Week 1: Synecdoche, NY
----------Charlie Kaufman directs Robin Weigert, in Synecdoche, New York.
There is a clock on the dresser. It changes to 7:15. This ticking clock will serve as a motif for "Synecdoche, NY," Charlie Kaufman's sometimes brilliant, sometimes frustrating, and always unique film. As the running time of the film passes the viewer experiences nothing less than over fifty years in the mind of the main character; who is not necessarily always even himself.
Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a theater director living in New York City. Cotard is not necessarily a likable person. He is neurotic, selfish, and has frequent delusions of grandeur while also succumbing to depression, anxiety or worse. At the beginning of the film he lives with his wife, also an artist, and their small child. Over the course of the film we will follow him through his exploits as a person trying to achieve greatness through his art- art which takes his mind places that can only be imagined and visualized by the great screenwriter Charlie Kaufman in his directorial debut.
In his film, Kaufman makes undeniably one of the most ambitious, audacious and confusing studio pictures of all time. It is as if Kaufman has, himself, received a Macarthur genius grant and been given free reign to an insurmountable budget. The result is a film that is at times deliberately pretentious, confusing, brilliant, masterful, and ridiculous.
Wow. Is that not a mixed review? On the contrary- I have nothing but praise for Synecdoche, NY. While the film may be all of the adjectives described above, it is never uninteresting. Kaufman has created a dreamlike visualization of one mans, and everyone else’s, subconscious.
The plot (so to speak) is about a living theater piece. A director decides that he wants to make a living, truthful, performance representation of life. To do this he hires actors to play characters living in a full scale model of New York City. The director gives the actors their roles, and they fulfill them per the director’s request. The full scale model of New York City is constructed inside of a warehouse in New York City; nevermind that this is impossible. In order to ensure that the performances are honest and real he hires actors to portray the actors inside of the theater piece. These actors reside and work inside of a full scale model of New York City located inside of the full scale model of New York City, located inside the warehouse, located in the “actual” city of New York. These performances are mirrored by other performances. Characters live, come out into fruition, suck back into themselves, and die. Are you confused yet? It is ok; it means you are only sane.
Throughout Cotard's journey he falls in love, has an affair, is married twice, has several children, has a homosexual relationship, directs acts, lives, dies, and even goes to the bathroom. His experiences are supported by his own immediate relationships. There is the wife (Catherine Keener) whom he idolizes and does not respect him, the girl that loves him unconditionally (Samantha Morton) whom he cannot return the love with until it is to late, the shrink (Hope Davis) who is using him, and the actors (Tom Noonan, Dianne Wiest) who will play him truthfully- just like Cotard wants them to. In short, throughout the course of nearly fifty years the character experiences nearly every emotion and role of the human experience.
Nearly every person I have had a discussion with about this film has had mixed reactions. Some viewers perceive the film as arrogant, self serving and confusing to the point of idiocy. Others think it to be a Masterpiece. Certainly it is a bit of both. This makes the selection a perfect choice for A Movie A Week's first column. I have seen the movie now probably five times, and each time I have a different experience. This is the kind of movie that cannot be fully understood until viewed multiple times.
Kaufman is no amateur; he is the real thing. Over a course of four films, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation (the best written film of the decade), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and now Synecdoche, he has created a universal theme for his films- the complexities of human consciousness. This is an amazing first film!
I think the point that Kaufman is trying to make is that every emotion we feel in our consciousness is felt by everyone else. Because everyone feels all emotions, every life is every other life. We are all playing our own roles, as directed by our consciousness, Id, or GOD- if you'd like. As we are born and live through our life, our experiences become everyone else’s experiences. We compartmentalize our mind into what we want to do, what we actually do, and what we can only dream of doing. This compartmentalization takes place with every person, so every person can relate in one way or another with everyone else. Kaufman uses the metaphor of New York as an example of this. Every room and person of the artists fake city is a part of the artist itself; every person an artist in their own mind.
