Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Did The Dana Carvey Show Have One of the Greatest Comedy Writer Benches Ever?
Posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
The Dana Carvey Show is now on Hulu. What’s the big deal? Well, when the sketch comedy show premiered on ABC in the mid ’90s—following a family-safe block of programming—millions were in awe at the stuff it got away with. It was too good to be true, giving SNL an irreverent elbow. When Carvey spoofed President Bill Clinton by whipping out countless flabby breasts to proudly nurse babies and puppies, it was the beginning of the end. Ratings were steady but still used as a scapegoat, and it was axed after eight episodes. Parents and middle school teachers exhaled in unison.
Knowing that Robert Smigel’s “The Ambiguously Gay Duo” debuted right after Jonathan Taylor Thomas’s stupid girl troubles on Home Improvement remains incredibly surreal and relevant in the current climate.
After the jump is a screen-shot that captures the show’s insane roster of writers: Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell and Charlie Kaufman for starters…
The /Filmcast: After Dark - An In-Depth Discussion About Synecdoche, New York (GUESTS: Angie Han and Matt Singer)
Posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 by David Chen
In this special episode of the /Filmcast: After Dark, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley devote 80 minutes to discussing Charlie Kaufman’s frustrating, enigmatic, and brilliant film, Synecdoche, New York. Special guests Matt Singer from IFC and Angie Han join us.
Have any feedback? You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next Wednesday night at Slashfilm’s live page at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST as we review Fast and Furious.
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In September, I had the opportunity to sit down with Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter behind Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine and his directorial debut - Synecdoche, New York. Interviewing Charlie Kaufman is like playing a tennis match that you just can’t win. I went into the interview with questions about symbolism and themes, but one of the first things he said was that he doesn’t want to talk about the meaning of the film. And that’s fine. So the interview became more about the process of screenwriting and the transition into directing, than it did about the movie itself. Synecdoche, New York will be in a few theaters beginning this weekend.
Peter Sciretta: Do you typically write your films hoping that audience will require multiple viewings?
Charlie Kaufman: Yes. Well, I think it makes it more interesting for an audience to have some complexity in the material, and also, I’ve got this sort of thing where I’m trying to make it feel like it’s a living piece of theater, as opposed to a set, sort of a pre-recorded thing. And it’s sort of a tricky thing to try to make film feel alive because it isn’t. So this way, it can change when you watch it again at a different point in your life, or just seeing it for the second time, you’re going to see things you couldn’t possibly see the first time because you didn’t know something until the end. But, also, you get to look at details. You can watch things that are happening in the background of scenes that are informative that you probably don’t see the first time through when you’re just trying to get the thing. So that’s why.
Peter Sciretta: I’ve talked to a lot of people that they have that moment of realization or something a week or two after they see one of your films.
Charlie Kaufman: Yes, well, I mean I’ve heard that with this movie, in particular, that people tend to have a delayed reaction, that it sort of sits with them and becomes more affecting over time, which is kind of nice for me to hear that there’s a continuing relationship with the work in someone’s brain. It’s still processing over time. I think most movies aren’t designed to do that; they’re designed to get people into the box, into the theater on the opening weekend and make a lot of money. I guess it’s kind of an unfortunate sort of direction for something that’s an art form, or it should be or can be.
Peter Sciretta: What are the origins of Synecdoche?
Charlie Kaufman: I started to talk with Spike Jonze. We were going to do a horror movie for Sony, and we were talking about, well, what’s really scary rather than what horror movie conventions are that were scary. So we were talking about aging and dying and illness and family and loss and regret and loneliness and kind of went in to Amy Pascal and just pitched a kind of a general sort of direction, and she just wanted to work with us because we’d done adaptation there, and she liked us. So she told me to go off and write it, and I did. And it took me a few years to write it, and then Spike had become involved with Where the Wild Things Are, and I asked him if he would let go of it so that I could direct it, and he said yes.
Peter Sciretta: What made you to want to direct this film? You’ve written a lot of films for Spike that show…
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Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York Movie Trailer
Posted on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has described his directorial debut Synecdoche, New York as his version of a horror movie. It’s a film about death, and man’s fear of mortality. I had the chance to se the film in Toronto, and I’m still unsure of what I saw. It is either brilliant or completely insane. It’s the type of movie that requires repeat viewings to understand the many layers of complexity. But it’s also one of those type of movies that is very dark and depressing in tone, so you might not be as inclined to see it the required amount of times. It’s also one of those movies that grows on you with time. The more I think about it, the more I want to see it again. I rarely give props to Sony Pictures Classics, but this is an extremely well cut trailer. Check it out and tell me what you think in the comments below!
