The most important choice made by Kaufman was to base it around a real life actor. It could have been based on a fictional superstar, but the authenticity of the world that had been created wouldn’t have remained. Audiences watching the film in 1999 would have seen it and recognised the name and actor. This is not only a big drawing point for the audience, but also highlights the similarity between our world and the world of the film. The purpose of this is to create parallels between what could possibly happen in our world and what has happened in the world of the film. By raising questions of existentialism and battling them with a puppeteer and also an interwoven triangle of love, the audience sees characters not only as character, but as people, just in the way they would see John Malkovich, as he plays himself within this film.