As an auteurist, it is difficult for me to assign even a screenwriter the role of creative force behind a film. But when that screenwriter is Charlie Kaufman, it's hard not to. Now that Kaufman has made his confident directorial debut, it becomes academic. His newest film, Synecdoche, New York, is most assuredly of a piece with the rest of his oeuvre, solidifying the argument.
Like in Adaptation (2002), the protagonist in Synecdoche is a writer, a playwright in this case. Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is also depressed, pessimistic, and completely self-centered. His wife Adele (Catherine Keener) absconds to Berlin with their young daughter, Olive, ostensibly to promote her art show (she paints tiny thumbnail-size portraits). But in reality, she is setting up house with her maybe-more-than-friend Maria (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Just like Nicolas Cage was playing a version of Charlie Kaufman (literally, as that was the character's name) in the earlier film, Hoffman seems to be channeling the same spirit. His self-absorption manifests itself in the form of severe hypochondria; a lack of self-esteem that somehow makes him more charming to women, not less; and his greatest enemy seems to be a lack of confidence in his writing. While Cage's character felt a block at the idea of adapting another writer's work, here Cotard's impediment is mounting an autobiographical play that will have enough scope to rival the enormity of his life. Cotard may lack self-esteem, but he doesn't lack artistic hubris.
This is where we start to realize that Cotard inhabits a surreal world not unlike that in another of Kaufman's films, Being John Malkovich (1999). You'll recall that as the film where John Cusack's Craig, a schlub puppeteer, ends up working as a filing clerk at a company whose offices are on the 7 1/2 floor of a Manhattan office building. In Synecdoche, Cotard purchases the largest warehouse one can ever imagine, and proceeds to mount a play with the largest cast ever assembled in what will eventually be a life-size version of New York City. Yeah, don't worry. Just like it made sense to find a portal into actor John Malkovich's consciousness on that 7 1/2 floor, it makes a weird kind of sense when you see Cotard's play being staged in this movie. Synecdoche's world is an odd one where it's not unusual to hear a former flame of Cotard's, Hazel (Samantha Morton), tell him that she's got to leave to meet her husband and the twins, and she proceeds to rattle off three children's names instead of two. When Hazel goes house-hunting, she buys a burning house because it's more affordable. The picture above is of Hazel entertaining Cotard in said house after she's moved in.
Surrealism is not used simply for the sake of piling on non-sequiturs. There is a moral dilemma being explored here through the prism of surrealism, just like in Kaufman's most accessible work, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). In that film, Joel (Jim Carrey) was dismayed to find out that his former lover, Clementine (Kate Winslet), was so over their relationship she decided to have the memories of it erased from her mind. Consenting to the same procedure as an act of revenge, he instead finds he does not want to lose the memories. Synechdoche's dilemma concerns introspection. It asks, at what point does self-examination become more than a way to improve oneself, and become instead, a way of exiling oneself from one's own life and its significant events? Cotard is so fearful of dying of some disease he ambitiously tries to capture the meaning of life in his grand play, ignoring every event or person that would give his life the importance he seeks.
This is a theme that runs through all of Kaufman's work, the denial of elements in one's persona in the pursuit of answers to the mystery of same. Whether it's Joel discovering this trap a little too late into his memory-erasure of Clementine; or Craig's decision to hide behind John Malkovich's appearance in order to both advance his career as a puppeteer and win a woman's attention; or Charlie trying to gain personal redemption in adapting someone else's story; all have Kaufman's distinct imprimatur. Synecdoche, New York is our first opportunity to see Kaufman's unexpurgated vision of reality unfold before us, and it is a resounding success.
Showing posts with label auteur cinema. Show all posts
Showing posts with label auteur cinema. Show all posts
Monday, December 29, 2008
Movie Review: Synecdoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman as Auteur
As an auteurist, it is difficult for me to assign even a screenwriter the role of creative force behind a film. But when that screenwriter is Charlie Kaufman, it's hard not to. Now that Kaufman has made his confident directorial debut, it becomes academic. His newest film, Synecdoche, New York, is most assuredly of a piece with the rest of his oeuvre, solidifying the argument.
