being john malkovich

Thinking about imagination and how we deal with our own point of view of the world we live in I watched a movie which is all about this topic.

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH 

It is written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze. It came out in 1999 and the plot, very summurized, is the story of a puppeteer who discovered a portal that leads literally into the head of the movie star, John Malkovich.

First of all the story takes place in a very weird location: the seven and a half floor.  I found it absolutely brilliant. It allows the watcher to imagine a world of his own, where the common rules do not have a real value. A place totally detached from reality.   That floor  was built expressly for a dwarf who was looking for a job in the company which owns the building. She said during her interview:

TW: I am not a child, Captain Mertin

but rather an adult lady of 

miniature proportions.

I am afraid that the world was not

built with me in mind. 

Door knobs are too high, chairs

are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms

mock my stature.

When the main character finds the portal, which is a tiny door hidden by some document drawers, he gets through it and experiences the swap of his personality with another, being for 15 minutes a movie star. The choice of a famous actor as a mind to stay in for a while is incredibly proper with the features of the protagonist. He is in fact a puppeteer and he usually deals with dolls to be in someone else skin for a while.
I think it is something everybody thinks about, but they just don't say it out loud. Everybody has a desire of being someone else some times, but it is something awkward to say. It  might mean dissatisfaction and insecurity.

  When he talks with someone about his experience of being someone else he is really shaken and he says: 

C : The point is that this is a very odd thing, supernatural,for lack of a better word. It raises all sorts of philosophical questions about the nature of self, about the existence of the soul. Am I me? Is Malkovich Malkovich? Was the Buddha right, is duality an illusion? Do you see what a can of worms this portal is? I don't think I can go on living my life as I have lived it.

This is a way very effective way to create an uncanny feeling in someone: am I me?

AM I ME?

IS THAT ME?