Synecdoche, New York
Encyclopedia
Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 American drama film
written and directed by Charlie Kaufman
, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman
. It was Kaufman's directorial debut.
The film premiered in competition at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival
on May 23, 2008. Sony Pictures Classics
acquired the United States distribution rights, paying no money but agreeing to give the film's backers a portion of the revenues. It had a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on October 24, 2008.
The film's title is a play on Schenectady, New York
, where much of the film is set, and the concept of synecdoche
, wherein a part of something represents the whole, or vice versa.
plays Caden Cotard
, a theater director who finds his life unraveling. Suffering from numerous physical ailments and growing increasingly alienated from his wife, Adele (Catherine Keener
), he hits bottom when Adele leaves him for a new life in Berlin
, taking their daughter, Olive (Sadie Goldstein/Robin Weigert
), with her.
Shortly afterward, Caden unexpectedly receives a MacArthur Fellowship, giving him the financial means to pursue his artistic interests. He is determined to use it to create an artistic piece of brutal realism and honesty, something into which he can pour his whole self. Gathering an ensemble cast into an enormous warehouse in Manhattan
's theater district, he directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives. As the mockup inside the warehouse grows increasingly mimetic
of the city outside, Caden continues to look for solutions to his personal crises. He is traumatized
as he discovers Adele has become a celebrated painter in Berlin and Olive is growing up under the questionable guidance of Adele's friend, Maria (Jennifer Jason Leigh
). After a disastrous fling with the woman who mans the box office, Hazel (Samantha Morton
), he marries Claire (Michelle Williams
), an actress in his cast. Their relationship ultimately fails, however, and he continues his awkward relationship with Hazel, who is by now married with children. Meanwhile, an unknown condition is systematically shutting down his autonomic
functions one by one.
As the years rapidly pass, the continually expanding warehouse is isolated from the deterioration of the city outside. Caden buries himself ever deeper into his magnum opus
, blurring the line between the world of the play and that of reality by populating the cast and crew with doppelgängers. For instance, Sammy Barnathan (Tom Noonan
) is cast in the role of Caden in the play after Sammy reveals that he has been obsessively following Caden for 20 years, while Sammy's lookalike is cast as Sammy. Sammy's own interest in Hazel sparks a revival of Caden's relationship with her.
As he pushes the limits of his relationships personally and professionally, Caden lets an actress take over his role as director and takes on her previous role as Ellen, Adele's cleaning lady. He lives out his days in the model of Adele's apartment under the replacement director's instruction during which some unexplained (and likely in-universe) calamity occurs in the warehouse leaving ruins and bodies in its wake. Finally he prepares for death as he rests his head on the shoulder of an actress who had previously played Ellen's mother, seemingly the only person left alive in the warehouse. As the scene fades to white, Caden says that now he has an idea for how to do the play, when the director's voice in his ear gives him his final cue: "Die."
Miniature paintings and the impossible warehouses
Jungian psychology
References to delusion
Play within a play
Death and decay
approached Kaufman and Spike Jonze
about making a horror film
. The two began working on a film dealing with things they found frightening in real life, rather than typical horror-film tropes. This project eventually evolved into Synecdoche. Jonze was originally slated to direct, but chose to direct Where the Wild Things Are
instead.
The film was shot on location in New York City
, Yonkers
, and Schenectady, New York
.
The score
was composed by Jon Brion
with all lyrics by Kaufman.
Following its premiere at Cannes, the film was shown at the Sarajevo Film Festival
, the Toronto International Film Festival
, the Athens Film Festival, the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, the Ghent International Film Festival, and the Zagreb Film Festival
before its limited theatrical release in the US.
A play version of the film was subsequently published in 2009 by Nick Hern Books
.
and a 67% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes
. A number of critics have compared it to Federico Fellini
's 1963 film 8½
. The Moving Arts Film Journal
ranked the film at #80 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time."
