Being John Malkovich | |
---|---|
Directed by | Spike Jonze |
Written by | Charlie Kaufman |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Lance Acord |
Edited by | Eric Zumbrunnen |
Music by | Carter Burwell |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | USA Films (United States) Universal Pictures International (International) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 113 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $13 million [1] |
Box office | $23.1 million [2] |
Being John Malkovich is a 1999 American surrealist fantasy comedy drama film [3] [4] directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman, both making their feature film debut. The film stars John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener, with John Malkovich as a satirical version of himself. Cusack plays a puppeteer who finds a portal that leads into Malkovich's mind. Released by USA Films, the film received widespread acclaim, with praise for its writing and direction, and grossed $23 million against a $13 million budget. The film was nominated in three categories at the 72nd Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress for Keener. [5] The film ranked 441st on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest films of all time, [6] while Malkovich's performance is ranked number 90 on Premiere's "100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time". [7]
Craig Schwartz is an unemployed puppeteer in New York City, in a forlorn marriage with his pet-obsessed wife, Lotte. He finds work as a file clerk for the eccentric Dr. Lester in the Mertin-Flemmer building, on a floor between the 7th and 8th, where the ceiling is very low. He develops an attraction to co-worker Maxine Lund, who does not return his affections. While filing, Craig accidentally discovers a small hidden door. He crawls through it into a tunnel and finds himself inside the mind of actor John Malkovich. After 15 minutes, Craig is ejected, landing on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. He tells Maxine about the door, and she realizes they can sell the experience for profit.
Lotte enters the portal, and based on her experience being John Malkovich, she becomes fascinated with the idea of becoming a man. She and Craig visit Dr. Lester's home, where Lotte finds a room filled with Malkovich memorabilia. Maxine arranges a date with Malkovich while he is inhabited by Lotte, who becomes smitten with Maxine. She reciprocates, but only when Lotte is inside Malkovich; Maxine manipulates him into having sex with her while Lotte is in his mind. Craig, forsaken by both women, locks Lotte in a cage and forces her to set up another tryst with Maxine. He inhabits Malkovich instead and discovers that his puppeteering skills allow him some control over Malkovich.
Meanwhile, the real Malkovich, disturbed by his loss of control, confides in his friend Charlie Sheen and becomes suspicious of Maxine. Malkovich follows her to the office, where she and Craig are charging customers to use the portal. When Malkovich enters it himself, he finds himself in a world where everyone looks like him and says only "Malkovich." After he is ejected, he demands that Craig close the portal, but Craig refuses. Lotte is freed by her pet chimpanzee and warns Maxine that Craig is inhabiting Malkovich, but Maxine is attracted to Craig's ability to control him.
Lotte confronts Dr. Lester, who reveals that he is, in fact, Captain Mertin, who, having discovered the portal to a "vessel body" in the late 1800s, erected the Mertin-Flemmer building to conceal it. He has obtained immortality by moving from one body to the next, which becomes "ripe" on the host's 44th birthday, allowing him to take possession. If he were to enter the portal past midnight on that day, he would instead be trapped in the next newborn vessel, helpless inside the new host's mind. This time, Lester has invited a group of friends to join him in occupying Malkovich once he turns 44, and Lotte warns them that Craig has taken control.
Craig discovers he can occupy Malkovich indefinitely. Inhabiting him over the next eight months, he makes Malkovich into a world-class puppeteer and marries Maxine. Later, Maxine discovers that she is pregnant. On Malkovich's 44th birthday, Lester and Lotte kidnap Maxine. They call to demand that Craig leave Malkovich, threatening to kill Maxine, but he hangs up. In desperation, Lotte decides to shoot Maxine, who escapes into the portal. Lotte pursues her through Malkovich's subconscious before they are both ejected. Maxine confesses that she kept her unborn child because it was conceived while Lotte was in Malkovich's mind, meaning that it is Lotte's child, too, and the women cement their love for each other.
Craig, believing Maxine is still in danger, leaves Malkovich's mind, allowing Lester and his friends to enter. Discovering that Maxine has discarded him for Lotte, Craig swears to reenter the portal to take back Malkovich's mind. Seven years later, an older Malkovich, now inhabited by multiple people, tells Sheen about Lester and his friends' plan to extend their lives via the portal, which now leads to the mind of Maxine's daughter Emily. Craig, who entered the portal too late, is permanently trapped inside Emily, forced to watch Lotte and Maxine live happily together.
