{"id":1264,"date":"2008-10-26T22:26:51","date_gmt":"2008-10-27T02:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2022-10-16T16:35:05","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T20:35:05","slug":"synecdoche-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/synecdoche-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"All life’s a play in Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whether it actually is or not, Synecdoche, New York<\/em> has the feel<\/em> of a very, very personal work of art. I know next to nothing about writer\/director Charlie Kaufman’s personal life, and don’t even necessarily feel like I do now. Then again, few people do know Kaufman, as he has famously managed to sidestep much publicity despite perpetrating a successful screenwriting career in an industry in which the cult of personality applies to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synecdoche, New York<\/em> is Kaufman’s first film as director, after a string of playful yet brainy screenplays. The best antecedents I can name would be the surreal satires of Lindsay Anderson (like O Lucky Man!<\/em><\/a>) and the Postmodern deconstruction of Tom Stoppard (especially Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead<\/em>, which wreaks hilarious havok with no less a holy relic than Hamlet). Kaufman’s hit parade so far includes Being John Malkovich<\/em>, Human Nature<\/em> (underrated! see it!), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind<\/em>, Adaptation<\/em>, and one of our favorites, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being John Malkovich<\/em> and Eternal Sunshine<\/em> are both pure pleasures to watch, but Adaptation showed the darker side of Kaufman’s brilliance. As I understood the film, the very life itself of screenwriter “Charlie Kaufman” (Nicolas Cage) slowly becomes the violent, sexed-up Hollywood melodrama he loathes to write. To describe Synecdoche, New York<\/em> in shorthand, it’s as if the cynical, challenging narrative nature of Adaptation<\/em> were crossed with the deep emotional impact of Eternal Sunshine<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here’s a theory to explain Hazel’s enigmatic burning house: could it be an allusion to the Talking Heads song “Love -> Building on Fire”? I’m being serious here…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But what it’s actually “about” would take a lot of analysis to figure out, and my single viewing is not enough to unpack it (assuming my IQ would be up to the task anyway). Like Adaptation<\/em>, it’s actually a little frustrating to watch, but in a good sense, in that the audience is constantly being challenged. I have to admit that I don’t fully “get” it, but I also think it’s clear there’s no single key to unlocking any one meaning of the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m giving it the full five-star rating because I have enormous respect for any such uncompromising, challenging, affecting, and frustrating work of art in cinema. That it was produced as a major motion picture starring numerous famous faces and released in multiplexes nationally alongside the more typical fare Saw V<\/em> and High School Musical 3<\/em> is nothing less than a miracle, and gives one hope for the future of the film industry. At least four people walked out of the screening I attended, some during an uncomfortable nude scene featuring Emily Watson (not uncomfortable in that she isn’t beautiful, because she is, but because the sex scene is so utterly frank). It’s a pity they did, for they missed one of the most weirdly moving last moments of a film I’ve ever seen (although it did have precedent in Peter Weir’s The Truman Show<\/em>, which also suggested the voice of God towards his supplicant is akin to that of a film\/theater\/television director’s towards his actor).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closest thing I’ve seen to Synecdoche, New York<\/em> is Spike Jonze’s<\/span> Michel Gondry’s brilliant music video for Bjork’s “Bachelorette” (Jonze<\/span> Gondry is a longtime collaborator of Kaufman’s, and co-produced Synecdoche, New York<\/span>). (UPDATE: corrections thanks to commenter Greg. I can’t believe I mixed up two of my favorite directors!) Less a pop music promo than a short film that stands on its own merits, “Bachelorette” recounts the tale of a young country girl who writes her autobiography and moves to the big city, where she falls in love with her publisher. A hit, her book spawns a theatrical adaptation, in which a young country girl writes her autobiography, moves to the big city, and falls in love with her publisher. A hit, it too spawns a theatrical play. You get the idea: the tale is infinitely recursive. But each copy is a copy within a copy, each more distorted, flimsy, and sad than its source material. Entropy and decay set in, and the world(s) collapse in upon themselves. Her life basically ends at the point she finishes her autobiography and looks only backwards instead of living for the future. Watch the video here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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