Like in Adaptation (2002), the protagonist in Synecdoche is a writer, a playwright in this case. Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is also depressed, pessimistic, and completely self-centered. His wife Adele (Catherine Keener) absconds to Berlin with their young daughter, Olive, ostensibly to promote her art show (she paints tiny thumbnail-size portraits). But in reality, she is setting up house with her maybe-more-than-friend Maria (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Just like Nicolas Cage was playing a version of Charlie Kaufman (literally, as that was the character's name) in the earlier film, Hoffman seems to be channeling the same spirit. His self-absorption manifests itself in the form of severe hypochondria; a lack of self-esteem that somehow makes him more charming to women, not less; and his greatest enemy seems to be a lack of confidence in his writing. While Cage's character felt a block at the idea of adapting another writer's work, here Cotard's impediment is mounting an autobiographical play that will have enough scope to rival the enormity of his life. Cotard may lack self-esteem, but he doesn't lack artistic hubris.
This is where we start to realize that Cotard inhabits a surreal world not unlike that in another of Kaufman's films, Being John Malkovich (1999). You'll recall that as the film where John Cusack's Craig, a schlub puppeteer, ends up working as a filing clerk at a company whose offices are on the 7 1/2 floor of a Manhattan office building. In Synecdoche, Cotard purchases the largest warehouse one can ever imagine, and proceeds to mount a play with the largest cast ever assembled in what will eventually be a life-size version of New York City. Yeah, don't worry. Just like it made sense to find a portal into actor John Malkovich's consciousness on that 7 1/2 floor, it makes a weird kind of sense when you see Cotard's play being staged in this movie. Synecdoche's world is an odd one where it's not unusual to hear a former flame of Cotard's, Hazel (Samantha Morton), tell him that she's got to leave to meet her husband and the twins, and she proceeds to rattle off three children's names instead of two. When Hazel goes house-hunting, she buys a burning house because it's more affordable. The picture above is of Hazel entertaining Cotard in said house after she's moved in.
Surrealism is not used simply for the sake of piling on non-sequiturs. There is a moral dilemma being explored here through the prism of surrealism, just like in Kaufman's most accessible work, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). In that film, Joel (Jim Carrey) was dismayed to find out that his former lover, Clementine (Kate Winslet), was so over their relationship she decided to have the memories of it erased from her mind. Consenting to the same procedure as an act of revenge, he instead finds he does not want to lose the memories. Synechdoche's dilemma concerns introspection. It asks, at what point does self-examination become more than a way to improve oneself, and become instead, a way of exiling oneself from one's own life and its significant events? Cotard is so fearful of dying of some disease he ambitiously tries to capture the meaning of life in his grand play, ignoring every event or person that would give his life the importance he seeks.
This is a theme that runs through all of Kaufman's work, the denial of elements in one's persona in the pursuit of answers to the mystery of same. Whether it's Joel discovering this trap a little too late into his memory-erasure of Clementine; or Craig's decision to hide behind John Malkovich's appearance in order to both advance his career as a puppeteer and win a woman's attention; or Charlie trying to gain personal redemption in adapting someone else's story; all have Kaufman's distinct imprimatur. Synecdoche, New York is our first opportunity to see Kaufman's unexpurgated vision of reality unfold before us, and it is a resounding success.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
DVD Review: Bonnie and Clyde - Beatty's Contributions Sparked the Fuse of the 70s Film Explosion
by Tony Dayoub
It is number 42 on the American Film Institute's top 100 movies. It is notable for bringing Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman to the attention of moviegoers around the world. It was Gene Wilder's film debut. It was the first film Warren Beatty produced. And above all, it is arguably the film that ushered in the era of "auteur cinema" that was so dominant in the 1970s, even though the film was released in 1967, and the film was hardly the solitary vision of its director, Arthur Penn. Bonnie and Clyde
is all these things and more, and it was finally released last week on Blu-ray and standard DVD in a version much improved over its first DVD release in 1999.
Warren Beatty was not an unknown at the time he decided to produce this film, but he definitely saw the opportunity to further his career with the David Newman & Robert Benton-penned script. The two former magazine staffers first presented the script, covering the exploits of gangster folk heroes Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, to François Truffaut. A leader of the French New Wave, his Jules et Jim
had some influence on the story. Truffaut turned it down, but recommended it to Beatty, who was in the market for something to shepherd into production. Not only did Beatty see the chance to give it his all and launch his career as a power player in Hollywood. He saw the possibility of transcending his pretty-boy career with his portrayal of the gangster Clyde Barrow. The sometimes self-conscious Beatty has rarely seemed as dynamic as he does when wooing Dunaway's Parker into complicity at the start of the film.
He also was generous enough to offer the part of his brother Buck to the then unknown Gene Hackman. This was the beginning of a trend as Beatty has always surrounded himself with actors he has befriended in movies throughout his career, such as Reds
and Dick Tracy
. After costarring with him in Lilith
, Beatty had said Hackman was the best thing about the movie. This and other anecdotes are referenced in the wonderful documentary, Revolution! The Making of Bonnie and Clyde included in the special features). In that doc, Hackman tells of how very close he was to quitting as an actor before this movie brought him an Academy Award nomination.
