Daily Dialogue — March 4, 2018

Joel: Hi.
Clementine: Hi. Didn’t figure you’d show your face around me again. I guess I thought you were… humiliated. You did run away, after all.
Joel: I just needed to see you.
Clementine: Yeah?
Joel: I’d like to, um… take you out, or something.
Clementine: You’re married.
Joel: Not yet, not married. No, I’m not married.
Clementine: Look, man, I’m telling you right off the bat, I’m high-maintainance, so… I’m not gonna tip-toe around your marriage, or whatever it is you’ve got goin’ there. If you wanna be with me, you’re with me.
Joel: Okay.
Clementine: Too many guys think I’m a concept, or I complete them, or I’m gonna make them alive. But I’m just a fucked-up girl who’s lookin’ for my own peace of mind. Don’t assign me yours.
Joel: I remember that speech really well.
Clementine: I had you pegged, didn’t I?
Joel: You had the whole human race pegged.
Clementine: Hmm. Probably.
Joel: I still thought you were gonna save my life… even after that.
Clementine: Ohhh… I know.
Joel: It would be different, if we could just give it another go-round.
Clementine: Remember me. Try your best. Maybe we can.

— Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, story by Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Walk and Talk.

Trivia: The idea for this film was brought to Michel Gondry by his friend, artist Pierre Bismuth, who suggested, “You get a card in the mail that says: someone you know has just erased you from their memory.”

Dialogue On Dialogue: This scene is a WAT (‘Walk And Talk’) mixed with a BOB (‘Bit Of Business’), the latter Clementine shelving books. It’s a great framework for a dialogue-driven scene.