Buckland-Warren-Puzzle-Films-Complex-Storytelling-Contemporary-Cinema

The Screenplays of Charlie Kaufman 113Florida at (supposedly different) time periods near the conclusion of thenarrative (including a hallucinatory sequence brought about by ingestingthe drug made from the ghost orchid). By failing to “take advantage” ofthe specificity the film image affords, Jonze exploits an intrinsic propertyof the screenplay and thus further complicates the celluloid film’s time-frames.Charlie Kaufman must make choices as well, but the screenplay formatis more slippery than film in terms of mise-en-scène, figure movement, editing,costuming, etc. Moreover, screenwriters are taught to be economicalwith dialogue and description (cf. Hunter 1993). Kaufman, in a way, followsthe letter, but not the spirit, of this rule by refusing to clarify importantvisual details. There are hardly, if any, references to costumes, for example.When reading the script, therefore, we are relatively certain of the generaltemporal era (i.e., the late 1990s as opposed to the Late Cretaceous) butincreasingly grow confused as to the exact year or date. Such a move mightnot be exceptional, except for the clear attempts to (ironically) suggest adefinite time frame or logic, vis-à-vis the temporal title-cards.Indeed, it is impossible to assign only one coherent temporal progressionto the screenplay, owing to various inconsistencies between the titlecardsand diegesis. The reading below illustrates one reasonabletime-frame for the script, in which events unfold slowly over a series ofyears between approximately 1993 and as late as 2000. Owing to the numberof scenes occurring between and unannounced by these title-cards– in Florida, New York, and Los Angeles, in different time periods – thedate ranges become gradually less certain. Each range indicates the possibleyears in which the events between the title-cards could occur:1998 TITLE: ON THE SET OF “BEING JOHN MALKOVICH”SUMMER 1998 (p. 1)TITLE: FOUR BILLION AND FORTY YEARS EARLIER (p. 3)1995 TITLE: NEW YORKER MAGAZINE, THREE YEARS EARLIER(p. 6)1993 TITLE: STATE ROAD 29, FLORIDA, TWO YEARS EARLIER(p. 6) 61895–1898 TITLE: ORINCO RIVER, ONE HUNDRED YEARS EARLIER(p. 14)1995–1998 TITLE: FLORIDA, THREE YEARS EARLIER (p. 19)1859 TITLE: ENGLAND, ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY NINEYEARS EARLIER (p. 40)1986–1989 TITLE: NORTH MIAMI NINE YEARS EARLIER (p. 44)1998–2000 TITLE: THREE YEARS LATER (p. 63)1995–1998 TITLE: FAKAHATCHEE THREE YEARS EARLIER (p. 79)