Noticing lxxix - Charlie Kaufman, screenwriter

In 2015

Last night we watched Charlie Kaufman's first movie (as writer), Being John Malkovich (1999; dir. Spike Jonze). We'd seen it before, but forgotten how it played out—which is, crazily. It's a crazy premise to begin with—a portal into actor John Malkovich's consciousness for fifteen minutes?—but it just keeps getting crazier. Brilliant! If disturbingly so.


What must it be like to be in Charlie Kaufman's head? I'm pretty sure I don't want to know. Seeing the results of what's in his head is plenty.

I've also seen Adaptation (2002; dir. Spike Jonze), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004; Kaufman won Best Original Screenplay for that one), Synecdoche, New York (2008; Kaufman's directorial debut), and the animated Anomalisa (2015). Adaptation may be on my list of favorite movies of all time, if I were to sit down and actually think about such a list.

That leaves Human Nature (2001) and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) that I haven't seen, with two more on the way: I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) and Chaos Walking (in post-production), both of which sound rather creepy/scary.

I may have to queue these up and watch them, again or for the first time. When I'm in the mood for something mind-bending, playing with the boundaries between fiction and reality, identity and memory, who I am and who you are.

I've collected a few articles about Charlie Kaufman for future perusal:

"Being Charlie Kaufman" by Lynn Hirschberg, NYT, 2000 (after Being John Malkovich)
"Charlie Kaufman & Spike Jonze: Twin Pleasures" by Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert Interviews, 2002 (about Adaptation)
"Charlie Kaufman on Weirdness, Failure, and His New Puppet Noir" by Jonathan Romney, Guardian, 2015 (about Anomalisa)
"Charlie Kaufman: In Conversation" by Adam Sternbergh, New York, 2015
"From Pen to Screen: An Interview with Charlie Kaufman" with Neil McGlone, 2016
"Charlie Kaufman Reflects on His Career: I Feel Like I F*cking Blew It" by David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 2016
"How Charlie Kaufman Uses the Extraordinary to Explain the Ordinary" by Peter Suderman, Vox, 2016 (also about Anomalisa)
"I'm in You: Director Spike Jonze and Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman Talk Being John Malkovich" by Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker, 2019

For starters.

Here are a couple of videos, including, at the end, "Inspirational Writing Advice from Charlie Kaufman," for the BAFTA lecture series On Writing:

The screenplays for many of Kaufman's films and TV shows can be found here.