Official Plot Synopsis: Synecdoche, New York explores nightmares that are all too realistic and human. Its hero, Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a 40-year-old local theater director in Schenectady whose life is collapsing around him. His marriage to his artist wife Adele (Catherine Keener) is on its last legs while at the same time he is stricken with a series of increasingly catastrophic illnesses. He is afraid he will die any moment having never accomplished anything important in his life. When he receives a MacArthur Grant, he decides to use the windfall to stage a massive theater piece in NYC, determined to create The Great Piece of Art and leave something as true, honest and heartbreaking as life itself. It’s one of those rare films that deals with death, excruciating illness, gross bodily fluids, despair, heartbreak and bad sex but can still bring a twinkle to the eye.
You can watch the trailer in High Definition on Yahoo. Synecdoche, New York hits theaters on October 24th 2008.
WiReD Magazine has been blogging the process of their profile on screenwriter turned director Charlie Kaufman. Not only is it amazing to see how much work goes into one of these WiReD cover stories (we’re talking about months and months of work for one story) but the interactions with Kaufman are insanely interesting.
I caught Kaufman’s directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, last week and I’m still not sure what to make of it. It’s either brilliant or a disaster, I’m not sure which. I think I’ll need to watch the film a few more times before I even begin to understand some of the complexities and develop my final opinion. I also got the the chance to interview the man while in Toronto, and can attest that he is a very nervous and difficult interview (look for that interview in October).
Jason Tanz has posted the audio file for his complete 2 and a half hour interview with Kaufman. If you’re at all interested in the man behind such movies as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, then you might want to check this out. I was going to post this interview last week, but forgot in the madness of my travel. Thankfully AICN reminded me, or it probably would have been forgotten.
Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut Synecdoche, New York just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival (read about the reaction here). In the last couple weeks, we’ve brought you production photos and video clips, and now IonCinema brings us the movie poster. I love the imagery of Hoffman overlooking the endless tables of papers. It gives you the feeling of exactly how much of an undertaking it would be to recreate New York City inside a warehouse.
Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director named Caden Cotard, whose life in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his body’s autonomic functions. Worried about the transience of his life, he moves his theater company to a warehouse in New York City. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton co-star.
What’s the Word on Synecdoche, New York? How About “Obscuritanist”?
Posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson
“Think.”
Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York aka If You Can’t Pronounce My Title, You’re an Effin’ Plebe!!! showed at Cannes and the reviews are hitting the Web like steaming intellectual veg patties. We’ll include the plot synopsis at the bottom, but for now just imagine it’s about a former disgruntled employee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of Rockstar Games who spirals into an existential crisis and rebuilds New York City in pixels as a set, and you should be okay. If I had Slashfilm’s psychic pitching machine, it would spit out “a brilliant mess,” “mindf*ck,” “abstruse,” “enlightening,” “Red States won’t get it, but it’s pretty good,” and “[P.C. allusion to] bong rip.” But since I don’t (Peter has it for the long weekend), let’s get to searchin’ and pasting (interns, it’s all yours)…
Non-linking, old people media outlet, Variety, goes the “it’s for smart people, and outside of New York and L.A. it will be dust…” route…
“A wildly ambitious and gravely serious contemplation of life, love, art, human decay and death, the film bears Kaufman’s scripting fingerprints in its structural trickery and multi-plane storytelling. …it will intrigue Kaufman’s most loyal fans but put off fair-weather friends on the art house circuit, where a venturesome distrib will have its work cut out for it to move the film commercially beyond cult status.”
Oh, wow, they used the adjectives “obscuritanist and incomprehensible,” too. This will make a nice segue into the NY Times and the vetted Mr. A.O. Scott, who says that Kaufman, as a first time director, absolutely skullbangs the cool films made from his screenplays like Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich and Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind…
“Like his protagonist, a beleaguered theater director played by Hoffman, he has created a seamless and complicated alternate reality, unsettling nearly every expectation a moviegoer might have …But though the ideas that drive “Synecdoche, New York” are difficult and sometimes abstruse, the feelings it explores are clear and accessible. These include the anxiety of artistic creation, the fear of love and the dread of its loss, and the desperate sense that your life is rushing by faster than you can make sense of it.”
“Abstruse”! I swear to Bill Maher’s God I actually called it. Thanks A.O. This is better than winning at Scrabble for a prolonged sexual favor. In a wise move, our friends at Cinematical provide the definition of “synecdoche” preceding a positive review…
“The directorial debut of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation), Synecdoche, New York is a sprawling, messy work of inspired brilliance and real humanity, a film that enthralls and affects even as it infuriates and confounds. …Kaufman wedges every frame full of set design, side notes, visual tricks, subtext, , deadpan jokes, prosthetic makeup, voice-over, post-modern inventions and old-fashioned melodrama.”
