Being John Malkovich (1999)
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- The incredible score for Being John Malkovich was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
- Spike Jonze originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
Being John Malkovich is a 1999 American fantasy comedy directed by Spike Jonze, written by Charlie Kaufman in one of the most audaciously original screenplays in cinema. John Cusack stars as Craig Schwartz, a failed puppeteer who takes a filing clerk job on the 7/1/2 floor of a Manhattan office building โ a floor with four-and-a-half-foot ceilings โ and discovers a portal behind a filing cabinet that allows anyone who enters it to spend 15 minutes inside the head of the real actor John Malkovich, experiencing the world through his eyes. Craig, his dowdy wife Lotte played by Cameron Diaz, and his alluring coworker Maxine, played by Catherine Keener, begin commercializing the portal, each pursuing their own obsessions through Malkovich's body.
Charlie Kaufman's screenplay defied every screenwriting convention โ it was simultaneously a workplace comedy, a metaphysical thriller, a love triangle, and a meditation on identity, desire, and the commodity of celebrity. John Malkovich's willingness to play himself as a confused, manipulated vessel demonstrated extraordinary self-awareness. Being John Malkovich earned $23 million on a $13 million budget.
