Comprehensive information and links about Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich is a 1999 film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze.

The film was widely praised for its originality, both in terms of the and Jonze's direction. Kaufman's blending of fact and outrageous fiction was a theme continued in his next film with Jonze, ). Jonze's direction and the performances of the lead actors were also viewed favourably by most critics. As well as Malkovich's performance as himself (or at least a version of himself; his middle name in the film is Horatio, while his real middle name is Gavin), Cameron Diaz's role attracted considerable attention, at least partly as she was almost unrecognizable as the dowdy Lotte.

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The film centres around Craig Schwartz, an unsuccessful puppeteer involved in an forlorn marriage with his pet-obsessed wife Lotte.

At the decree of his wife, Schwartz begins to look for work and gets a job as a filing clerk for the Lestercorp Company at their offices on floor 7½ in the Mertin Flemmer building in Manhattan.

One day, after moving a filing cabinet to look for a errant folder, Schwartz discovers a mysterious portal which he discovers transports him into the conscious of John Malkovich, allowing him to observe the world through the eyes of his host for around 15 minutes before being unceremoniously dropped into a ditch by the side of the New Jersey Turnpike on the verge of the City.

The puppeteer reveals his discovery to the beautiful Maxine, who has become the object of Schwartz unrequited desire, who proposes the two form a business selling the experience of being John Malkovich for $200 a pop.

Schwartz tells Lotte about the portal and she asks to try it entering Malkovich conscious as he takes a shower. She is aroused by the sensation and becomes obsessed with the portal wanting to return to her host's when Maxine calls to arrange a meeting with Malkovich at 8.00pm that night.

Lotte returns to the portal at 8.00 that night and finds herself deeply attracted to Maxine who later claims to have sensed that Lotte was inside Malkovich during the pairs meeting.

Lotte cannot stop thinking about Maxine and invites her to dinner. After eating Lasagne and smoking a joint both Schwartz and Lotte attempt to kiss Maxine who refuses both of their advances revealing that she is not remotely interested in Schwartz but is mutually attracted to Lotte but only when she is inside Malkovich. The pair arrange a liaison when Lotte is inside Malkovich and Maxine makes love to Malkovich as soon as she realises that Lotte is incumbent in his conscious.

Schwartz realises the only way he will be able to get Maxine is by pretending to be Lotte in Malkovich and forces his wife at gun point to call Maxine and arrange another meeting as Malkovich before tying her in a cage with her pet chimpanzee.

Maxine seduces Malkovich again thinking that Lotte is in his mind but actually it is Schwartz who manages to manipulate Malkovich .

Malkovich becomes paranoid that he is being controlled by a supernatural force and thinks that Maxine is a witch he follows her to the Mertin Flemmer Building and discovers JM Inc. the company Schwartz and Maxine set up to sell the experience of being Malkovich. He enters the portal but instead of being transported into his mind he is taken to a parallel universe where everyone has his head and can only communicate with the word “Malkovich”. He is then dumped at the turnpike where he meets Schwartz and tells him to close the portal. Schwartz ignores the request and again forces Lotte to arrange a meeting between Maxine and Malkovich.

After Schwartz leaves to enter Malkovich, Lotte escapes when her pet chimp unties her and she is then able to call Maxine and inform her of Schwartz deceit. Surprisingly Maxine tells Lotte that she was also aroused by Craig and that she will still be going to meet Malkovich with Craig is inside him.

This time when Maxine arrives at Malkovich’ apartment Craig is able to take total control of his and the pair make love before deciding that Craig will remain inside Malkovich permanently. Craig begins to control Malkovich and reinvents himself as the most successful puppeteer the world has ever seen and it is revealed that he has become married to Maxine but that the two are growing increasingly distant.

Lotte goes to see Lester, Schwartz boss, who reveals to her that he has known about the portal for many years and has infact used it on several occasions in order to live forever in the is ripe they will be able to control it in the way Schwartz has been. Lester also explains to Lotte that after 12.00pm on the day the host becomes ripe the portal will move to the next host candidate and that anyone entering after 12.00pm will become trapped in the new host whose subconscious will be powerful enough to overpower the whoever has entered the portal. Lotte explains that Schwartz is controlling Malkovich and Lester believes he will be too powerful to remove so a plan is hatched to force him out of Malkovich.

