Cinema
Being John Malkovich
Spike Jonze · 1999
Synopsis
Craig Schwartz, a penniless street puppeteer married to Lotte, who loves animals, takes a filing job in a New York office building, on the seventh and a half floor, whose ceiling forces everyone to walk bent over. He falls for his colleague Maxine, who rejects him. Behind a filing cabinet, he discovers a small door: the tunnel leads into the head of the actor John Malkovich, whose life one watches through his eyes for a quarter of an hour before being ejected beside a motorway. He tells Maxine about it, and the two decide to sell the passage.
Context
It is the first feature film by its director, who came from music videos, from a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, who until then had written for television. Written in 1994, the script was turned down by the studios before finding a taker. John Malkovich, who had at first refused, agreed to play himself, and the shoot took place mainly in Los Angeles. The film opened a series of collaborations between Jonze and Kaufman, the former as director or as producer.
Who it is for
A film of one hour fifty-three minutes, whose fantastical starting point is presented as a given.
Prizes and reception
Three Oscar nominations in 2000, including direction and screenplay, the British prize for best original screenplay and a prize for best first film.