Nishka Nanani
Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 film written, directed, and produced by Charlie Kaufman, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener. Charlie Kaufman’s style goes on to becoming iconic and instantly recognizable, using film to exhibit and critique the ways in which we run our world and live our lives; by using contemporary ‘third way’ art in unique ways virtually nonexistent in the works that came before him. His accomplishments aside however, Kaufman has been privy to a fair deal of criticism; it is why I’d suspect if ever (after reading this article) you decide to go ahead and watch Synecdoche, New York, you wholeheartedly love it, or completely despise it.
Synecdoche, New York follows the life of a theater director Caden Cotard, up until his death at the end of the of the film. The films starts as we see Caden’s life unravel when he starts to grow increasingly distant from his wife who later leaves him to peruse a career in Berlin. After the success of his previous productions, he now has the means to fund his own interests and aims to create an ‘artistic piece of brutal realism and honesty’, something to distract him from his own harsh realities. He does this be gathering a cast of actors in a large warehouse in Manhattan and directs them to live out their constructive lives in sets that is a replicate of their outside world. By casting actors to play characters from his own life he essentially works to recreate the world that he had just lost. As the years swiftly pass on screen, we see the warehouse continue to expand in relation with the city outside and the lines of reality and the world of the play starts to blur. Towards the end of the film Caden lets an actress take over his role as the director and adopts her role of Ellen, he lives out the rest of his days in character until finally at the time of death the director gives his final cue, ‘die’.
The amount of symbolism, motif, and commentary in this film had left me puzzled and wondering for weeks after watching it, and whilst I’d imagine the room for interpretation in this film would leave some frustrated, I’m guessing many like me would be left intrigued. Virtually every scene, prop, line of dialogue, imagery, and motif within this film has some sort of intrinsic meaning weather that be apparent instantly or uncovered later on. I won’t lie when I say when watching Synecdoche, New York for the first time I was more than a little confused; after a couple hours of browsing the internet as well as a weekends worth of YouTube however, I was able to better understand the almost psychotic levels of symbols and meaning Kaufman incorporated in his film. He made sure that everything in the film had a reason to be there but criticism for the film have stemmed from the same reasonings, with some critics calling the movie ‘self-indulgent’ and ‘incomprehensible’. I however disagree with this sentiment; I believe that Synecdoche, New York was made to evoke an emotional reaction rather than a one of understanding. While the film might not be the easiest to follow, the emotions it is able to express are unlike those I have seen in many other films. While you as the audience might not be able to find much meaning with the film as a whole, each scene holds emotive weight that can hold power with each person differently – the real genius of Synecdoche, New York. Opinions of this movie is still relatively split but I would say watch it anyway as there is something in there for everyone.
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