Being John Malkovich (1999)
Directed by Spike Jonze
Written by Charlie Kaufman
Starring
Running time: 212minutes
Trailer of the film:
resume of the film
Craig Schwartz, a socially awkward, frustrated professional puppeteer, finds employment at a company, Lester Corp. on the 7 1/2 floor of an office building. Although married to supportive and animal-obsessed Lotte, Craig falls in love with his co-worker, Maxine. After finding a portal behind some filing cabinets at the job, Craig discovers that the portal allows people to transport themselves into the body of the actor, John Malkovich and to experience Malkovich’s life. Craig and Maxine decide to sell tickets for this supernatural experience. Lotte enters Malkovich's head and while doing so also falls in love with Maxine. Maxine also has feelings for her. Eventually Craig’s love for Maxine and his ambitions to become a famous puppeteer lead him to completely take over Malkovich’s life and to marry Maxine. Together they change John Malkovich’s career, using his fame to realize Craig’s dream of being a rich and famous puppeteer. At the end, Craig is expelled from Malkovich's body and enters into the body of Lotte/Malkovich's child with Maxine, while we see that Maxine and Lotte have become a couple.
interesting cinematic techniques used in the film.
Framing: Many close-ups were used in the making of the film. For example, close-ups are used on Craig's face when he is puppeteering to show his passion and devotion to the art. Also, this technique is used on the puppets too, in order to demonstrate that his dolls reflect his emotions and that even though they are not alive, they feel like they are. Another type of framing used is the long-shot, which was mainly used in Lotte and Craig’s apartment to give a sense of what their lives look like. We clearly see that they aren’t too rich from it’s claustrophobic size, it’s cluttered space. The mess around the apartment is related to Craig as it basically shows how messy his life and thoughts are. This shot also reveals many exotic animals that live in the apartment because of Lotte's obsession, which we can guess gives Craig a high dose of anxiety, in addition to the fact that he doesn’t have a stable career as a puppeteer.
Lighting:
Most of the scenes where someone goes into the tunnel is during the night, therefore they used low-key lighting to light up the office where the vessel was located. Also, when Malkovich’s tunnel is the subject of conversation, the lights are turned down (low-key). For example, when Malkovich is home with his friend after the first time he got controlled, he closes the blinds to assure his privacy that is being completely violated, no matter what. Another example is when Craig is explaining what he discovered (the tunnel), they are walking on the street, at night, with a trivial lighting by the street lamps. Finally, the tunnel is completely lightless to keep the mysterious phenomena as it is: unknown. Now, maybe this is only a coincidence, since the movie is mostly filmed in a dark environment. On the other side, we can notice high-key scenes where Maxine is involved. For example, we see her mostly in the office and at John Malkovich’s home where the lights are really bright. We think it might be an effect added to show the appreciation and attraction everyone has for Maxine.
Character:
Craig Schwartz was really unstable psychologically; he goes from a socially awkward and depressed man, to a man trying to seduce a woman that he barely met during his first day at LesterCorp. He then went totally crazy and started controlling his wife and John Malkovich, to approach Maxine.
Another character whose mental state was very unstable would be Lotte; she went from being an animal lover and loyal wife of Craig to a transgender woman addicted to being John Malkovich. Moreover, she falls in love with Maxine after experiencing sexual exchange with her from a man’s experience. She also thought about changing her sex through surgical procedures. Living as Malkovich made her go through a life changing experience which was so powerful it made her change sex.
Finally, John Malkovich, who was leading a peaceful, yet successful life was seen as an insecure man who lived a dark youth. When he discovered that his life was being sold by some strangers, he completely freaked out, like anyone would do.He definitely felt a strong violation of his privacy which wouldn’t make him any more comfortable being in public. He was already bringing a distress whistle wherever he was going, because he probably felt vulnerable and he felt it even more toward the end before losing complete control over his body.
Sets and props:
To begin with, the central story happens in a building on the 7 ½ floor. This floor is distinguishing itself from the others since the ceiling is really low. Also the people working there seem a little bit weird. For example, Dr. Lester is always thinking that the people who he is talking to can’t understand a word of what he is saying even though he speaks like a normal person. Also, his assistant has trouble hearing what people are saying. All of these unusual things create a weird first impression for Craig as he enters LesterCorp for the first time.
Many props were used in this movie. The first one we noticed is the special beverage that Dr. Lester drinks and talks about a few times on the movie. He says that it helps him stay young even with his impressive age of 105 years old. At the end of the movie, we realize that it is just another tool of his own to remain immortal. When he doesn’t have any vessel to transfer to, he drinks this carrot juice to help him wait long enough before leaping to a new body. Other props show many details on Malkovich’s life and background, for example the whistle that he has attached to his keys show that he feels insecure and that might have something to do with his rough childhood that we saw in his subconscious (when Lotte what chasing Maxine).
