A – Z Challenge | Directors Series | C

Charlie Kaufman is a well known American screenwriter and director. Kaufman has written the screenplay for movies such as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind. His movies have a lot of surrealistic elements. His movies deal with a lot of issues such as identity crisis, the meaning of life and so on. He has a way to show mundane things in an intriguing way. Kaufman is considered as one of the most influential screenwriters of the current generation. He has so far directed only two movies namely Synecdoche, New York and Anomalisa.

In this post, we are going to spotlight Charlie Kaufman’s debut venture Synecdoche, New York. This movie holds an eternal place in my all time favourite movies. The movie follows the story of theatre director Caden Cotard, who has a lot of physical problems and goes through a tough phase of life. He is alienated from his wife and life in particular and things become worse when his wife leaves him along with his daughter. Then he gets a fellowship for a drama, which he wants to be his magnum opus. What is the story of his epic drama, what is the effort he puts to make it work forms the rest of the movie? I can say you that this is not a movie that you can watch on the go. This movie requires utmost dedication and the reward for that is numerous. Lead protagonist played by Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the best ever role played by him. This is by far one the best movie about an artist and his magnum opus. I would love to talk more about the movie but rather I would like the readers to watch it and enjoy the experience.

Other notable films of Charlie Kaufman as a screenwriter are Being John Malkovich, Adaptation (Autofiction or Metafiction), Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind and his second directorial venture Anomalisa.