In his review of the movie in the Chicago Sun-Times
, Roger Ebert
said, "I watched it the first time and knew it was a great film." In 2009 Ebert wrote that the movie was the best of the decade. Manohla Dargis
of the New York Times said, "To say that [it] is one of the best films of the year or even one closest to my heart is such a pathetic response to its soaring ambition that I might as well pack it in right now ... Despite its slippery way with time and space and narrative and Mr. Kaufman’s controlled grasp of the medium, Synecdoche, New York is as much a cry from the heart as it is an assertion of creative consciousness. It’s extravagantly conceptual but also tethered to the here and now." In the Los Angeles Times
, Corina Chocano called the film "wildly ambitious ... sprawling, awe-inspiring, heartbreaking, frustrating, hard-to-follow and achingly, achingly sad."
Negative reviews mostly criticized the film for being incomprehensible, pretentious, depressing, or self-indulgent. Rex Reed
, Richard Brody, Roger Friedman, and Chris Carpenter of the Orange County and Long Beach Blade, all labeled it one of the worst films of the year. Owen Gleiberman
of Entertainment Weekly
gave the film a D+, writing "I gave up making heads or tails of Synecdoche, New York, but I did get one message: The compulsion to stand outside of one's life and observe it to this degree isn't the mechanism of art — it's the structure of psychosis
."
named it the best film of the year, as did Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter
.
It appeared on 101 "Best of 2008" lists with 20 of them giving it the number one spot. Some of those who placed it in their top ten included Manohla Dargis of the New York Times, Richard Corliss
of Time
, Shawn Anthony Levy
of The Oregonian
, Josh Rosenblatt of the Austin Chronicle
, Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News, Ty Burr
and Wesley Morris
of the Boston Globe, Lou Lumenick
of the New York Post
, Philip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
, Scott Foundas of LA Weekly
, Walter Chaw, Bill Chambers and Ian Pugh of Film Freak Central (all three of whom placed it at number one), and Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
, who also named it the best film of the decade in 2009.
was nominated for the Palme d'Or
at the Cannes Film Festival and the 2008 Chicago Film Critics Association Award
for Best Original Screenplay.
Kaufman was awarded Best Original Screenplay by the Austin Film Critics Association
and the film was placed on their Top 10 Films of the Year list.
The film won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
and the Robert Altman
Award at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards
ceremony; it also was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay
.
At the 2008 Gotham Independent Film Awards
, the film tied with Vicky Cristina Barcelona
for Best Ensemble Cast.
Mark Friedberg won the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award
for Best Production Design.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
written and directed by Charlie Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. His film work includes Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York...
, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...
. It was Kaufman's directorial debut.
The film premiered in competition at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival
2008 Cannes Film Festival
The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 14 to May 25, 2008. In addition to films selected for competition this year, major Hollywood productions such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Kung Fu Panda had their world premieres at the festival.The British press...
on May 23, 2008. Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...
acquired the United States distribution rights, paying no money but agreeing to give the film's backers a portion of the revenues. It had a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on October 24, 2008.
The film's title is a play on Schenectady, New York
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
, where much of the film is set, and the concept of synecdoche
Synecdoche
Synecdoche , meaning "simultaneous understanding") is a figure of speech in which a term is used in one of the following ways:* Part of something is used to refer to the whole thing , or...
, wherein a part of something represents the whole, or vice versa.