Sounds:
Internal diegetic sounds are often used to give the viewer a sensation of hearing through Malkovich’s ears, as if we were inside his head. With this effect, we could almost tell where the sound is coming from based on Malkovich’s position. Otherwise, most of the other sounds are diegetic. Some sound effects are used to emphasize emotions or actions. For example, an action/suspense type music is played when Craig runs back home to lock Lotte in a cage. Without the music, this scene would look really awkward. Lastly, they added a windy sound which is diegetic, when the characters are sucked in the tunnel to complete this sensation of getting sucked into a new world.
Questions Raised by the Film
This film explores questions about consciousness. A few of them are being raised by Craig while he talks with his chimp. For example, he says “Consciousness is a terrible curse...I feel, I think, I suffer.” We often ask ourselves what is John Malkovich’s experience/qualia when he is being controlled by Craig. We definitely know that he is aware of what is happening and that he feels something since he was able to react and realize that something fishy was going on with himself because of Craig’s actions.
The movie also raises many questions, introduced by Craig who says: “It raises all sorts of philosophical type question...about the nature of self, about the existence of a soul...am I me? I Malkovich, Malkovich? I had a piece of wood, I don’t have it anymore...is it still in Malkovich’s head? Do you see what metaphysical can of worms this portal is?”
Another theme of the story is about people's rights, the right of having a self and having full control over that self. This theme is unavoidable since it is the main plot of the story. In other words, Malkovich’s right to have control of his own body. This raises questions about ethics. Isn’t it bad to obstruct someone from having access to his body? Is it that bad to do so, considering that dozens of other people are getting something profitable out of this, does one’s right of being himself being deprived is worth many more people’s enjoyment?
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Overall Judgement
We did not dislike the movie but we never really liked it. We strongly believe that there were very few special effects which we found was too bad as we think this movie could have used more. For example, there could have been a special effect where Malkovich’s mind fought with Craig’s instead of only muting Malkovich slowly. Other aspects of the movie we disliked were the questions which were left unanswered. What does John Malkovich do after everybody enters his head? He was only in his 40s when they all went in. Also, why was Greg trapped in Maxine’s daughter? He should have been trapped in a newborn's head, but Maxine’s baby was not even born at the time. Some things just don’t follow up in this movie. On the plus side, we believe that the movie offers an interesting view on eternal life. Many people are fascinated by living eternally. As suggested by the movie, travelling from portal to portal could offer a better life to many. People didn’t mind paying an exorbitant price in order to get away from their lives for only 15 minutes.
connections to course material
The first Connection we made was metaphysics. At first, Craig wondered if the whole tunnel experience was a simulation. He wondered if it was real, but also wondered If Malkovich was real, in a sense where maybe he could have been a kind of puppet on autopilot his whole life waiting for someone to control him. He then asked himself if he was real. When you live such an experience, you might wonder if your life is real or if there are portals for your mind too. Maybe someone had been in Craig’s head controlling him his whole life. Was any of this real?
The second connection we made was to consciousness. Was John Malkovich Conscious while Craig occupied his body? We knew Malkovich was aware of what was going on, but did he become Craig in some way? We want to know if Malkovich actually loved the same things as Craig as he was occupied, for example: Maxine, puppeteering. Was Malkovich actually his own self, but he could feel all Craig’s senses or was he just some kind of individual person who lived in the body but only saw what Craig saw?
The third connection we made was personhood. The question whether we could grant personhood to John Malkovich kept coming up. For us, Malkovich was mainly an object that was controlled by Craig. If personhood was actually granted to Malkovich, would it be granted to him or would it be granted to Craig? This also emphasizes the fact that not all humans are persons as John Malkovich is clearly a human but has no characteristics of a person. Also, who would be the kid’s father? Would it be John Malkovich’s or Lotte’s? The child’s personhood is also challenged here as she was born with Craig in her and he will always be there.
Questions:
1. Why was Craig trapped in Maxine’s daughter? He should have been trapped in a newborn's head, but Maxine’s baby was not even born at the time...
2. One of the main themes in the movie is viewing the world through someone else’s eyes, would you say reality TV is like that for others?
3. If given the chance, would you consider living in someone else’s body?
Extra links covering the topics seen in the
This link leads to a Harvard paper, explaining selfhood and personal identity. It was published in 2002 and covers many other philosophical questions such as,the persistence question, personhood and more. It covers the question as to what truly makes you, you.
