Cold Souls is the latest film labeled as "Kaufmanesque." It stars Paul Giamatti as himself. Says the IMDB:

Actually, it's kind of like two Charlie Kaufman ideas, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

There is the presentation of the famous actor as a fictionalized version of himself a la Being John Malkovich, plus the concept of physically removing from one's body something that isn't physical. In this case, it's Giamatti's soul, kind of like the erasing of memories in Eternal Sunshine. (Source)

Thanks to Clay for that link.

Geek blog io9.com goes further and wonders if Charlie himself is becoming a genre. But apparently it annoys Cold Souls' writer-director, Sophie Barthes, when her film is compared to Charlie's stuff. Sort of understandable - she probably wants her work to stand for itself, and doesn't want audiences to expect something they aren't necessarily going to get.

I'd be pretty pleased if people went around referring to me as a genre (as long as they mean it in a good way, as opposed to something like, say, "Oh, it's very Ed Wood-esque"), but I'm sure even Charlie would acknowledge that ideas like his and Barthes' have been mined in science fiction for decades, and the self-referential stuff has been going on even longer in literature as well as film.

What's my point? Beats me. Maybe it's this: Charlie isn't a genre, but he's probably at the forefront of a trend. That's pretty nifty.

Stacy pointed me in the direction of "Charlie Kaufman: Adventures in Portraiture" - her essay on Synecdoche, New York. It's an interesting read, and opens like so:

In Synecdoche, NY, Catherine Keener plays Adele Lack, a visual artist whom paints microscopically small pieces of art. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden Cotard, a theatre director determined to express a deep guttural truth while replicating a city and scenes from his personal life for the stage.

All of these artists speak, see, and feel lines that were dreamt up by Charlie Kaufman, the writer and director of the film. But, it’s not that easy.

Ignore the chronology of that last sentence, avoid putting Kaufman at the top of that food chain, include yourself as the viewer, and focus on the interchangeability.

We are all portraits and portrait artists—bodily, thoughtfully, and sleepily while sharing an identity of fiction. (Source)

Excited by the idea of a possible Kaufman-created TV series? Ben Child is the rain on your parade. Or at least a light mist. He offers some thoughts and cautionary words on the prospect of a show run by Charlie.

It sounds like an intriguing prospect. A Kaufman TV show might be the most curious project to arrive on the small screen since David Lynch's Twin Peaks, and it's certainly true that the television market – particularly in the States – has opened up in the past decade: The Wire for instance, with its majority African American cast, scoreless episodes and slow-paced, abrasive storylines, might not have been made in the 1990s. Yet I have a terrible feeling that Kaufman would not find the challenges of his new milieu any easier to negotiate than the old.

The nascent film-maker hints in the London Paper interview that his original ending for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was far darker than the denouement which made the final cut of Michel Gondry's film. "When I watch a movie that's happy I feel ­alienated because it's garbage or a lie, and I feel isolated or lonely," he says. "I just wanted to be as honest as I know [with Synecdoche]." This is all very well, but imagine a Kaufman TV show based on these uncompromising principles, and perhaps with Synecdoche's narrative unorthodoxies in place. Fans would no doubt seek it out on DVD, just as they have made their way to cinemas to see his new film. But to achieve decent ratings, the film-maker would also need to produce something that appealed to the casual viewer. (Source)

I don't know. Given the crap that's all over TV at the moment, anything by Charlie is bound by percentages to be more interesting. On the other hand, some of what's on TV is better and more creative than what's on the big-screen. And like I said before, if he went to HBO, things could be cool.

Or here's a thought: what if Charlie turned his hand to creating some version of a reality TV show? What would that be like, eh?

Thanks to Nathaniel!

I don't know if I've already posted this. Nor does Nathaniel, who sent in the link. It's an interview from October '08:

Synecdoche, New York didn't go great guns at the box office, but Brendan Jack is here to help. He's re-cut the film's trailer, for more mainstream appeal!

Thanks to Brendan for passing it along!

When Eternal Sunshine came out, there was a whole lot of fan art to go with it. Synecdoche, New York? Not so much. But here's something cool, found on Flickr by Sergii:

The artist is Patrick Gray.

There's a CC symbol on the Region 1 Synecdoche DVD. Alas, subtitles turn out to be available only on the extra features, ie. not in the film itself. (Unless you include the German-speaking parts.)

If anyone knows what's up with that - someone from Sony? or anyone with a good theory? - please do let us know. A couple of folks have asked me about it.

A new home is to be built for the NBA's New Jersey Nets - it's causing quite the controversy at the moment, thanks to budget issues and such. Now... is it just me (and Dave, who sent this in), or does the latest design for the arena look quite a bit like a certain enormous warehouse?

Dave adds, "Incidentally, it would be built just a mile from the Brooklyn neighborhood where Synecdoche was filmed."

Now, come on.

Here's a good video essay - blogger Kevin Lee and critic Matt Zoller Seitz (formerly of the New York Times and New York Press), on Eternal Sunshine. Nothing earth-shakingly profound, but worth a look. Lee himself says he wishes he'd had more time to prepare.

Zoller Seitz observes:

I think it speaks to the way we try to keep people alive by remembering them. As long as he can remember her, as long as he can preserve some memory of her, then she is always going to be real, and she’s always going to be present.

In 2006, Seitz's wife abruptly passed away, aged 35. Says Tram (who sent in the link), "It's a nice reminder that good films offer more than just cheap thrills."