Cast
- Philip Seymour HoffmanPhilip Seymour HoffmanPhilip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...
as Caden Cotard - Catherine KeenerCatherine KeenerCatherine Ann Keener is an American actress. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich and Capote...
as Adele Lack - Samantha MortonSamantha MortonSamantha Jane Morton is an English actress and film director. She began her performing career with guest roles in television shows such as Soldier Soldier and Boon before making her film debut in the 1997 drama film This Is the Sea, playing the character of Hazel Stokes...
as Hazel - Hope DavisHope DavisHope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in more than 20 feature films, including About Schmidt, Arlington Road, Flatliners, Mumford, American Splendor, The Lodger and Next Stop Wonderland....
as Madeleine Gravis - Tom NoonanTom NoonanTom Noonan is an American actor and film writer-director.-Early life:Noonan was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Rosaleen and Tom Noonan, who worked as a dentist and jazz musician respectively...
as Sammy Barnathan, Caden's double - Emily WatsonEmily WatsonEmily Watson is an English actress. She gave an acclaimed debut film performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.- Early life :...
as Tammy, Hazel's double - Jennifer Jason LeighJennifer Jason LeighJennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
as Maria - Dianne WiestDianne WiestDianne Wiest is an American actress. She has had a successful career on stage, television, and film, and has won two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Wiest has also been nominated for a BAFTA Award.-Early life:...
as Millicent Weems (who plays Ellen Bascomb and another of Caden's doubles) - Michelle WilliamsMichelle Williams (actress)Michelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. After starting her career with television guest appearances in the early 1990s, Williams achieved recognition for her role as Jen Lindley on the WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek, which she played from 1998 to 2003...
as Claire Keen - Deirdre O'ConnellDeirdre O'Connell (actress)Deirdre O'Connell is an American character actress who has worked extensively on stage, screen, and television.O'Connell began her career at Stage One, an experimental theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts...
as Mrs. Bascomb - Robin WeigertRobin WeigertRobin Weigert is an American television and film actress.Weigert was born in Washington, D.C. of Jewish heritage. After graduating from Brandeis University in 1991, Weigert attended New York University, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in the acting program at the Tisch School of the Arts...
as Olive Cotard, Caden's adult daughter
Plot
Philip Seymour HoffmanPhilip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...
plays Caden Cotard
Cotard delusion
The Cotard delusion or Cotard's syndrome or Walking Corpse Syndrome is a rare neuropsychiatric disorder in which people hold a delusional belief that they are dead , do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs...
, a theater director who finds his life unraveling. Suffering from numerous physical ailments and growing increasingly alienated from his wife, Adele (Catherine Keener
Catherine Keener
Catherine Ann Keener is an American actress. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich and Capote...
), he hits bottom when Adele leaves him for a new life in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, taking their daughter, Olive (Sadie Goldstein/Robin Weigert
Robin Weigert
Robin Weigert is an American television and film actress.Weigert was born in Washington, D.C. of Jewish heritage. After graduating from Brandeis University in 1991, Weigert attended New York University, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in the acting program at the Tisch School of the Arts...
), with her.
Shortly afterward, Caden unexpectedly receives a MacArthur Fellowship, giving him the financial means to pursue his artistic interests. He is determined to use it to create an artistic piece of brutal realism and honesty, something into which he can pour his whole self. Gathering an ensemble cast into an enormous warehouse in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's theater district, he directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives. As the mockup inside the warehouse grows increasingly mimetic
Mimetic
In mathematics, mimesis is the quality of a numerical method which imitates some properties of the continuum problem. The goal of numerical analysis is to approximate the continuum, so instead of solving a partial differential equation one aims to solve a discrete version of the continuum problem...
of the city outside, Caden continues to look for solutions to his personal crises. He is traumatized
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
as he discovers Adele has become a celebrated painter in Berlin and Olive is growing up under the questionable guidance of Adele's friend, Maria (Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
). After a disastrous fling with the woman who mans the box office, Hazel (Samantha Morton
Samantha Morton
Samantha Jane Morton is an English actress and film director. She began her performing career with guest roles in television shows such as Soldier Soldier and Boon before making her film debut in the 1997 drama film This Is the Sea, playing the character of Hazel Stokes...
), he marries Claire (Michelle Williams
Michelle Williams (actress)
Michelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. After starting her career with television guest appearances in the early 1990s, Williams achieved recognition for her role as Jen Lindley on the WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek, which she played from 1998 to 2003...