Spike Jonze makes a cameo appearance as Derek Mantini's assistant; Mantini is billed in the story as the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world and arouses Craig's envy. Brad Pitt also has a brief cameo, as a miffed star in the documentary on Malkovich's career, who seems to be on the verge of saying something before the shot ends. Sean Penn appears as himself, a fan of Malkovich's puppeteer work. Film director David Fincher makes an uncredited appearance as Christopher Bing in the American Arts & Culture pseudo-documentary on John Malkovich. Winona Ryder, Andy Dick, and the members of Hanson can be seen in the audience of a Malkovich puppet show. [8]
Kaufman's idea of Being John Malkovich originated simply as "a story about a man who falls in love with someone who is not his wife." Gradually he added further elements to the story which he found entertaining, such as floor 7+1⁄2 of the Mertin Flemmer building; among his first ideas, Malkovich was "nowhere to be seen". [9] He wrote the script on spec in 1994 and though it was widely read by production company and film studio executives, all turned it down. [10] Hoping to find a producer, Kaufman sent the script to Francis Ford Coppola, who passed it on to his daughter's then boyfriend Spike Jonze. [11]
Jonze first read the script in 1996 and had agreed to direct the film by 1997. [10] [12] Jonze took the script to Propaganda Films, which agreed to produce the film in partnership with production company Single Cell Pictures. [10] [12] Single Cell producers Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern pitched the film to numerous studios, including New Line Cinema, who dropped the project after chairman Robert Shaye asked, "Why the fuck can't it be Being Tom Cruise ?" [13] Jonze recalled that Malkovich asked the same question, and that Malkovich had felt that "Either the movie's a bomb and it's got not only my name above the title but my name in the title, so I'm fucked that way; or it does well and I'm just forever associated with this character." [14] Jonze explained in the same interview that he had not realized how brave Malkovich's performance was. [14]
With a budget of $10 million, [15] principal photography of Being John Malkovich began on July 20, 1998, and continued through August. [12] [16] Filming took place primarily in Los Angeles; [16] specific locations included the University of Southern California campus and the Observation Bar on board the RMS Queen Mary. [17] [18]
The puppets were created by Kamela Portuges-Robbins and Images in Motion. Phillip Huber animated the puppets. [19] About Huber's puppetry, Jonze has said he was a full-time puppeteer and controlled his puppets with impressive means, such as using strings and no rods to control them, as well as swinging the puppets on high wires. [20]
Diaz's make-up artist Gucci Westman described styling Diaz in the role as "a challenge, to make her look homely." [21] The script included minimal physical descriptions of characters, and thus when Diaz took up the role she did not know that "people weren't going to recognize me." [22] Cusack read the film's script after he had asked his agent to present him with the "craziest, most unproduceable script you can find." Impressed with the script, he asked his agent to follow its progress and book him an audition, which won him the role. [23]
Keener cited Being John Malkovich as an instance of her taking up a role based on the director's previous work. She had heard about Jonze's experience with music videos and took up the part of Maxine although she initially disliked the character and did not feel that she was right for the part. [24] [25] She was subsequently nominated for an Oscar.
Kaufman said that there was never another actor in Malkovich's place in the script: "The screenplay was always "Being John Malkovich", even before I had any expectation that John Malkovich would even read the script." [12] He chose Malkovich because he believed there to be "an enigmatic quality about him that works", [26] though Malkovich was partly chosen because of the sound of his name in repetition. Kaufman explained that "When we were thinking of alternatives, we found that a lot of them weren't fun to say." [9] Jonze's then-father-in-law Francis Ford Coppola was able to contact Malkovich, [10] and Jonze flew with producer Sandy Stern to Malkovich's home in France. Stern said that Malkovich was "half intrigued and half horrified" when he first read the script, but he eventually agreed to star in the film. [13]
Being John Malkovich: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
---|---|
Soundtrack album by Various artists | |
Released | 1999 |
Genre | Soundtrack |
Label | Astralwerks |
Producer | Various |
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [27] |
All tracks are written by Carter Burwell, except where noted
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Amphibian" (Mark Bell Mix, written by Björk) | 2:47 |
2. | "Malkovich Masterpiece Remix" (Written by Spike Jonze, performed by John Malkovich) | 2:22 |
3. | "Puppet Love" | 2:02 |
4. | "Momentary Introspection" | 1:07 |
5. | "You Should Know" | 0:34 |
6. | "Craig Plots" | 3:40 |
