Eternal class of Kauffman's mind

I was amazed, when I first saw the smirnoff ad where the hero and the heroine escape from a Nazi general ( trivia: this was the first time bullet timing was used in an ad, and this many years before Matrix)

I have equally enjoyed watching the commercials of Air France and Levis for their sheer visualization, but never bothered to find out about the director.

I missed 'Adaptations' but enjoyed 'being malkovich', which I thought was a clever movie for a finite set of viewers, who are bored with watching oversmart heroes single handedly blowing up terrorist's masterplans.

When the director of these ads ( Gondry) and the screen writer of the above movies (Kauffman) get together, it is quite a treat to watch. In a way I feel these two are made for each other. Only Gondry's visualizations can do justice to the ideas of Kauffman and ESOTSM is a showcase for this deadly combination, the way they present dreamlike sequences, challenging your predictable perceptions everytime.

The concept of selectively erasing the memories is not really a new one ( think MIB, think Total recall, or for that matter think Shakuntala by Kalidasa) though the treatment is. faceless characters, childhood memories being mixed up adult images, parodoxical placement of objects ( bed in the beach, sand in the bedroom, door connecting Barnes & Nobles to your bedroom) makes this movie an ideal movie to watch in DVD.

You can rewind and replay so that you dont miss out on the finer points.

Anyway, will look forward to more movies from the duo.