), an actress in his cast. Their relationship ultimately fails, however, and he continues his awkward relationship with Hazel, who is by now married with children. Meanwhile, an unknown condition is systematically shutting down his autonomic
Autonomic nervous system
The autonomic nervous system is the part of the peripheral nervous system that acts as a control system functioning largely below the level of consciousness, and controls visceral functions. The ANS affects heart rate, digestion, respiration rate, salivation, perspiration, diameter of the pupils,...
functions one by one.
As the years rapidly pass, the continually expanding warehouse is isolated from the deterioration of the city outside. Caden buries himself ever deeper into his magnum opus
Magnum opus
Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning "great work", refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of a writer, artist, or composer.-Related terms:Sometimes the term magnum opus is used to refer to simply "a great work" rather than "the...
, blurring the line between the world of the play and that of reality by populating the cast and crew with doppelgängers. For instance, Sammy Barnathan (Tom Noonan
Tom Noonan
Tom Noonan is an American actor and film writer-director.-Early life:Noonan was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Rosaleen and Tom Noonan, who worked as a dentist and jazz musician respectively...
) is cast in the role of Caden in the play after Sammy reveals that he has been obsessively following Caden for 20 years, while Sammy's lookalike is cast as Sammy. Sammy's own interest in Hazel sparks a revival of Caden's relationship with her.
As he pushes the limits of his relationships personally and professionally, Caden lets an actress take over his role as director and takes on her previous role as Ellen, Adele's cleaning lady. He lives out his days in the model of Adele's apartment under the replacement director's instruction during which some unexplained (and likely in-universe) calamity occurs in the warehouse leaving ruins and bodies in its wake. Finally he prepares for death as he rests his head on the shoulder of an actress who had previously played Ellen's mother, seemingly the only person left alive in the warehouse. As the scene fades to white, Caden says that now he has an idea for how to do the play, when the director's voice in his ear gives him his final cue: "Die."
Motifs
The burning house- Early in the film, Hazel purchases a house that is eternally on fire. At first showing reluctance to buy it, Hazel remarks to the real estate agent, "I like it, I do. But I'm really concerned about dying in the fire," which prompts the response "It's a big decision, how one prefers to die." In an interview with Michael Guillén, Kaufman stated, "Well, she made the choice to live there. In fact, she says in the scene just before she dies that the end is built into the beginning. That's exactly what happens there. She chooses to live in this house. She's afraid it's going to kill her but she stays there and it does. That is the truth about any choice that we make. We make choices that resonate throughout our lives."
Miniature paintings and the impossible warehouses
- Both Caden and Adele are artists, and the scale on which both of them work becomes increasingly relevant to the story as the film progresses. Adele works on an extremely small scale, while Caden works on an impossibly large scale, constructing a full-size replica of New York City in a warehouse, and eventually a warehouse within that warehouse, and so on, continuing in this impossible cycle. Adele's name is almost a mondegreenMondegreenA mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. It most commonly is applied to a line in a poem or a lyric in a song...
for "a delicate art" (Adele Lack Cotard). Commenting on the scale of the paintings, Kaufman said, "In [Adele's] studio at the beginning of the movie you can see some small but regular-sized paintings that you could see without a magnifying glass ... By the time [Caden] goes to the gallery to look at her work, which is many years later, you can't see them at all." He continued, "As a dream image it appeals to me. Her work is in a way much more effective than Caden's work. Caden's goal in his attempt to do his sprawling theater piece is to impress Adele because he feels so lacking next to her in terms of his work," and added, "Caden's work is so literal. The only way he can reflect reality in his mind is by imitating it full-size .... It's a dream image but he's not interacting with it successfully."
