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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 4 APPROACHING CHARLIE KAUFMAN ......................................................................................... 7 Kaufman’s Postmodern Art Manifesto ........................................................................................ 7 Kaufman Mixing Fact & Fiction .................................................................................................. 10 The Philosophical Kaufman: The Connectedness ..................................................................... 13 Desire in the Scope of Kaufman‘s Works................................................................................... 14 Narrative Desire ..................................................................................................................... 14 The Desires of Kaufman‘s Characters.................................................................................... 17 The Honest Kaufman and his Desire for Authenticity ............................................................. 18 Desire and Freud‘s Life and Death Instinct ............................................................................ 20 Kaufman Summed Up ............................................................................................................... 22 Tasteful Branding or a Revival of the Author? – The Cultural Identity of Charlie Kaufman .. 23 Pertinent Paratexts .................................................................................................................... 26 THE POSTMODERN WORLD AND INDIVIDUAL ........................................................................ 33 The Postmodern Condition ........................................................................................................ 33 On the Horizon of Simulation ..................................................................................................... 37 Between Reality and Fiction: Metafiction .................................................................................. 42 Parody and the ‘Unfamiliar’ ........................................................................................................ 47 Adaptation ................................................................................................................................... 52 The Postmodern Individual ........................................................................................................ 56 Identity Construction and Performativity .................................................................................... 58 EXISTENTIAL FREEDOM AND HUMAN INTERRELATIONS ..................................................... 63 Choosing Your Life ..................................................................................................................... 63 1 The Relationship to the Other .................................................................................................... 67 ANALYSIS OF SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK .............................................................................. 72 Caden’s Perception .................................................................................................................... 72 Caden‘s Reality ......................................................................................................................... 72 Caden‘s Perception of Time & Death ..................................................................................... 73 Caden‘s Absurd Experiences ................................................................................................. 79 Caden‘s Absurd Transformation and Performativity ............................................................... 85 The Mediated Caden ................................................................................................................. 87 Caden on TV .......................................................................................................................... 88 Caden on the Stage ............................................................................................................... 96 Parody of Identity Discourses .................................................................................................... 99 Parody of Professionals ........................................................................................................... 100 Parody of Art and the Artist ..................................................................................................... 105 Interrelations in SNY ................................................................................................................. 111 Caden's Relationships ............................................................................................................. 111 Connectedness ....................................................................................................................... 117 KAUFMAN’S POSTMODERN POETICS ................................................................................... 124 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................ 130 ANSVARSLISTE ........................................................................................................................ 136 SUMMARY OF 'CONSTRUCTING CHARLIE KAUFMAN – A STUDY OF CHARLIE KAUFMAN'S POSTMODERN POETICS' ................................................................................... 138 APPENDIX 1: SUMMARY OF SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK ..................................................... 140 APPENDIX 2: ‘THE FUNERAL SCENE’ .................................................................................... 142 2 Institut for sprog og kultur | Aalborg Universitet Master Thesis 2009 ”Constructing Charlie Kaufman” - A Study of Kaufman’s Postmodern Poetics Supervisor: Bent Sørensen Keystrokes: 334,548 Kristina Nørremark Lisa R. F. Kristensen _____________________ _______________________ 3 INTRODUCTION Film critics have characterized screenwriter and film director Charlie Kaufman with various labels such as ‗American Eccentric‘, ‗the New Fantastic‘ and ‗anarchist‘ which all attempt to group together independent, contemporary American writers and filmmakers. Derek Hill along with several other critics place Charlie Kaufman within the context of directors such as Richard Linklater, David O. Russell, Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola and Michel Gondry, and Hill discusses whether or not these filmmakers form ‗An American New Wave‘ (Hill 2008: 11-36). While the mentioned directors do not have a common manifesto, which links them together, the American New Wave films do share several unifying trends and themes: ―Highly idiosyncratic yet intricately realised, accessible yet willing to overthrow the constraints of formal storytelling, surreal yet always grounded in human emotions, this new breed of American film captures the angst of its characters and the times in which we live, but with a wryness, imagination, earnestness, irony, and stylish wit that makes the slide into existential despair a little more amusing than it should be.― (Ibid.: 35) Although it might be true that the filmmakers share these themes, they are, however, also considered independent, and it becomes somewhat arbitrary to place them within one specific movement. Repeatedly, Kaufman rejects being labeled as belonging to one specific school, genre or style. It is, however, obvious that Kaufman has a unique voice and style both as screenwriter and director as evident from his works. In this way, Kaufman creates a specific artistic identity as unconventional within the Hollywood industry. Due to this, he holds an exclusive position as screenwriter since he is credited as the maker of the film1 – a position otherwise reserved for the director. This attests to the strong Kaufmanesque voice which makes him an interesting artist and therefore the focus of this thesis. Kaufman‘s new film Synecdoche, New York is his directorial debut which, however, has not won the same recognition as his earlier films such as Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adaptation. Nevertheless, SNY2 testifies to Kaufman‘s specific style and adds to the idea that Kaufman has a specific artistic agenda as pointed out by his consistent focus on and discussion of the role of the artist and the process of creating art. This process becomes allegorical to the process of constructing and performing one‘s reality and self manifested through SNY‘s main character Caden Cotard‘s massive play, which is an in-the-moment dramatization of his own life. Also the one- to-one play on Caden‘s life, taking place on a set which is an exact replica of a part of New 1 In 2004 Kaufman shared an Academy Award with Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth for the screenplay of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. 2 We will refer to Synecdoche, New York as SNY throughout this thesis. 4 York, illustrates the synecdoche-theme3, which of course is pointed out by the title of the film. The synecdoche theme functions on many levels as for instance in the discussion of the relationship between individual and the world and art and reality. Kaufman discusses the role of authenticity through Caden‘s desire for creating an authentic, original and honest piece of art, ideals which Caden strives towards in his life in general. Caden‘s never-ending struggle to