Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.
Cinema Atlas Connection
Charlie Kaufman has said the premise of Eternal Sunshine traces directly to La Jetée — a 28-minute French film from 1962 by Chris Marker, made almost entirely from still photographs, in which a man travels through his own memories after the apocalypse. Marker invented the memory-as-technology premise. Alain Resnais spent his career in the same territory: Hiroshima Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad. All three are on Criterion Channel.