The scriptwriter and the director - Kaufman and "Synecdoche, New York" Cover Image

Scenarzysta i reżyser. Kaufman i "Synekdocha, Nowy Jork"
The scriptwriter and the director - Kaufman and "Synecdoche, New York"

Author(s): Monika Franczak
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
Published by: Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Kaufman Charlie

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the film "Synecdoche, New York" (2008), a directing debut of Charlie Kaufman. This production is the result of two years long work on the script, and presents an impressive fresco of the life of Caden Cotard – a neurotic theatre director, entering advanced middle age, who decides to produce the work of his life. Cotard rents out an abandoned warehouse and there, year after year, builds models of his inner world in life scale. Franczak presents various aspects of this Baudrillardian project of Cotard’s, and also presents the complicated elements of the storyline, and decodes Kaufman’s language games, showing various possible interpretations. Franczak also notes that time and space in "Synecdoche" are interconnected, in the same way the reality of the film and its hyper real reflection in the play Cotard directs are. The author also notes that the carefully constructed script was filmed in a simple way, without the use of elements that would make the image even more bizarre or surreal.

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 71-72
  • Page Range: 247-255
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Polish
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