Jungian psychology
- Many reviewers have compared the plot to Jungian psychology. Carl JungCarl JungCarl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
wrote that the waking and dream states are both necessary in the quest for meaning, and Caden seems to exist in a blend of the two. Kaufman has said, "I think the difference is that a movie that tries to be a dream has a punchline and the punchline is: it was a dream." Another concept in Jungian psychology is the four steps to self-realization: becoming conscious of the shadowShadow (psychology)In Jungian psychology, the shadow or "shadow aspect" is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts. It is one of the three most recognizable archetypes, the others being the anima and animus and the persona...
(recognizing the constructive and destructive sides), becoming conscious of the anima and animus (where a man becomes conscious of his female component and a woman becomes conscious of her male component), becoming conscious of the archetypal spirit (where humans take on their manaManaMana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian....
personalities), and finally self-realizationSelf-realizationSelf-realization is a self-awakening.Self-realization may also refer to:* Self-Realization Fellowship, worldwide spiritual organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda...
, where a person is fully aware of the ego and the self. Caden seems to go through all four of these stages. When he hires Sammy, he learns of his true personality and becomes more aware of himself. He becomes aware of his anima when he replaces himself with Ellen. In taking on the role of Ellen, he becomes conscious of the archetypal spirit and finally realizes truths about his life and about love.
References to delusion
- In the Cotard delusionCotard delusionThe Cotard delusion or Cotard's syndrome or Walking Corpse Syndrome is a rare neuropsychiatric disorder in which people hold a delusional belief that they are dead , do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs...
, one believes oneself to be dead or that one's organs are missing or decaying. Caden’s preoccupation with illness and dying seems related.
- When Caden enters Adele’s flat, the buzzer pressed (31Y) bears the name Capgras. Capgras delusionCapgras delusionThe Capgras delusion theory is a disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, or other close family member has been replaced by an identical-looking impostor...
is a psychiatric disorder in which sufferers perceive familiar people (spouses, siblings, friends) to have been replaced by identical imposters. This theme is echoed throughout the film as individuals are replaced by actors in Caden’s ever-expanding play.
- In the closing scenes of the film Caden hears instructions by earpiece. This is similar to the auditory third-person hallucination described by Kurt SchneiderKurt SchneiderKurt Schneider was a German psychiatrist known largely for his writing on the diagnosis and understanding of schizophrenia.-Biography:...
as a first-rank symptom of schizophreniaSchizophreniaSchizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
.
Play within a play
- The film is meta-referentialMeta-referenceMetareference, a metafiction technique, is a situation in a work of fiction whereby characters display an awareness that they are in such a work, such as a film, television show or book. Sometimes it may even just be a form of editing or film-making technique that comments on the...
in that it portrays a play within a play, sometimes also referred to as mise en abymeMise en abymeMise en abyme is a term originally from the French and means "placed into abyss".The commonplace usage of this phrase is describing the visual experience of standing between two mirrors, seeing an infinite reproduction of one's image, but it has several other meanings in the realm of the creative...
.
- This theme has been compared to the William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
line "All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players."
- It has also been compared to the music video for Icelandic singer Björk'sBjörkBjörk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
song "BacheloretteBachelorette (song)"Bachelorette" is a song by Björk, released as the second single from her 1997 album Homogenic.The song was originally written for a film by Bernardo Bertolucci, but the project was withdrawn...
". The video portrays a woman who finds an autobiographical book about her that writes itself. The book is then adapted into a play, which features a play within itself. The video was directed by Michel GondryMichel GondryMichel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...
, who also directed Kaufman's films Human NatureHuman Nature (film)Human Nature is a 2001 American comedy film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry. The film stars Tim Robbins, Rhys Ifans, Miranda Otto and Patricia Arquette...
and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindEternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 American romantic science fiction film about an estranged couple who have each other erased from their memories, scripted by Charlie Kaufman and directed by the French director, Michel Gondry. The film uses elements of science fiction, psychological...
. In an interview, Kaufman responded to the comparison, saying "Yeah, I heard that comparison before. The reason Michel and I found each other is because we have similar sort of ideas."