WORKS CITED
Being John Malkovich. directed by Spike Jonze, single cell pictures and propaganda films 1999.putlocker, https://putlockertv.to/watch/being-john-malkovich.vwj6/04w9kr
Imdb.com.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120601/ (no author or date)
For your third question, I personally would never take the opportunity to live in someone else's body for several reasons. The first one is that I would think to myself, what would happen to that person. Would they be stuck watching what I do like with John Malkovich, or will they simply stop existing? I wouldn’t be able to live while knowing that I might have ruined someone else’s life, or even existence. Secondly, I wouldn’t take the opportunity because I am happy with my life, and switching would probably creates a lot of problems because I must act like that person and I should know things that that person knows, like if there's a family problem. Before switching, I wouldn’t know about this problem, so I would have to figure things out without acting too weird. Finally, although I wouldn’t do it, I can see why other people would. I could be interesting to live like someone else for a bit, but I wouldn’t live through someone else’s body forever.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your second question, to a certain extent reality tv could be like seeing through someone else's eyes. The reason why I'm not 100% for that idea is because most of reality tv is scripted and staged in one way, shape, or form. It's not actually that honest or an accurate portrayal of what those people are doing in their day to day lives. Seeing through someone else's eyes could have misperception as well. All you see is what the person in question is doing, their thinking, which is bias in a way because you don't know what the others around that person might be thinking and quite literally only get one side of the story. In that sense seeing through someone's eyes and reality tv parallel one another. There are positive sides to these though: they both allow the viewer to feel this deeper connection to the "protagonist", letting them believe that they really know this person and understand them.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your second question, I do not believe that reality tv is like seeing through someone else's eyes. I agree with Georgia when she says that reality tv is scripted and staged. For example, Bear Grills, who was known for his survival abilities, but off camera he would sneak off a meal he had packed or even get a goodnight sleep in a hotel. What one sees on reality tv "on air" is much different to what that person is like "off air. While watching reality tv, one does not know what that person is honestly thinking. When a person is seeing life through an others, one is able to honestly know what that persons intentions are, as well feel what they feel, hear what they hear, etc. One honestly able to be the other person, something one can not say about reality tv.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this blog, even though I haven’t watched the movie I can connect this movie to consciousness. From what I read, this movie is about John Malkovich’s brain being taken over by Craig. This rises the question, does John Malkovich have consciousness while Craig is in his head? I personally think that he doesn’t have consciousness because it resembles a coma. John isn’t in control of his body nor does he have any thoughts which makes him not have consciousness in a sense. Also to answer your third question, I would consider living in someone else’s body because depending of the circumstances I would be able to see the world through that persons eyes, I could hear their thoughts and have a front row seat to watch what goes on in their life. I could experience how it feels like being in that person’s shoes. But if it was just me in that person’s body without their thoughts, I would still consider it because it would be like being born a different person with a different body. For example, if I were to be in boys body that would be a completely different life style for me also a lot of new things to get adapted to.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your third question, I would never want to live inside of another living person no matter who he or she is because you can't really be yourself. You are going to control and do everything but not in your own body or state of mind. It raises an ethical issue. Probably some people would want to do it because they might not like their own body or self so they might try to possess and control somebody else but to me I find it absurd and unethical. We were born on this earth to evolve and help each other work as a team, not to evolve in another's person body and stay hidden our entire life. Not everybody is going to think like me everybody is entitled to their own opinions and thoughts, but for me personally I am perfectly fine living under my own skin and my own thoughts.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your first question, I don’t think Craig was actually trapped in Maxine’s daughter at all, instead he waited a while after he left John Presumably a couple years, and then he reentered the portal so that he could watch Maxine. When he was inside her head it was just like when he was in John’s head, he could leave when he would like and enter when he would like, I don’t know where the idea of him being stuck came from, but it is in no way hinted in the film. – Benjamin
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog entry on Being John Malkovich, I can understand that the film is about Craig who finds a portal into John Malkovich’s body. He then starts to have others pay him to also go inside his body as well. I can add to your theme of people’s rights, the right of having a self and having full control over that self. John’s self was taken over without his permission, which is the lack of consent. It is not right to have full control over someone else’s body, let alone make profit from having others go inside John’s body as well. This is going against John’s rights as a human, since he did not give consent to any of the people that went inside his body.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the second question in John Malkovich analysis, I believe that reality TV isn’t like viewing the world through someone else’s eyes because reality TV is recorded on camera and the way people act on camera could be totally different than real unbiased experiences. The existence and the success of a reality TV is based on their popularity and therefore their financial success. Thus, the acting part of a reality show, is not reality at all. From reading the summary of the film “Being John Malkovich”, the protagonist sees things with his own eyes in the body of John Malkovich.
ReplyDelete