Spike Jonze
We all dream of being someone else at least once in our lifetime. It might be because of their appearance, their physical abilities or their talent that we yearn to possess. Spike Jonze’s film, Being John Malkovich, creates a world where the impossibility of being someone else becomes as real as going to work at an office job.
Craig Schwartz is a struggling street puppeteer who is caught up in financial problems and an unhappy marriage. He takes on a job as a file clerk for an office and while working one day he discovers a secret door in one of the office walls. This small door takes anyone who goes through it, into the mind of the real-life actor John Malkovich for fifteen minutes until they are spit out in the outskirts of New Jersey.
The real star of this film is the wildly original script by Charlie Kaufman. Blending real-life people with fictional characters, Being John Malkovich is part comedic fantasy, part Hollywood satire and part relationship drama. A story with so many interesting ideas that seem to want to pull the film in different directions, is carefully visualized by director Spike Jonze so that all elements come together in harmony. The richly-written characters are what make this bizarre story feel true.
As the first feature film for both Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, this film would set the tone for the rest of their filmography along with themes they would revisit in their following work. Tormented artists and couples on the edge of breakups would reappear in Kaufman’s other scripts along with worlds where real people and fictional characters coexist. Spike Jonze would continue to explore stories of depression, loneliness and melancholy. Not only did both artists start with a project that was quite inventive and distinct but they have both continued to have bold and complex visions for the rest of their work.
Ultimately, Being John Malkovich is about characters who are avoiding difficult truths by trying to be someone else. The scenes where characters enter the little door and get sucked into a dark tunnel with a point-of-view image from Malkovich’s perspective, at the end of it, would almost be prophetic imagery of what would become of our current social media culture. Why should we confront our insecurities and our shortcomings when we can get lost in the lives of others? Even worse, why be ourselves when we can be a copy or slight variation of someone more popular than we are?
Being John Malkovich
director SPIKE JONZE
year 1999
director of photography LANCE ACORD
cast JOHN CUSACK, CAMERON DIAZ and CATHERINE KEENER
words HECTOR ORTIZ
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