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Synecdoche, New York

  • 20082008
  • RR
  • 2h 4m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
90K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,809
471
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
A viral video promotion for Synecdoche, New York.
Play trailer1:08
9 Videos
99+ Photos
  • Drama

A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

IMDb RATING
7.5/10
90K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,809
471
  • Director
    • Charlie Kaufman
  • Writer
    • Charlie Kaufman
  • Stars
    • Philip Seymour Hoffman
    • Samantha Morton
    • Michelle Williams
Top credits
  • Director
    • Charlie Kaufman
  • Writer
    • Charlie Kaufman
  • Stars
    • Philip Seymour Hoffman
    • Samantha Morton
    • Michelle Williams
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 361User reviews
    • 247Critic reviews
    • 67Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 8 wins & 29 nominations

    Videos9

    Synecdoche, New York: Viral Video
    Trailer 1:08
    Synecdoche, New York: Viral Video
    Synecdoche, New York: Trailer
    Trailer 2:47
    Synecdoche, New York: Trailer
    Say Something Awful
    Clip 0:52
    Say Something Awful
    Massive Theater Piece
    Clip 1:28
    Massive Theater Piece
    Massive Theater Piece
    Clip 0:48
    Massive Theater Piece
    In and Around Synecdoche, NY  Incredibly Complicated
    Clip 1:31
    In and Around Synecdoche, NY Incredibly Complicated
    I Follow You
    Clip 0:50
    I Follow You
    Everybody Here
    Clip 0:45
    Everybody Here
    Actors Playing Actors
    Clip 1:19
    Actors Playing Actors

    Photos127

    Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Sadie Goldstein in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman and Charlie Kaufman in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Catherine Keener in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman and Hope Davis in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman and Samantha Morton in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman, Emily Watson, Tom Noonan, and Samantha Morton in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman in Synecdoche, New York (2008)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman and Samantha Morton in Synecdoche, New York (2008)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Philip Seymour Hoffman
    Philip Seymour Hoffman
    • Caden Cotardas Caden Cotard
    Samantha Morton
    Samantha Morton
    • Hazelas Hazel
    Michelle Williams
    Michelle Williams
    • Claire Keenas Claire Keen
    Catherine Keener
    Catherine Keener
    • Adele Lackas Adele Lack
    Sadie Goldstein
    Sadie Goldstein
    • Olive (4 years old)as Olive (4 years old)
    Tom Noonan
    Tom Noonan
    • Sammy Barnathanas Sammy Barnathan
    Peter Friedman
    Peter Friedman
    • Emergency Room Doctoras Emergency Room Doctor
    Charles Techman
    Charles Techman
    • Like Clockwork Patientas Like Clockwork Patient
    Josh Pais
    Josh Pais
    • Ophthalmologistas Ophthalmologist
    Daniel London
    Daniel London
    • Tomas Tom
    Robert Seay
    Robert Seay
    • Davidas David
    Stephen Adly Guirgis
    Stephen Adly Guirgis
    • Davisas Davis
    Hope Davis
    Hope Davis
    • Madeleine Gravisas Madeleine Gravis
    Frank Girardeau
    • Plumberas Plumber
    Jennifer Jason Leigh
    Jennifer Jason Leigh
    • Mariaas Maria
    Amy Wright
    Amy Wright
    • Burning House Realtoras Burning House Realtor
    Paul Sparks
    Paul Sparks
    • Derekas Derek
    Jerry Adler
    Jerry Adler
    • Caden's Fatheras Caden's Father
    • Director
      • Charlie Kaufman
    • Writer
      • Charlie Kaufman
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play. Fresh off of a successful production of Death of a Salesman, he has traded in the suburban blue-hairs and regional theater of Schenectady for the cultured audiences and bright footlights of Broadway. Armed with a MacArthur grant and determined to create a piece of brutal realism and honesty, something into which he can put his whole self, he gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in Manhattan's theater district. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a small mock-up of the city outside. As the city inside the warehouse grows, Caden's own life veers wildly off the tracks. The shadow of his ex-wife Adele, a celebrated painter who left him years ago for Germany's art scene, sneers at him from every corner. Somewhere in Berlin, his daughter Olive is growing up under the questionable guidance of Adele's friend, Maria. He's helplessly driving his marriage to actress Claire into the ground. Sammy Barnathan, the actor Caden has hired to play himself within the play, is a bit too perfect for the part, and is making it difficult for Caden to revive his relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel. Meanwhile, his therapist, Madeline Gravis, is better at plugging her best-seller than she is at counselling him. His second daughter, Ariel, is disabled. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his autonomic functions, one by one. As the years rapidly pass, Caden buries himself deeper into his masterpiece. Populating the cast and crew with doppelgangers, he steadily blurs the line between the world of the play and that of his own deteriorating reality. As he pushes the limits of his relationships, both personally and professionally, a change in creative direction arrives in Millicent Weems, a celebrated theater actress who may offer Caden the break he needs. —Anonymous
    • female frontal nudity
    • female rear nudity
    • play
    • actress
    • painter
    • 188 more
    • Plot summary
    • Plot synopsis
    • Genre
      • Drama
    • Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
      • Rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The article that Caden reads in the doctor's waiting room, about his wife, is titled "It's Good To Be Adele". The intro paragraph reads, "Six months ago, Adele was an under-appreciated housewife in Eastern New York. Stuck in a dead-end marriage to a slovenly ugly-face loser, Adele Lack had big dreams for her and her then four-year-old daughter, Olivia. That's when her paintings got small."
    • Goofs
      In the scene where Caden is talking to Hazel directly after having talked to the doctor after his seizure, there is a dog in a box behind Hazel in her box office. Upon cutting to Caden, and then cutting back, the dog is gone. This is the remnants of the character "Squishy", from the original draft of the script. The almost-dead dog was found by Hazel after driving home from the premiere. She was saddened by Caden denying her, and she finds the dog, run over and bloody on the side of the road. She decides to keep it. This is the only scene where he is present, and his presence is not explained.
    • Quotes

