Two Lessons I Learned from “Synecdoche, New York”
*Warning: Reading this post will spoil the film for you.*
Brilliant film. I felt embarassed about my little ideas after watching this film. I’m not going to critique or appreciate the film microscopically for two reasons: one, I feel incapable of it, and two, I took a lot out of the film, so I’d rather talk about that. Please note that I am not always looking to take something away from a movie watching experience.
There are two lessons for me from the film
I. How Kaufman Managed to Escape His Gatekeeper and We Should Try Too
Any idea creator is challenged by critics outside, after the work is extracted out by the creator: from people who put money in it to ones who critique for a profession – from films to where to eat tonight. Yet, most of a creator’s better ideas are critiqued and killed inside by the creator. What fascinates me about the film is how Kaufman must have suspended his judgement to fight internally to pour it out of himself. But this wouldn’t be a good film if Kaufman had managed to just let some of his original ideas escape his internal gatekeeper. The second half of the tough job is how Kaufman might have pieced these thoughts together, over time, and crafted to make a whole. I am capable of having a couple of the ideas in the film. Most of us are. I would have felt too happy to have arrived at them and thought it complete to make a film about. Most idea creators fall prey to premature ideaculations. Kaufman on the other hand creates a universe as a result of his ideas and makes a film out of that. That inspires me as much as embarrasses me.
I believe the work that resonate best and live long with us are thoughts we might ourselves have briefly considered but never thought it important to pursue or were too afraid to pursue. That is why Kaufman is a genius for me: he did it with Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York.
II. Karm Kar. Intellectual Masturbation Mat Kar. (Do. Don’t Just Intellectualize.)
The essence of the film lies in the eulogy:
“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 20 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. 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, so fucking hurt for so fucking long. And for just as long, I’ve been pretending I’m okay… 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.”
And the essence of the eulogy is in “fate, it’s what you create.” Acting more important than pondering.
From the film I derive encouragement to do the mundane things some of us fight to escape; to make choices and live ordinary, unremarkable days. I am envious and respectful of those around me and those instances from my own life when I’ve lived without intellectualizing those instances; without complaint. As a self interrogative person envious of those times when I am not and those who are mostly not.
Some of us who most of the times and many of us who some of the times self-interrogate, think critically, about situations and choices pit ourselves against those who just do as society in general or family and peers in particular command them to do. We pride in the method to individually arrive at a choice after giving it thought because we believe this way we’re making a better decision. We mock others for being myopic or even blind followers in our books, movies and ordinary internet blog comments. Yet we find ourselves lost in choices, lacking courage to make a decision and sticking with it. So we never decide, always ponder.
Of course, I feel the most depressing thing about all this is that I chose to write a blog post about it and hope to derive pleasure from one or two positive comments, if I could get any, out of this. I should be applying it more to my life: acting and creating. That depression explains my dislike directed at myself for intellectualization. We do it because it is very convenient, lazy even, and very safe.
It is important to act, than live our lives within our heads. There is more value in creating mediocre than waiting for the perfect to occur.
I have to connect this with what Anurag Kashyap had to say to Mini Randhawa in the comments section of a post on Khoya Khoya Chand. This way I hope its relevance to PFC becomes even more apparent:
“mini i make films and i love them and i wnt them to grow and survive..i am not as intelligent as you are but i think i should do what i can to make films that i seem are one step ahead at a time reach out more and the target for these posts are not you or people like you whose contribution is mere commenting on which is far more superior to usual crap.. i wish you do something constructive to improve on our cinema.. people like you are a dime a dozen discussing and analysing what should be encouraged, every filmschool student, every theoritician who given a camera can’t even shoot a home video because he is afraid of his own expectations of making the next great classic..”
Note: Lesson I and II are contradictory. Tough luck.
Tags: Anurag Kashyap, Charlie Kaufman, criticism, synecdoche new york
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I haven’t seen the movie, but read the final draft of the screenplay. And I re-read it once in every 3-4 days. There were portions in the script where at which I have laughed the first time. These same portions have almost made me cry the next time I read the screenplay. It’s this manic-depressive streak that touches but doesn’t oversimplify. The motifs in the movie, “the burning house”, “miniature paintings”, “warehouse inside a warehouse”,”conjugate actors playing the same role” .. I mean.. I can’t put to words the genius of this man… He is a saint.. To him making movies is about exploring facets of humanity. Every movie he makes is an excuse to put into the world the consolidated experiences that he has had as a human being. I guess there can be nothing more romantic, nothing more sensual.
Charlie Kaufman is without a trace of doubt ‘THE GREATEST LIVING ARTIST TODAY’..
Then I see tributes flowing in for people like Tim Burton.. And I sulk..
You got to watch it Sreehari. He is a genius, true that. I do think that while he explores human reality, his film is eventually very simple. I feel he means to suggest that we over complicate our lives and life can actually be very simple.
Ha ha. Anurag’s post absolutely reminded me of RGV. An apt protege. Actually am taking credit away from Anurag here. But on this point, Anurag and RGV think the same, and they are right. Sriram, both lessons are the same. In fact there is no need for so much analysis. The Anurag rant is quite simple. And beyond that RGV simplifies that he will do whatever his intelligence and capacity would allow him to. The first lesson in this case therefore, comes out of frustration of not evolving enough, or not finding success. Both relevant. The winners would be in a position to answer when to call it quits and search another path, or how much should you persist! Oh no, I turned into those kinds that Anurag despises! Anyways, thanks for the reco Sriram.