Together with director Arthur Penn, Beatty made an extraordinary effort to bring this film in line with the French New Wave films that were causing such a stir at the time. Penn contributed his speed and agility in setting up the camera from his time as a TV director. Beatty used his own frustrations with the studio system to stoke the fire fueling the cast and crew. As told in the documentary, the pair made a pact to argue about whose filmmaking approach was going to be best for that day's shooting. Whoever got tired of the discussion first would usually lose the debate.
This gave the film its fresh freewheeling flavor that contributed to the development of the "auteur cinema" that subsequently prevailed in the late 60s and 70s American film. Sexual frankness in film was largely absent at the time of its release. Yet both men pushed the envelope in scenes depicting Clyde's impotence and Bonnie's naive remedy... oral sex, a box-office taboo in the 60s. The drastic tonal changes from rollicking to comedy to jarring violence and the now famously shocking abrupt ending were further evidence that the pair were out to change the art of American film. Even though this was not the solitary vision of one director, the lunatics were clearly running the asylum, so to speak. The era of the domineering studio boss was fast approaching its apocalypse.
Gain an appreciation for one of the more entertaining and fast-paced classics by making this one a star in your movie collection. You won't be disappointed.
Still provided courtesy of Warner Home Entertainment.
It is number 42 on the American Film Institute's top 100 movies. It is notable for bringing Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman to the attention of moviegoers around the world. It was Gene Wilder's film debut. It was the first film Warren Beatty produced. And above all, it is arguably the film that ushered in the era of "auteur cinema" that was so dominant in the 1970s, even though the film was released in 1967, and the film was hardly the solitary vision of its director, Arthur Penn. Bonnie and Clyde
is all these things and more, and it was finally released last week on Blu-ray and standard DVD in a version much improved over its first DVD release in 1999.Warren Beatty was not an unknown at the time he decided to produce this film, but he definitely saw the opportunity to further his career with the David Newman & Robert Benton-penned script. The two former magazine staffers first presented the script, covering the exploits of gangster folk heroes Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, to François Truffaut. A leader of the French New Wave, his Jules et Jim
had some influence on the story. Truffaut turned it down, but recommended it to Beatty, who was in the market for something to shepherd into production. Not only did Beatty see the chance to give it his all and launch his career as a power player in Hollywood. He saw the possibility of transcending his pretty-boy career with his portrayal of the gangster Clyde Barrow. The sometimes self-conscious Beatty has rarely seemed as dynamic as he does when wooing Dunaway's Parker into complicity at the start of the film.He also was generous enough to offer the part of his brother Buck to the then unknown Gene Hackman. This was the beginning of a trend as Beatty has always surrounded himself with actors he has befriended in movies throughout his career, such as Reds
and Dick Tracy. After costarring with him in Lilith, Beatty had said Hackman was the best thing about the movie. This and other anecdotes are referenced in the wonderful documentary, Revolution! The Making of Bonnie and Clyde included in the special features). In that doc, Hackman tells of how very close he was to quitting as an actor before this movie brought him an Academy Award nomination.Together with director Arthur Penn, Beatty made an extraordinary effort to bring this film in line with the French New Wave films that were causing such a stir at the time. Penn contributed his speed and agility in setting up the camera from his time as a TV director. Beatty used his own frustrations with the studio system to stoke the fire fueling the cast and crew. As told in the documentary, the pair made a pact to argue about whose filmmaking approach was going to be best for that day's shooting. Whoever got tired of the discussion first would usually lose the debate.
This gave the film its fresh freewheeling flavor that contributed to the development of the "auteur cinema" that subsequently prevailed in the late 60s and 70s American film. Sexual frankness in film was largely absent at the time of its release. Yet both men pushed the envelope in scenes depicting Clyde's impotence and Bonnie's naive remedy... oral sex, a box-office taboo in the 60s. The drastic tonal changes from rollicking to comedy to jarring violence and the now famously shocking abrupt ending were further evidence that the pair were out to change the art of American film. Even though this was not the solitary vision of one director, the lunatics were clearly running the asylum, so to speak. The era of the domineering studio boss was fast approaching its apocalypse.
Gain an appreciation for one of the more entertaining and fast-paced classics by making this one a star in your movie collection. You won't be disappointed.
Still provided courtesy of Warner Home Entertainment.
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