"Synecdoche, New York" by Charlie Kaufman

June 1 and 3, 2009

The directorial début of celebrated screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) is one of the outstanding films of 2008. Nonetheless, Synecdoche, New York will not see a theatrical release in Germany and Austria; the two screenings at the Film Museum mark both its première and “dernière”. Academy-Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the lead role, the “women in his life” are Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Emily Watson. Philip Seymour Hoffman will be present as a special guest at the Film Museum on June 1.

In Synecdoche, New York, Hoffman plays Caden Cotard, a brilliant theatre director suffering from depression who is able to realize the project of his dreams thanks to a large and unexpected grant. This becomes, quite literally, his life-work: over the course of the next few decades, Caden assembles a kind of double of his own increasingly hopeless existence in a warehouse. The boundaries between his “real life” and his “stage prodúction” become more and more blurred, turning the film into a Baroque but hyper-realistic nightmare.