Break Down Cinema

The following is a slightly edited version of one of my pieces of written coursework from my undergraduate university studies. I have posted it here with a slightly altered title alongside my later works for the purpose of showing the development of my academic research and writing skills. I wrote and submitted the original version of this essay for university coursework in 2018. Introduction The screenplays of Charlie Kaufman typically impart a structural variation of the classical narrative form; some prime examples of this are  Being John Malkovich (Jonze, 1999), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004), and Synecdoche, New York (Kaufman, 2008). In his essay ‘“Frustrated Time” Narration: The Screenplays of Charlie Kaufman’, Chris Dzialo writes that “Kaufman’s films always have one foot comfortably within the Hollywood studio system, ensuring that major plot elements are always comprehensible” (Dzialo, 2009, p. 107). While Kaufman’s writing involves many non-classical...