In Alexander Pope’s Eloisa to Abelard, the famous heroine, realizing that her lover will never return her feelings, begs for his forgetfulness:

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d …

Just like Eloisa (aka Heloise), Kirsten Dunst’s character in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has fallen for an authority figure – her boss, played by Tom Wilkinson. When she speaks this verse to him, although she has long forgotten the love that they shared, somehow she knows what’s between them. Though science in this world has discovered how to erase memories, they still cannot erase what lies in people’s hearts.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the magnum opus of French filmmaker Michel Gondry, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as chaotic lovers who can’t stay apart. The movie’s one flaw lies in this truth: they are inevitably drawn to each other, and we know that, so do they really need our help to reunite? While this makes the plot somewhat moot, it doesn’t change how beautifully and artfully the story is told. There are filmmakers, and there are artists. Michel Gondry is the latter.

If you enjoyed this artful love story, play some Jim Carrey movie trivia or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind movie trivia.

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