Here's the 3rd essay on Charlie's work, from Library of Inspiration. This one deals with Synecdoche, New York:

Not long after the writer playing me wrote those words to sum up a recurring theme of Paul Bowles, I embarked upon a journey of ideas assembled by another favorite writer of mine, Charlie Kaufman. Sometimes I think about what it would be like to be able to discuss with Kaufman (or even his understudy) how his work, like that of Bowles, consistently taps into so many of my own anxieties and fears. It is as if Kaufman’s found a way to drill right into my very own John Malkovichian head.

My house was not on fire as I watched the DVD of “Synecdoche, New York,” but the lines between reality and fancy blurred on queue as I listened to the following words (that, coincidentally, transported me to the heart of Sahara desert, contemplating a Paul Bowles world view all over again):

Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman): 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. (Source)

Here's the second of three Charlie-centric essays available from Library of Inspiration. This one deals with Eternal Sunshine and, like the other two, it's a quick but enjoyable read:

She’s standing right beside you! The trigger. Remembering. Trying to forget. It can be the time of day. Or maybe the month—the same month you met. A birthday or holiday. It could just be an inexplicable mood, traceable to nothing in particular. The trigger. The weather, a picture, a location, a movie or song. Music always cuts to the chase. You’re watching the news. A word. The trigger. Laughter in a crowd. The appearance of his doppelganger in the Target parking lot. Right over there! Your heart skips a beat. And then, the return to reality.

Any of it can trigger the burst of emotions exploding inside you. The race is on. A frantic search for a memory. Scanning the archives. Dust it off, dust it off, dust it off. Bring back its shine. Make it as vivid as it was when it was real, when it was happening, or at least as vivid as it was last year. Or was it the year before that? Each year dims the lights. The hue changes. You are left with pieces. You fall to pieces. Maybe it’s best if you force yourself to think of something—anything—else. (Source)

Library of Inspirationis "a virtual library containing short reflections about music, literature, and film that have provided inspiration to the contributors of the site." The site's updated quarterly, and they currently have essays up about three of Mr. Rock 'n' Roll's films, beginning with Being John Malkovich.

True story. I was standing on the EL platform at the Davis Street stop in Evanston when some woman comes up to me and says with delight, “You’re John Malkovich!”

Maxine (Catherine Keener): Sounds great! Who the fuck is John Malkovich?

I smiled (maybe even giggled) before revealing the disappointing news. No, I was not John Malkovich. The end.

Not so fast there, Sugar. Nope. She was sure of it. Absolutely certain, perturbed at my refusal to acknowledge the secret of my identity. “Yes you are.” Victorious and smug, the wretch had revealed the real me. (Source)

It's a short read, and worth checking out - thanks to Greg for the heads up.

(And a quick hello to Stella on June 28 -- Aussie time -- proving that I'm me!)

Leo Robson reviews Synecdoche, New York in the London Times Literary Supplement, and it's a good, lengthy one with a bit of depth.

The screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who was born in New York in 1958, is in many ways the worthiest heir to Allen’s throne. While the other contenders (Albert Brooks, Larry David) seek to emulate features of Allen’s persona, Kaufman has taken a pick’n’ mix approach to the director’s work. He has adopted Allen’s God-is-dead nihilism but left behind the life-is-sweet optimism that has traditionally acted as its foil and salve. He is a follower of the Allen who created and played Mickey the hypochondriac in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); the Allen who likes to engineer Kafkaesque collisions of the fantastic and the mundane – the Allen who resembles Philip Roth more than Neil Simon. But crucially, Kaufman has modified Allen’s conception of the life–art relationship. His characters aim to get things to come out imperfect and amorphous in art – just as they do again and again in life. (Source)

Thanks to Leo for sending in the link!

Empire currently has a feature called "Kaufman on Kaufman," wherein Rock 'n' Roll comments on each of his films to date. He doesn't put the boot into Clooney again over Confessions, and I notice he doesn't give any comment at all about Human Nature (he talks about Michel instead), but the Synecdoche entry is pretty interesting:

"It opened in the US in October and the reviews were really polarised: extraordinarily passionately positive or worst-movie-ever-made kind of thing. So no, I don't feel vulnerable anymore. I think I did. I was hurt by what I saw as personal, weird stuff that went on, to the point where I had to figure out how I was going to proceed. [I thought] 'I just don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to make movies anymore. I don't particularly like people anymore, I don't feel like I want to give them anything.' But I've come out of it and I'm working on something now.

Is Synecdoche a horror film? In some ways, yeah. I just want to be careful calling it a horror film because I don't want to mislead people who are expecting it to be something it's not. I think it's about scary things. It's a troubled movie, but it's still got some comedy in it.

When I can control the marketing, I try to. When people put things on posters like 'From the wild brain of Charlie Kaufman' - which happens a lot - I insist it's not there. I don't want to become a commodity or brand or repeat myself trying to establish something to people. Given that there are certain things I guess I think about, there's maybe some stylistic similarities and things that I do over time, but I'm not trying for it."

(Emphasis added)Thanks to Nathaniel!

Here's an audio interview with Charlie, conducted by Alex Fitch. Haven't checked it out yet myself, but I'm sure it's the BEST INTERVIEW EVER. I see it's paired with an interview of Nacho Vigalondo, who directed Timecrimes - which I hear is a good film if you're into time-travel. For even more interviews (with folks other than Charlie) you can go here.

Thanks to Alex!