warehouseparty
The Oscar-winning writer of Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation,
Charlie Kaufman, talks to Leon Forde about his
directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York
A
t the centre of Synecdoche, New York, the directorial debut of the idea of this form being interactive,” Kaufman explains. “In the same way
Charlie Kaufman, is a giant warehouse containing an ever-expanding that a great piece of literature can be interactive – you can read a book when
life-size stage set of New York City. The grand folly of the film’s you’re 18 and then read the same book when you’re 40 and it’s a completely
anguished theatre director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) the set different book.”
is his attempt to create a monumental artwork, complete with actors playing “I like the idea of allowing that to happen, or trying to figure out a way
himself and the people in his life. As Caden’s life gets more complex and that someone can have that experience, so you want to go back and watch a
unwieldy so too does his project and the boundaries between reality and movie again and you get something else from it and it has as much to do
fiction become increasingly blurred as the decades pass. with you as it does with what’s on the screen,” explains Kaufman. “That’s an
It’s an ambitious, complex film, and for a first time director such as exciting idea to me, so I pursue it. And I think what comes out of that is a kind
Kaufman, it must have been a tough challenge. But Kaufman says he was of a density, certain things you won’t see because you’re focusing on other
undaunted by the complexities of his story: “I think one of the reasons I things but if you go back then there’s something else there.”
thought I could direct this movie better than anyone, Synecdoche was initially conceived as a horror movie to be written by
even though I had no real experience as a film director, Kaufman for Being John Malkovich and Adaptation helmer Spike Jonze to
“We were thinking of things that were really
is that I understand it, because it’s my brain,” Kaufman direct: “Spike and I talked about ideas, and wanted to do something that
explains. “And I spent more than two years writing it. I didn’t feel conventionally horror genre,” Kaufman explains. “We were
scary in the world and came up with a laundry
understood the movie, I thought, and I understood at thinking of things that were really scary in the world and we came up with
list of mortality and time passage and loneliness
least what I was trying to do with it.” kind of a laundry list of mortality and time passage and loneliness and guilt
and all of these sorts of things.”
and guilt and all of these sorts of things” SURREAL EXPERIMENTATION As he wrote, however, Kaufman moved away from horror – at least in the
The film, which premiered in Competition at Cannes last conventional sense. “I think I very quickly threw away the idea of it being a
year and is released in the UK by Revolver Entertainment horror movie in any sense that would be recognisable because I wasn’t
on May 15, continues the surreal experimentation of interested in trying to figure out how to scare people,” he says. “I wanted to
Kaufman’s previous screenplays, which include Being John Malkovich, try and be honest about the things I was writing about.”
Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, for which he picked Nevertheless Synecdoche, New York is a film seeded with fear and
up a best original screenplay Oscar in 2004. Like its protagonist’s theatre horror: Caden’s anguish at sickness, decline, loneliness and death is a
project, Synecdoche is deeply layered and begs for further viewing. “I like constant presence. And yet the film is laugh-out-loud funny too. This, says trianglert
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