Synecdoche, New York

Since this blog has taken a turn toward discussing movies, let me chime in on Synecdoche, New York. I watched this a few days ago and am still thinking about it. It is a complicated movie that requires many viewings and much explication. It forges a dream reality and is solipsistic.

The basic gist is that a New York theater director gets a grant to design a new play. He gets an abandoned warehouse to stage this play and proceeds to build a life size replica of New York City. He hires a cast of thousands to play real people from his life and has them enact different episodes and experiences from his life. His hope is to better understand his life, himself, and life in general.

What makes this film fun is the dream reality. Obviously, a life size replica of New York City cannot be built inside a warehouse that is itself located in New York City. But in the film that happens. Then, because the replica is of New York City, in which there is this warehouse with the replica, the replica itself has a warehouse, inside of which is another life size replica of New York City, that then has another warehouse... and so on.

As another example, since the play recreates his own life, the theater director hires actors to recreate the staging of the play. So there are actors playing actors.

Because the theater director attempts to recreate his life, the production of the play never ends, as his life is continuing, thus meaning there is always more to be staged. He spends at least forty years creating this play.

As I continue to think about this film, what fascinates me most so far is the solipsism. The theater director is entirely consumed, as evidenced by the play, by his own perspective. He sees only his own viewpoint. I think this is how we all are. Reality does not exist; there is no reality out there to be accurately deciphered or that even can be accurately deciphered. Reality is, instead, a social construction filtered through our experiences, prejudices, emotions, and other internal censors. That different people can agree on anything is astonishing.