Lester and his cohorts capture Maxine and call Malkovich to tell Craig they will kill her if he does not leave. Craig reluctantly leaves Malkovich and Lester and his friends are able to enter his in time to take it over. Maxine and Lotte fall in love when Maxine reveals that she has had feelings for her since Maxine and Malkovich first had sex and that she is carrying the baby of Malkovich from when Lotte was inside him.

Craig becomes distraught when he finds this out and presumably rushed back to the portal to attempt to re-enter Malkovich but he was too late and in a cruel twist it is revealed that he is trapped in the of the next host, which happened to be Maxine's daughter, conceived by Lotte when she was in Malkovich. Suppressed by the host’s subconscious he is unable to do anything but watch Maxine and Lotte live happily ever after through the eyes of their child.

which circulated on the Internet showed a version of the plot that differed significantly, especially in the second half; in this early version, Satan is shown to be behind the entire concept of inhabiting others' brains. In fact, the unseen "Flemmer" of the Mertin Flemmer building was supposed to be him., the closing credits were going to play "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head" by They Might Be Giants2 was the actual apartment number of John Malkovich's apartment. He recalls, "it was kind of cool because I thought I might have tapped into something."The play that Malkovich is reading into a tape recorder is Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard." The line beginning "I'm as hungry as the winter..." is at the end of Act Two, where Trofimov is speaking to Anya, pontificating on his rejection of materialism.The play that John Malkovich is rehearsing on stage is Shakespeare's "Richard III." The lines "Was ever a woman in this humour woo'd? Was ever a woman in this humour won?" are I.ii.239-240, where Richard is gloating over his use of power, lies and crime to obtain the woman he desires, Queen Anne. This rehearsal scene is immediately followed by the first time that Craig has sex with Maxine via Malkovich.At the beginning of the film when Craig is trying to guess Maxine's name, one of the names he mumbles is "Emily", the name of the child that Maxine gives birth to at the end of the film. The names Craig mumbles is an allusion to Dr. Lester and his group of friends that can exist within other souls.Willie Garson (Guy in Restaurant) improvised the scene where he encounters John Malkovich and says, "You were really great in that movie where you play that retard." According to Garson, director Spike Jonze had instructed Garson to use the word "retard" as many times as he could.The 1990 Steppenwolf Theatre building in Chicago (Malkovich was one of the first members of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and remains one today) includes a half-floor used for storage.Charlie Kaufman sent the screenplay to Francis Ford Coppola after he wrote it. Coppola liked it very much and showed it to his daughter's husband, Spike Jonze. Jonze liked the screenplay so much that he approached Kaufman about directing the movie.Several characters in the movie remember Malkovich as having played a jewel thief, even though, as he correctly points out, he never did. However, Malkovich did eventually play a jewel thief in , Lester and his friends weren't using Malkovich's portal as a means for extending their lives, but in a plot to take over the world in the name of Satan. Satan was the mysterious 'Flemmer' that the Mertin Flemmer building was half named after.In the scene in the Mertin Flemmer building lobby, when Craig browses the floor listings to find LesterCorp, the camera scrolls past the listing "Eric Zumbrunnen, CPA". Eric Zumbrunnen is the film's editor.The play that Craig was performing with his puppets (when he gets smacked by an angry parentBeing John Malkovich is based on the letters of Abelard and Heloise, written between 1115 and 1117 AD, which were found, copied and abridged by Johannes de Vepria, a 15th century Cistercian monk, into "Ex Epistolis duorum amantium" ("From the Letters of Two Lovers"). This became a classic document of early tragic romance used by many artists in their work including William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet. In addition, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's later project (2004) took its title, and no small amount of inspiration, from Alexander Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard."A fictional behind-the-scenes glimpse of the making of this movie appears in screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's subsequent movie,