      Pastor: Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you may never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create. And even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are only here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain, wasting years, for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right. And it never comes or it seems to but it doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope that something good will come along. Something to make you feel connected, something to make you feel whole, something to make you feel loved. And the truth is I feel so angry, and the truth is I feel so fucking sad, and the truth is I've felt so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for just as long I've been pretending I'm OK, just to get along, just for, I don't know why, maybe because no one wants to hear about my misery, because they have their own. Well, fuck everybody. Amen.

    • Connections
      Featured in Nostalgia Critic: Is Tree of Life Full of Shit? (2014)
    • Soundtracks
      Synecdoche Song
      Written by Charlie Kaufman and Jon Brion

      Performed by Deanna Storey

    User reviews361

    Review
    Top review
    A challenging mess
    "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players . . ."

    Synecdoche, New York, like the literary term in its title, might stand for all our lives as director Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) attempts a gigantic stage construction of to depict his tumultuous life. Hamlet 2 it is not—it's a serious attempt by cerebral and creative writer Charlie Kaufman to deal with the muses and mistakes of a life worth noticing, in this case where Caden has won a MacArthur.

    Caden eventually creates a discursive and massive stage play peopled by ex lovers who help him try to gain meaning out of a sometimes bleak Brecht or Beckett landscape. Kaufman takes us into and out of time and place, characters and ideas, so that to survive the viewing, we must allow him to digress and symbolize to distraction. The recurring motif of a house on the brink of burning down signifies the nearness of insanity and even death.

    The specter of Death overshadows all else and serves as a catalyst for the artist's grand opus. It also allows him to muse on the meaning of life and the challenges of art, the former leaning toward a pantheistic notion that we are all made up of the people we have loved. Shakespeare's notion of the world as stage is more appropriate here than ever.

    Artistically Kaufman is more in David Lynch land than anywhere else; I'm comfortable with that although the producers should not wait for the profits to roll in anytime soon—it's a challenging mess.

    Caden Cotard: "I know how to do it now. There are nearly thirteen million people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due."
    helpful•75
    47
    • jdesando
    • Nov 21, 2008

    FAQ7

    • Is "Synecdoche, New York" based on a book?
    • How is "Synecdoche" pronounced?
    • What is a "synecdoche?"

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 5, 2009 (Netherlands)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Todas las vidas, mi vida
    • Filming locations
      • Schenectady, New York, USA
    • Production companies
      • Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
      • Likely Story
      • Projective Testing Service
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $20,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $3,083,538
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $172,194
      • Oct 26, 2008
    • Gross worldwide
      • $4,658,401
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 4 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • DTS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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