7. | "Malkovich Shrine" | 0:45 |
8. | "Embarcation" | 1:46 |
9. | "Subcon Chase" | 2:03 |
10. | "The Truth" | 1:21 |
11. | "Love on the Phone" | 0:46 |
12. | "To Lester's" | 0:26 |
13. | "Maxine Kidnapped" | 1:15 |
14. | "To Be John M" | 1:59 |
15. | "Craig's Overture" | 1:00 |
16. | "Allegro from Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, SZ106" (Béla Bartók) | 7:21 |
17. | "Carter Explains Scene 71 to the Orchestra" | 0:29 |
18. | "Lotte Makes Love" | 1:28 |
19. | "Monkey Memories" | 1:32 |
20. | "Future Vessel" | 3:40 |
21. | "Amphibian" (Film Mix, written by Björk) | 4:37 |
Being John Malkovich was given limited release in the United States theatres on October 22, 1999, and opened across 25 screens. On its opening weekend, the film grossed US$637,731 across 25 screens with a per-screen average of $25,495. [28] It expanded to another 150 screens the following week, [28] bringing in $1.9 million with a per-screen average of $10,857. [29] In its third week, the film's release widened to 467 locations and grossed $2.4 million, averaging a lower $5,041 per screen with a cumulative gross of $6.1 million. [30] It moved into a wide release the next week, expanding to 591 screens, and grossed $1.9 million with a 20% drop in ticket sales. [31] Its fifth week brought in $2.2 million with a 17% increase in ticket sales, [32] which dropped a further 33% the following week despite further expansion to 624 screens. [33] It finished its theatrical run after 26 weeks with a total gross of $22,863,596. [34]
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment was originally supposed to release this film outside the United States. [35] However, as a result of Seagram acquiring PolyGram's assets, its film division was folded into a new entity named Universal Pictures International, with all projects in different stages of development now transferred to that company. [36] The film opened in the United Kingdom in March 2000, earning £296,282 in its debut week [37] and closing after fifteen weeks with a total gross of £1,098,927. [38] In France, the film opened in December 1999 with a gross of US$546,000 from 94 venues and went on to further success due to positive reviews and word of mouth. [39] [40] It grossed $205,100 from 109 screens on its opening weekend in Italy and ticket sales dropped by 37% the following week with a cumulative gross of $480,000 from 82 screens. [39] [41] Its German release brought in a total of $243,071. [42] Being John Malkovich had a total foreign gross of $9,523,455, combined with its domestic gross to give an international total of over $32 million. [1]
Being John Malkovich was initially released in 2000 on VHS, both as a regular edition and a limited edition collector's set, [43] [44] and on DVD, with special features including a theatrical trailer, TV spots, cast and crew biographies, the director's photo album and featurettes on floor 7½ and puppeteering. [45] A special edition DVD, released later the same year, included the aforementioned features, an interview with Jonze and two behind-the-scenes featurettes. [46] It was released on HD DVD in 2008. The Criterion Collection released a special edition of the film on Blu-ray and DVD in 2012. [47]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 136 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Smart, funny, and highly original, Being John Malkovich supports its wild premise with skillful direction and a stellar ensemble cast." [48] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100 based on 36 critics reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". [49]
Roger Ebert awarded the film a full four stars, writing: "What an endlessly inventive movie this is! Charlie Kaufman, the writer of Being John Malkovich, supplies a dazzling stream of inventions, twists, and wicked paradoxes. And the director, Spike Jonze, doesn't pounce on each one like fresh prey, but unveils it slyly, as if there's more where that came from... The movie has ideas enough for half a dozen films, but Jonze and his cast handle them so surely that we never feel hard-pressed; we're enchanted by one development after the next". He concluded: "Every once in a long, long while a movie comes along that is unlike any other. A movie that creates a new world for us and uses it to produce wonderful things. Forrest Gump was a movie like that, and so in different ways were M*A*S*H, This Is Spinal Tap , After Hours , Babe and There's Something About Mary . What do such films have in common? Nothing. That's the point. Each one stakes out a completely new place and colonizes it with limitless imagination. Either Being John Malkovich gets nominated for best picture, or the members of the Academy need portals into their brains." [50] He later named it the best film of 1999. [51] Peter Rainer, writing for New York , commented that "dazzlingly singular movies aren't often this much fun" [52] and Owen Gleiberman, writing for Entertainment Weekly , called it "the most excitingly original movie of the year." [53]
Adam Spiegel, known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes films, commercials, music videos, skateboard videos and television.
Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress. Known for her work in both comedy and drama, her films have grossed over $3 billion in the U.S. box-office. Diaz established herself as a sex symbol and one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, and in 2013 she was named the highest-paid actress over 40. She has received various accolades, including nominations for a BAFTA Award and four Golden Globe Awards.
American Beauty is a 1999 American psychological dark comedy-drama film written by Alan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes in his feature directorial debut. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, an advertising executive who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, played by Mena Suvari. Annette Bening stars as Lester's materialistic wife, Carolyn, and Thora Birch plays their insecure daughter, Jane. Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, and Allison Janney co-star. Academics have described the film as satirizing how beauty and personal satisfaction are perceived by the American middle class; further analysis has focused on the film's explorations of romantic and paternal love, sexuality, materialism, self-liberation, and sexual grooming.
Dangerous Liaisons is a 1988 American period romantic drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton, based on his 1985 play Les Liaisons dangereuses, itself adapted from the 1782 French novel of the same name by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. It stars Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman, Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick, Peter Capaldi and Keanu Reeves.
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
Three Kings is a 1999 American black comedy war film written and directed by David O. Russell from a story by John Ridley. It stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze as four American soldiers on a gold heist that takes place during the 1991 uprisings in Iraq against Saddam Hussein following the end of the First Gulf War.
Adaptation is a 2002 American comedy drama film directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman. It features an ensemble cast led by Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper, with Cara Seymour, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton, Ron Livingston and Maggie Gyllenhaal in supporting roles.
John Paul Cusack is an American actor. He began acting in films during the 1980s, starring in coming-of-age dramedies such as Sixteen Candles (1984), Better Off Dead (1985), The Sure Thing (1985), Stand by Me (1986), and Say Anything... (1989). In the 1990s, he then started appearing in independent films and had leading men roles in Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Con Air (1997), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Anastasia (1997), The Thin Red Line (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), High Fidelity (2000), America's Sweethearts (2001), Max (2002), and Runaway Jury (2003).
Charles Stuart Kaufman is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He both wrote and directed the films Synecdoche, New York (2008), Anomalisa (2015), and I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020). In 2020, Kaufman released his first novel, Antkind.
The Orchid Thief is a 1998 non-fiction book by American journalist Susan Orlean, based on her investigation of the 1994 arrest of horticulturist John Laroche and a group of Seminoles in south Florida for poaching rare orchids in the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve.
The 3rd Online Film Critics Society Awards, honoring the best in film for 1999, were given in 2000.
Keith "K. K." Barrett is an American production designer known for his work on feature films by Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola, among others.
The Invasion is a 2007 American science fiction thriller film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, written by David Kajganich, and starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Unhappy with the original cut of the film, the studio hired The Wachowskis for additional writing and James McTeigue to re-shoot some scenes. The plot follows a psychiatrist (Kidman) in Washington, D.C. who finds those around her turning into emotionless beings shortly after a Space Shuttle crashes to Earth, bringing with it mysterious alien spores.
Eric James Zumbrunnen was a film editor who won the ACE Eddie Award for the film Being John Malkovich (1999).
Sandy Stern is an American film producer, known for his work on the films Pump Up the Volume (1990), Being John Malkovich (1999) and Saved! (2004).
Red is a 2010 American action comedy film loosely inspired by the DC Comics limited series of the same name. Produced by Di Bonaventura Pictures and distributed by Summit Entertainment, it is the first film in the Red series. Directed by Robert Schwentke and written by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber, it stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Karl Urban, and Mary-Louise Parker, alongside Rebecca Pidgeon, Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfuss, Julian McMahon, Ernest Borgnine, and James Remar. Red follows Frank Moses (Willis), a former black-ops agent who reunites with his old team to capture an assassin who has vowed to kill him.
Her is a 2013 American science-fiction romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Spike Jonze. Her follows Theodore Twombly, a man who develops a relationship with Samantha, an artificially intelligent virtual assistant personified through a female voice. The film also stars Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, and Chris Pratt. Her was dedicated to James Gandolfini, Harris Savides, Maurice Sendak and Adam Yauch, who all died before the film's release.
Kamela Portuges, also known as Kamela Portuges-Robbins, was an American puppeteer, puppet designer, sculptor, animator, illustrator, writer, and director. Her work can be seen in many films including Being John Malkovich, James and the Giant Peach, Monkeybone, and Bicentennial Man. She started her career in puppetry in 1989 and was the co-founder of production company Images in Motion.