The Postmodern Condition: Film Analysis and Levels of Meaning in 'Synecdoche, New York' Anonymous College

Synecdoche, New York (2008) is Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut film. The film explores themes such as death, neurosis, existentialism, postmodernism, etc. from the perspective of the aging theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Hoffman). Throughout the film, Caden’s life begins to break down and splinter into messes of relationships and neurological disorders, as he tries to replicate his experience of the Real through an ambitious replica of the external world within a play. As the film progresses, Caden’s city-size replica becomes grander and takes on more levels of recursive complexity, with actors hired to portray previous actors and even Caden himself.

The importance of film analysis is in its unique ability to allow viewers to understand films not simply as a source of entertainment, but as a proper post-literary form of expression that combines elements of all the classical Arts: literature, painting, and music. Synecdoche, New York is special in that it eschews the conventions of traditional moviemaking. Rather than using a chronological, plot-driven storyline, it instead favors a sequence of events, instances, and occasions which are connected by a long chain of signification and meaning, and asks the viewers to...