SYNECDOCHE [
Sih-NECK-
doh-
kee] -A figure of speech in which:
A Part is used for the Whole - The Screen for Movies
A Whole stands for a Part - The Law for Police
A Species (specific kind) stands for its Genus (general kind) - Cutthroats for Assassins
A Genus stands in for its Species - Creature for Person
A Material stands for a Thing - Ivories for Piano Keys
So I saw
Synecdoche.
To say the least Charlie Kaufman's new movie (which the writer also directed) is difficult to describe.
A hundred shades of
melancholy.
A love letter buried under the author's
psychosis.
A non-conventional
narrative Godard would be proud of.
It's all these things and more. A difficult movie to describe and at times perhaps to figure out. It engages you. There is no
spoon feeding.
Charlie Kaufman has filled his film with all his personal
peccadilloes.
Obsessing over sickness and death. Art and creation.
But at its heart. At its murky, twisted, dark, wry, blackly comic heart....it is about relationships. About long lost loves and chances recovered.
Try and imagine the bastard child of Charlie Brown + Kafka with a smidgen of Terry Gilliam. Yup Gilliam. Keep you eyes out for the crazy clowns loading refugees onto a bus.
I wont say much more, except when I first watched
Synecdoche I left feeling
Philip Seymour Hoffman was a hero. He plays the main character,
Caden, a theatre director who creates a play that never ends, constantly examining and
reexamining his own life (including the very play he's creating.)
So dazed by the
recursive storyline I swooned for
Caden. The tireless artist who never stops searching.
Now a couple days removed it doesn't seem so glorious. More like a
tragedy. The dangers of terminal tunnel vision. An obsessive case of self
obsession.
So, ah see it, will ya?