Okay, after this post is done, I’m going to go scream the following pull-quote from Cinematical into the streets: “It’s Jacob’s Ladder for New Yorker subscribers!” Yes! I’m sold like Sissy Spacek in Prime Cut. Moreover, it seems that bringing pot is essentially like bringing glass-ridden sand to the beach: “Synecdoche, New York, might be easier to analyze than enjoy, easier to think about than feel.” There are so many reviews popping up right now and they’re all riding the same WTF rocket, so if you like what you’ve heard, go see this flick. And if you aren’t an original urban outfitter, no worries, just illegally download it and put it on a disc with both Ches. Support! Here’s the Slashfilm plot synopsis…
Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director named Caden Cotard, whose life in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his body’s autonomic functions. Worried about the transience of his life, he moves his theater company to a warehouse in New York City. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton co-star. Running time is 124 minutes. Your life is in minutes as well.
Definition of synecdoche: noun, word that you had to look up for a movie that .001% of the world saw, but that .004% said was brilliant.
Discuss: If you comment, you MUST USE at least one $10 WORD. Do not blow it.
Here is a round up of stories that just didn’t make the /Film front page, or what we like to call…. Page 2!
Lobster Johnson created this custom Heath Ledger-version Joker Munny.
Patrick Read Johnson has found financing to complete post production on his autobiographical indie “77,” (formerly titled 5/25/77) which chronicles the director’s journeys in Hollywood with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. [THR]
William Shatner claims JJ Abrams never called him back. [trekmovie]
Warner Bros has scheduled a September 19th release date for Whiteout. [shock]
JustJared has new photos from the set of Crank 2: High Voltage which show star Jason Statham with some nasty fake scars on his back.
WALL-E was given a G-Rating by the MPAA. [animatednews]
Cineleet takes a look at the influences of Star Wars in a column titled Before the Galaxy Far, Far Away.
The Incredible Hulk has invaded New York City. Head over to Marvel for more images.
Eric Lively, Tony Todd and Gil Bellows have been cast in the “24” prequel. [THR]
MTV has the first chapter of Vern’s new book Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal.
Sony Pictures Classics is in final negotiations for James Toback’s boxing documentary “Tyson,” which chronicles the life of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. [THR]
MovieMistakes has a list of over 70 mistakes from the original Indiana Jones series.
Blockbuster is advertising on Pizza boxes?! [Gizmodo]
Rotten Tomatoes takes a look at the top 20 sequels they’re still waiting for.
The Disney Movie Surfers have taken a behind-the-scenes look at WALL-E, and new footage is featured.
Fanboy has a look at all the Indiana Jones Knock-Offs in a segment they call The Hall of Shame.
Jim Hill blogs about the lost action sequences where Indiana Jones battled samurai and a machine-gun toting warlord, that was cut from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The Daily Mail has the first photo of a bald Cameron Diaz on the set of My Sister’s Keeper. Scary!
Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be rated PG for "sci-fi action violence throughout, brief language and momentary smoking." [io9]
NBC will air a special Incredible Hulk-themed episode of “American Gladiators” with guest star Lou Ferrigno. [SHH]
Madonna’s newest film, a documentary about the struggles of Malawi, titled I Am Because We Are, will screen at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival in August. [variety]
One of NECA’s comic con exclusives is an action figure three pack from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles featuring a set of three Mousers. [mechzilla]
FestivalCentral asks people at Cannes how to pronounce the title of Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. Jeff Wells reports that Kaufman says the pronunciation is “Syn-ECK-duh-kee.”
Blogwarts has yet another new (but way too small) photo from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Twentieth Century Fox paid $550,000 to the Smithsonian Institution for the right to use its name in Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian. [sci-fi]
Build your own cubecraft Indiana Jones and Golden Idol on Cubecraft.com.
Fangoria reports that actor Glenn Morshower is set to return to Transformers 2. Morshower is best known for playing a secret service agent in 24, and appeared in the original movie as a military Sargent at the US Soccent.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine has wrapped principal photography. [iesb]
Check out these two videos from Sundance, director, writer and actor Clark Gregg discusses his new film Choke. [searchlight]
Three Video Clips from Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York
Posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Cannes2008 has released thre first three clips from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind) directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. The three clips don’t reveal much. The first screening of the film happened at Cannes on Saturday. Anne Thompson writes that those who have seen it describe the movie as “ambitious, arty and brilliant, if not entirely accessible.” Others have said that like Eternal Sunshine, Synecdoche stays with you for a few days.
Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director named Caden Cotard, whose life in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his body’s autonomic functions. Worried about the transience of his life, he moves his theater company to a warehouse in New York City. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton co-star.
Kaufman described the film to the hollywood reporter: “it’s about people’s losses and death and fear of death and intimacy and relationships. Romance and regret and struggle and ego and jealousy and confusion and loneliness and sex and loss — all those things are in the movie. I wanted it to be an all-inclusive experience of a person’s life. It’s this guy’s world.”
Check out the three video clips after the jump.
Here is a round up of stories that just didn’t make the /Film front page, or what we like to call…. Page 2!
TotalFilm has a batch of production photos from Pixar’s WALL-E.
David Poland calls Sex and the City: The Movie “the Lord of the Rings of Chick Flicks… not that it’s anywhere near as good, emotional, artistically made or worthy of box office or awards… IT’S 2 HOURS AND 25 FUCKING MINUTES LONG!!!!”
With news of yesterday morning’s decision by the California Supreme Court, Screenwriter John August has announced he is getting married. Congrads.
France’s MK2 and Britain’s Film4 will produce “Satisfaction,” the second film by U.S. writer-director Miranda July (Me and You and Everybody We Know). [Variety]
Universal Pictures has launched a viral site for the Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted - FraternityofWeavers.com
Blogwarts has the third official photo from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but it’s very low resolution and not very revealing.
Rotten Tomatoes‘ Total Recall column focuses on movies with talking live-action animals. This, naturally, is in anticipation of the new Narnia movie.
Variety continues to STEAL stories from movie news websites. How unprofessional. [collider]
Producer Daniel Dubieki says he would like to make a sequel to Jennifer’s Body: “I could see [a sequel] in the future if this movie does well and I think it will. As long as we can bring the right ingredients back to the table, I could totally see that happening. We’re not making it for that reason, but it could work. I’d love to do that.” [shock]
ThePlaylist has a small review of Pineapple Express: “The movie was bloody and hysterical. It was definitely like no other movie I’ve ever seen. [There's] lots of killing, at least 12 on camera deaths, and lots of blood. Insane. PS Danny R. McBride is a scene stealer.”
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who represented the Al Gore team during the 2004 Florida recount, has denounced the HBO drama Recount, scheduled to air on May 25. [imdb]
io9 explains How Superhero Movies Made Comic Books Cooler (If Not Better).
ComingSoon has a new poster for Paramount’s The Love Guru, and no one cares.
PixarBlog has the track-listings for the WALL-E soundtrack.
Film School Rejects has the trailer for Don Cheadle’s Traitor.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is currently getting a 73 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Jon Brion is scoring Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York. [playlist]
Tom Cruise is in talks to star in director Phillip Noyce’s thriller 28th Amendment, about a U.S. president (Cruise) who discovers that a secret committee (run by Denzel Washington) has controlled the U.S. government since WWII. [moviehole]
Six Flags Great Adventure announced the grand opening of The Dark Knight coaster which will feature new customized footage of Aaron Eckhart as District Attorney Harvey Dent. The ride also incorporates audio and visual elements from the film which will debut July 18, 2008, offering guests a sneak peak. [SHH]
The Movie Blog theorizes that Paramount might have botched the marketing for Indiana Jones 4.
Rob Corddry has landed his first starring role, a part in “Project A,” an action comedy from Ben Stiller’s production company about a man trained by the U.S. government as a Cold War experiment to become the world’s biggest jerk. [reuters]
New Photos: Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York
Posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Next up we bring you new photos from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind) directorial debut.
Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director named Caden Cotard, whose life in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his body’s autonomic functions. Worried about the transience of his life, he moves his theater company to a warehouse in New York City. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton co-star.
Running time is 124 minutes. I love the imagery in the background of the life-size replica of New York City which is being housed in a large warehouse.
First Look: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener in Synecdoche, New York
Posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
You might recognize Charlie Kaufman as the screenwriter of some of the strangest films in the last decade: Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation., Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. Now the Academy Award-winning writer makes his directorial debut with Synecdoche, New York.
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a theater director named Caden, who ambitiously attempts to put on a play by creating a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse after finding out something is wrong with him on a trip to the dentist. The city model inside the warehouse gets bigger and bigger, as Hoffman’s character continued to age and with a mysterious disease that shuts down his autonomic functions one by one.
Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton co-star. The project was originally written for long time collaborator Spike Jonze. More information on the film can be read in our earlier post.
Synecdoche, New York is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this month.
source: Anne Thompson