Death and decay
- Throughout the film Caden refers to the inevitability of death and the idea that everyone is already dead. "Practically everything in Caden's grotesque existence betokens mortality and decay," writes Jonathan Romney of The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, "whether it be skin lesions, garbled fax messages or the contents of people's toilet bowls. "
Production
The film began when Sony Pictures ClassicsSony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...
approached Kaufman and Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
about making a horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
. The two began working on a film dealing with things they found frightening in real life, rather than typical horror-film tropes. This project eventually evolved into Synecdoche. Jonze was originally slated to direct, but chose to direct Where the Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are (film)
Where the Wild Things Are is a 2009 American fantasy drama film directed by Spike Jonze and adapted from Maurice Sendak's 1963 children's book Where the Wild Things Are. It combines live action, performers in costumes, animatronics, and computer-generated imagery...
instead.
The film was shot on location in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Yonkers
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
, and Schenectady, New York
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
.
The score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
was composed by Jon Brion
Jon Brion
Jon Brion is an American rock and pop multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer and record producer.-Early life:...
with all lyrics by Kaufman.
Following its premiere at Cannes, the film was shown at the Sarajevo Film Festival
Sarajevo Film Festival
The Sarajevo Film Festival is the premier and largest film festival in the Balkans, and is one of the largest in Europe. It was founded in Sarajevo in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo, and brings international and local celebrities to Sarajevo every year. It is held in August and showcases an...
, the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
, the Athens Film Festival, the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, the Ghent International Film Festival, and the Zagreb Film Festival
Zagreb Film Festival
Zagreb Film Festival is an annual film festival established in 2003 and held in Zagreb, Croatia.The festival features three separate international competition programs , and one competition program for short films made by Croatian authors...
before its limited theatrical release in the US.
A play version of the film was subsequently published in 2009 by Nick Hern Books
Nick Hern Books
Nick Hern Books is a London-based independent specialist publisher of plays, theatre books and screenplays. The company was founded by the former Methuen drama editor Nick Hern in 1988.-History:...
.
Critical reception
Synecdoche, New York received sharply polarized but generally favorable reviews, maintaining a 67/100 score at MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
and a 67% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. A number of critics have compared it to Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
's 1963 film 8½
8½
8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...
. The Moving Arts Film Journal
The Moving Arts Film Journal
The Moving Arts Film Journal is an online film journal known for its academic essays on the cultural and societal relevance of film, often offering scathing reviews of movies perceived to be low-brow, while at the same time recognizing all forms of cinema as note-worthy including often neglected...
ranked the film at #80 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time."
In his review of the movie in the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
said, "I watched it the first time and knew it was a great film." In 2009 Ebert wrote that the movie was the best of the decade. Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
of the New York Times said, "To say that [it] is one of the best films of the year or even one closest to my heart is such a pathetic response to its soaring ambition that I might as well pack it in right now ... Despite its slippery way with time and space and narrative and Mr. Kaufman’s controlled grasp of the medium, Synecdoche, New York is as much a cry from the heart as it is an assertion of creative consciousness. It’s extravagantly conceptual but also tethered to the here and now." In the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Corina Chocano called the film "wildly ambitious ... sprawling, awe-inspiring, heartbreaking, frustrating, hard-to-follow and achingly, achingly sad."
Negative reviews mostly criticized the film for being incomprehensible, pretentious, depressing, or self-indulgent. Rex Reed
Rex Reed
Rex Taylor Reed is an American film critic and former co-host of the syndicated television show At the Movies. He currently writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for The New York Observer.-Life and career:...
, Richard Brody, Roger Friedman, and Chris Carpenter of the Orange County and Long Beach Blade, all labeled it one of the worst films of the year. Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the film a D+, writing "I gave up making heads or tails of Synecdoche, New York, but I did get one message: The compulsion to stand outside of one's life and observe it to this degree isn't the mechanism of art — it's the structure of psychosis
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
."
