The Scriptwriter and the Director: Kaufman and “Synecdoche, New York”
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.
Keywords:
Charlie Kaufman, Caden Cotard, narrativeReferences
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Authors
Monika Franczakkwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
independent researcher Poland
Absolwentka filmoznawstwa UJ, dziennikarka radiowa; obecnie pracuje jako recenzentka scenariuszy w jednej z polskich wytwórni filmowych.
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Copyright (c) 2010 Monika Franczak
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In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