When the film opened at the Toronto Film Festival in 2008 it released to immediately mixed reviews. The film was a box office failure, earning million out of a million budget. This does not surprise me. These days audiences (particularly American ones) flock in droves to see the latest bit of garbage, and fail to invest the time and energy into watching a film that may make them think or see the world in a different way. It is finding a new audience on home video, and is destined to become a cult classic.
It is important to note some of the performances in the film. Samantha Morton, as Hazel-Cotard's primary love interest, gives the best performance of the lot. Dianne Wiest, who plays Caden Cotard in Caden Cotard's work, is the second best. The worst performance in the film is Seymour-Hoffman's. His character is so repulsive, dry, and morbid all of the time that he is barely likeable. His performance is monotone and he open mouth breathes throughout many of his lines. While watching the film my wife observed that Hoffman looked like a "skinned dick," a crude but truthful reaction. I have no doubt in my mind that this is the performance that Kaufman intended him to give. If Hoffman is playing Cotard, who is probably playing Kaufman, who in the film is the model of every person on the planet- what does that say about the human race? Kaufman deliberately chose an actor that could give a performance that is pathetic and sad, because he sees the human endeavor as a pathetic, sad odyssey towards death. Is that a depressing concept? Certainly. Could it be truthful? Certainly. This is one of the decade’s best films.
-------------------------------------------------------------------Caden Cotard as Ellen
A Viewer’s Guide to Synecdoche, NY
The opening shot: The opening shot of the film is a fade in of a clock, switching from one minute to another. Time is tricky in this film. One of the films first (and best) sequences involves the Cotard family sitting at a dinner table, having small talk over breakfast. In the course of the first five minutes of the film a month goes by over the same dinner conversation. Kaufman is trying to point out the redundancy of happy family life. This is the best Breakfast sequence since the decade’s long breakfast in “Citizens Kane,” which ironically also plays with time.
The smartest person in the film: Is the child, Olive (Sadie Goldstein). When her father is discussing his physical ailments he informs her that he suffers from Sycosis. She asks what that is. He informs her that there are two kinds, Psychosis- which means he is crazy, and Sycosis- a skin disease. Olive immediately points out- ‘Could you have the same thing?”
The Burning House: Is the perfect metaphor for the character Hazel’s experience throughout the film. She buys the house, even though she knows it is burning, shortly after she falls in love with Caden. Each time we see the house it is engulfed in more aggressive flames, until it eventually kills her, which is directly after Caden and her get back together. It is ironic how many people will live in a burning house, secretly knowing it will eventually kill them.
The GOD factor: Did Caden die after the seizure at the end of the first half of the film, before being awarded the grant? Is Sammy GOD to Caden, and is Ellen/Caden GOD to Caden playing Ellen? If this is true what does that say about the nature of GOD?
Background noise: The background of the film is important. Art in the streets of Germany helps preview where the film is going. In the very beginning of the film there is an interview playing on the radio while Cotard looks at himself in the mirror. The interviewer says that people like fall because it reminds them of death, and that we are all hurdeling towards death. The lounge singer in the bar where Caden and Hazel go on a date is singing a song written by Kaufman. The song describes the pain of realizing that you are alone in the universe.
The Title: “The title means a lot of things, you will see, it means a lot” said Caden. The title of this film is Synecdoche, NY.
synecdoche[si-nek-duh-kee]- noun Rhetoric; a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special.
Well there it is-the films meaning! I am you, and you are I. We all are actors in a play called life and we all play the same roles. I am a part of the whole, and the whole is part of me.
Review and Analysis by Shaun Henisey
CLICK HERE to discuss Synecdoche, New York.
Cast and Credits:
Caden: Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Hazel: Samantha Morton
Adele: Catherine Keener
Tammy: Emily Watson
Ellen / Millicent: Dianne Wiest
Maria: Jennifer Jason Leigh
Madeline: Hope Davis
Sony Pictures Classics presents a film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman.
Runtime: 124 minutes. Rated R (for language and some sexual content/nudity).