Charlie Kaufman justifies Synecdoche, New York

published 28 April 2009

Charlie Kaufman is feeling a bit wounded, says Laura Barton in the Guardian. The scriptwriter, who rose to prominence with the cult movie Being John Malkovich, has just released a new film, Synecdoche, New York.

The story of a playwright plagued by ill health and despair, it's just as unconventional as his earlier works - but has been less well received. At a screening in London, there were boos at the end, and one man was even moved to shout "Rubbish" when Kaufman, a famously shy and anxious man, appeared for a Q&A session.

Part of the problem is that the film has a bizarre, uneven structure and a long limp finish - but that was no accident. "I was trying to present a life," he says softly. "There is something that happens to people when they get old, which is that they get sidelined. There isn't a big, dramatic crescendo, and then their life is over. They're forced out of their work, the people in their lives die, they lose their place in the world, people don't take them seriously, and then they just continue to live. And what is that? What does that feel like? I wanted to try to be truthful about that and express something about what I think is a really sad human condition."