Synecdoche, New York (Discussion + Spoilers)

Which one??? j/k

This an excellent film that deserves an excellent, thoughtful response. I'll try to write up a few paragraphs tonight.

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"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

I can vouge for that

Considering the word synecdoche means a substitute for the part of a whole, you could just say it was imagined, especially when you consider your budgetary point, and because it was imagined his suicide was therefore another artistic expression in that "this part of him" died.

I really do need to watch this again though, it's like Kaufman made a Lynch film, but less creepy

Also, the burning house!!!!
When Caden goes to meet that Box Office girl outside her home, Why is the house burning?

I need to watch this again too...

Yes, there's my problem. I need to watch it again; I've only seen it once and rewatched some really wonderful scenes.

An answer to the burning house is on the wikipedia page actually?!?!

It says this:

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."

That's Kaufman's interpretation. So not really the correct one.

Either Kaufman () or Wiki () lies.. I am sure there's lot more to it.

I thought exactly what you just posted, so I don't know how much more there could be about that topic. You could lump it in with attacking smokers but that's a useless leap

The deconstruction process never stops. We will never reach the utopia of meaning where every interpretation and source has had its justice.

I will rewatch this film by tomorrow hopefully.

I just finished "close watching" the first half. I have a page of notes on details I consider important.

I've also decided to put it on my top ten list.

On to the second half!

Wow...... just...... wow......

I am emotionally and mentally drained......

I paused the films probably every 2-3 minutes to note something, trying my very best to keep the film at an intellectual distance, and yet, I'm emotionally drained by the experience. Almost as much as the first time. Maybe even more.

The film is so rich and fast-paced it's almost impossible to take in without stopping frequently to reflect on some of the things that just happened.

Here're some details I noticed this time around:

1. When Hazel first chooses her house, the real estate agent says, "It's a big decision, how one prefers to die."

2. "It's been a year," says Hazel. It's been that long since Adele leaves Caden, but he thinks that "It's been a week." He's reminded one more time about the seemingly lost track of time by the Willy Loman actor, "It's been 17 years".

3. His analyst accidentally asks Caden "why did you [kill yourself]?" Later, Sammy, the actor portraying Caden kills himself.

4. There are 2 examples of static texts writing themselves in real time. Caden's analyst's book seems to write itself--i.e. "This book is over" followed by blank pages. Also, Olive's diary seems to write new entries as she gets older.

5. Caden's actor is present during his first suicide attempt. He sits on and does nothing.

6. Caden's father's death is the worst, almost hilariously tragic death imaginable. As is his mother's.

7. "These notes I give you will correspond with the notes I truly receive everyday from my god!"

8. Halfway through the film, the bombs start going off and chaos begins to erupt in the outside world. Caden is unaware and indifferent.

9. His first title for the play is Simulacra. The rest are Flawed Life of Love and Grief, Unknown, Unkissed, and Lost, and The Obscure Moon Lighting the Obscure World. The first two are rejected by his second wife, played by Michelle Williams, and the second two are rejected by Hazel.

10. Caden is mistaken for Ellen early on in the film by Adele on a phone call. He then calls the police after a seizure and they say "excuse me, ma'am." The next time this happens is when the old woman gives Caden the key to Adele's apartment and calls him Ellen. He says here explicitly, "Yes, I'm Ellen". He takes the part of Ellen later in the film.

11. After Caden watches his second wife from the street below through her window, he begins to view the open sets as a "lie". He then asks his set director/architect to "wall it up". This is the start of the construction of actual buildings.

12. My favorite quote from the film reveals the population of Caden's play: "There are nearly 13 million people in the world. Can you imagine that many people? And none of those people is an extra. They're all leads in their own story."

13. Caden is Ellen at the end of the film. The actress he leans against merely played the character of Ellen's mother in a dream she once had that was part of the play itself. During the scene much earlier in the film when Caden begins to clean Adele's studio with a toothbrush, there is a commercial for a chemotherapy medicine on television where the actress that plays Ellen's mother is sitting with the young Ellen in a picnic. Immediately following this commercial, the television displays the elderly Caden at the end of the film, walking through the destroyed set, surrounded by a mist.

14. The last line is: "I know how to do this play now... If everyone---" [Ellen's command] "DIE." Fade to gray.

There's more, but those are the major ones. No analysis here, just observations for now.

Oh man, I feel some awesome analysis, theorizing, and philosophizing coming up soon. I have so much to say about this film. I honestly have trouble articulately communicating my strong feelings for it. Each one of those observations can lead to a multitude of interpretation.

You haven't really said anything yet, but just from the scenes, quotes, and observations you've chosen to list here, I think the things we took away from the film are very similar.

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"I want a film I watch to express either the joy of making cinema or the anguish of making cinema" -Francois Truffaut

Impressive.. didn't even notice # 3 clearly.
Great job.

Great job? I did nothing. Kaufman did it.

Right now I don't have anything to say besides check out the wikipedia page, which is surprisingly good in supplying interpretations. I'm sure there're better websites with detailed analysis already.

I sorted out the ending this time, which I didn't get originally. The significance of Caden leaning his head on the shoulder of the actress that plays Ellen's mother in a scene depicting Ellen's dream still escapes me.

Any ideas?

I don't think it was her dream because it takes away from the significance/impact of her line

You don't think what was her dream? I meant that the picnic scene was her dream, not the end scene of the film. The end scene was REAL in the immediate sense of the word. I accept everything in the film to be REAL as such. If you start calling this or that a dream, you have nowhere to begin in analysis.

The picnic scene was definitely a dream..

But what's the connection between Eric, Caden & Ellen???

Who's Eric?

I usually think this is true of dreams in movies. But this is Charlie Kaufmann and the line between dream and reality in his work is so thin that everything deserves analysis regardless.

The movie appears, as I recall it, incredibly subjective, to the point where I'm not exactly sure what's to be taken literally. We see a lot from Caden's perspective, I think. I haven't seen the movie since last year, but I recall several instances where the action that occurred onscreen, and ostensibly in real life, closely reflect Caden's psyche. His neuroses come alive either in his play, or in his life. For example, he's a hypochondriac and we're never sure how sick he is, or if he's sick at all, but he certainly gets ill in the movie. Actions that he writes in his play come to fruition in the real world. Is that possible? And I don't know what to make of his interactions with Olive.