Top ten lists
The film appeared on many critics' top-ten lists of the best films of 2008. Both Kimberly Jones and Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin ChronicleAustin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
named it the best film of the year, as did Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
.
It appeared on 101 "Best of 2008" lists with 20 of them giving it the number one spot. Some of those who placed it in their top ten included Manohla Dargis of the New York Times, Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
Richard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Shawn Anthony Levy
Shawn Anthony Levy
Shawn Anthony Levy is an American film critic, author and blogger.Born in New York City, and educated at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Irvine, Levy has been the film critic of The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon since 1997. He is a former Senior Editor...
of The Oregonian
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
, Josh Rosenblatt of the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
, Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News, Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Ty Burr has been a film critic for the Boston Globe since 2002 where he reviews films alongside Wesley Morris.Born in 1957, he studied film at Dartmouth College and New York University and has written three books: The Hundred Greatest Movies of All Time, The Hundred Greatest Stars of All Time and...
and Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris is a film critic at The Boston Globe where he reviews films alongside Ty Burr. Morris and Burr also make regular appearances on NECN to discuss the latest films and do the weekly Take Two film review video series on Boston.com...
of the Boston Globe, Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
Louis J. "Lou" Lumenick is an American film critic. He is the chief film critic and a blogger for the New York Post and has reviewed films there since 1999.-Life and career:Lumenick was born and raised in Astoria, Queens...
of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, Philip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell...
, Scott Foundas of LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
, Walter Chaw, Bill Chambers and Ian Pugh of Film Freak Central (all three of whom placed it at number one), and Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, who also named it the best film of the decade in 2009.
Awards and nominations
Charlie KaufmanCharlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. His film work includes Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York...
was nominated for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the Cannes Film Festival and the 2008 Chicago Film Critics Association Award
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2008
The 21st Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, given by the CFCA on December 18, 2008, honored the best in film for 2008. Disney/Pixar's WALL-E became the most successful film on this years' ceremony, won four awards, including Best Film, out of five nominations...
for Best Original Screenplay.
Kaufman was awarded Best Original Screenplay by the Austin Film Critics Association
Austin Film Critics Association
The Austin Film Critics Association is an organization of film critics from Austin, Texas.Each year, the AFCA votes on their end of year awards for films released in the same calendar year...
and the film was placed on their Top 10 Films of the Year list.
The film won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
The Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards. It is usually given to the director and producer . The "first feature" designation is applied to the director not the producer...
and the Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
Award at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards
Independent Spirit Awards 2008
The Independent Spirit Awards 2008 announced its nominees in December 2008. The winners were announced on February 21, 2009.-Best Actor :Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler*Javier Bardem - Vicky Cristina Barcelona...
ceremony; it also was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay
Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay
The Film Independent's Spirit Award for Best Screenplay is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:* 1985: The Trip to Bountiful - Horton Foote** After Hours - Joseph Minion** Blood Simple - Joel and Ethan Coen...
.
At the 2008 Gotham Independent Film Awards
Gotham Independent Film Awards 2008
-Best Film : Frozen River*Ballast*Synecdoche, New York*The Visitor*The Wrestler-Best Ensemble Cast: Synecdoche, New York Vicky Cristina Barcelona*Ballast*Rachel Getting Married*The Visitor...
, the film tied with Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a 2008 romance comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall...
for Best Ensemble Cast.
Mark Friedberg won the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2008
The 34th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, given by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association , honored the best in film for 2008...
for Best Production Design.
External links
- Screenplay (uncut)
- Gary J. Shipley, "The Strangeness of Realism vs. the Realism of the Strange: Themes in Synecdoche, New York," SCRIPT 1.2 (June 2010) http://scriptjournal.studiohyperset.com/issues/1.2/themes-in-synecdoche-new-york-1-2.php (3 June 2010).