The Genius of Synecdoche, New York (Part 2)
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- Опубликовано: 15 янв 2015
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I'm sure if Charlie Kaufman say this (well, part 1) and saw you "overanalyzing" the clock sequence's fadein, he'd be happy. That's exactly what he was talking about in your clip - he doesn't want to tell you what to think. He wants you to think. Even if it wasn't an intentional thematic note, the fact that you turned it into one is EXACTLY what he wanted.
I really liked the first part of the video, but this thing with the fade effect on a title really annoyed me. I need to get and feel those things while watching an actual movie, not studying them under a microscope after I've actually finished it. Imagine this movie wasn't made in the era of internet, how the fuck are you supposed to notice that detail? Therefore it doesn't matter
@@forasgardddhe noticed it without the internet. artists can put details into their art that are so subtle that very few will pick up on or notice. it’s very fortunate we have the internet now so analysis’ like these can be shared:-)
@@forasgardddsaying something “doesn’t matter” because you didn’t notice it on your own is a wild statement & a pretty self-centered take in my opinion
@@kyliesorenson2114 an absolute majority of people could not possibly notice that detail, he was studying it under a fucking microscope
"You're restaging someone else's old play, there's nothing personal in it."
she then has a quote in a magazine saying "When I look, I see. When I see, I paint."
Ben Lash I think I know what you mean, but could you clarify please?
Borz She is essentially just 'restaging' what she sees. She's being a hypocrite.
That is kind of who she is, she corrects Caden by saying that pupils dilate, not "open", also she "corrects" Caden when he says veins instead of capillaries (both are right btw, they are both blood vessels), but wants him to stop explaining Olive all this when she starts freaking out. The only thing impressive about her paintings is that they look nice and it's kind of awesome that they are really small. All this happens because her dad worked in a coal mine and the stains looked cool to her, that's it.
I think this is kind of a defense of post mordernist art where something like a miniature portrait with little to no artistic value (maybe the artistic value comes from it being small and that may make you feel something) is treated with just as respect as some 'up your own ass' type postmordenist bullshit.
Ben Lash yeah she never loved him.
@@atro-city well actually the magazine in which she says that is still just a figment of Caden's imagination, it disappears once he gets up to follow the nurse and it has a passage in it that can never be included in any actual magazine, plus the entire issue is about Adele, which is pretty unrealistic when you think about it.
I cannot believe that I didn't notice Sammy a single time until he made himself present in the film. I really do need to give this film a rewatch.
You had to have noticed him the 1st time he made an appearance. He was literally in the center of the frame
Hmmmm. I wonder what THAT MEANS.
@@yekna459 yeah but you phase it out in your memory because you assume he's just a neighbor until his actual introduction later in the film, but by then you forget about the first sighting
I always thought the size of Adele's paintings - particularly when she says she has to ship two of them and thus miss the opening night of Caden's play - points to their insignificance in Caden's eyes. His works of art are huge, complicated, exhausting, and hers are minute, almost cute, and the idea that much time or effort would go in to their administration seems painfully absurd.
Later, it seems to me their size represents any number of things a lover may feel should have been examined more closely once a relationship has dissolved.
This is extremely good.
I love this. Just adding to the thread, i find the blurriness and vagueness of Adele’s paintings could signify Caden’s disinterest in them and how almost each picture was that of a woman representing Adele and how with time as she went farther and farther the paintings just became nude abstracts of Adele.
@@Pratulya not to just pat y’all on the back but these are some great takes wow
Brilliant.
The shipping of two paintings could also refer to Adele and Olive's flight away from Caden to Berlin
i wonder how many people that watched this will die before the next part comes out
@@wmascolin I think he died
Hey guys i think he's dead.
Holy shit he's dead
NOOOOOOO!
Well, now it's just awkward, since we have a real chance to die now.
Also In Search of Lost Time is the longest book ever written. If Hazel read it, a *lot* of time needs to have passed.
Adding on to when Caden is urinating in the sink, I think it's important to note that he looks over his shoulder while doing it. To me this implies that he does in fact notice the discoloration, and when he looks over his shoulder, it expresses his longing for Adele to at least see what he's seeing. Caden is like the boy who cried wolf, when he actually does see a wolf. Adele is a witness who at this point simply doesn't believe him, nor does she care whether it is true or not anymore. Just something to think about. This movie literally got me to write a paragraph on a character looking over their shoulder. Bravo, Kaufman.
Some of the reviews for this movie on IMDb make my head hurt. "It's confusing at first, so that makes it bad. I shouldn't have to think while watching a movie."
ChancesAreGood you're such an intellectual
Better stick to fast n furious franchise flicks
They are just jelous because they will never write a script like this. Go wartch Fast and Furious, Transformers or Marvel Movies!!!! In those shitty cash grabs you don't have to think in nothing. Stupid IMDB critic!!!!
That would be my response
i mean this movies GOOD
but it's no spy kids 4
Yea, Spy Kids 4 is good. But it's no Gigli.
You’re wrong it’s spy kids three
Well put
shut the fuck up, spy kids 3: game over is way better than your shitty 4D bullshit
Spy Kids 4 had such subtle and yet complex themes of time, to an extent Synecdoche could never rival.
I noticed that when the Leukemia ad was playing in TV that there was a shot of Ellen and her mother having the picnic shown later in the film
One thing about the therapist that always entered my mind that you didn't seem to bring up is the idea of being unaware of pain or being unable to empathize with it. When you go to a therapist, you expect that the individual you'll be seeing will be capable of fixing the pain that you have been experiencing. But with Caden's therapist, I think that her shoes being so tight that she is being physically harmed by them represents that, although she is in charge of mending someone else's pain, she is incapable of realizing her own.
As a person who spent almost all of 2014 in a therapist's office every week, you typically expect a therapist to be someone who can provide an air of caring and understanding. Caden's therapist, however, gives off a very clinical air that makes her seem detached from her clients. So my thought has always been that she's an individual that is so unaware of her own pain that she is incapable of mending someone else's, despite that being her profession.
Not to say that your interpretation is wrong (in fact I agree with it), but I think that interpretation could just be another element to her character.
It resonates to the idea that no-one really listens or cares about Caden's problems, and that he is truly lonely and troubled for it. Doctors, his therapist and others talk without making sense, as if it's just their spiel, interrupt him often and rarely yield a genuine smile.
Yes, one of the few things I did notice, but he doesn't mention it. And I didn't even see the stalker once :p
yeah, I would agree with your insight there, it's like the tight shoes appear to represent the professional facade she's created in order to cover up the pain (literally beneath the shoe) that she pretends isn't there, also linking in to what Adam was saying slightly earlier on about people only ever showing the qualities of themselves that they desire to show to people.
Is 'pain beneath the shoe' a phrase or something?
Am I the only person in the whole universe who picked up on the therapist's hitting on Caden?
You need to do this with The Holy Mountain.
"The Genius of The Holy Mountain part 512: I made it 15 minutes into the movie"
***** I'd watch it. Then again, YMS would probably die before he finishes the series.
Time slips through our fingers
The Holy Mountain is the sort of movie I think Adam would try to stay away from explaining. Who knows, this might be a new series, but I think it was intentional that his favorite movie happens to be missing from his channel. Half the fun of watching The Holy Mountain is analyzing it for yourself, probably one of many reasons why its his favorite movie.
My favorite part of the film is one of the more subtle parts of the movie, and I don't even feel like I should spoil the moment for anyone else who might figure it out for themselves. That's the sort of movie The Holy Mountain is.
Deep Fried Jesus
Isn't The Piano Teacher his favorite movie of all time?
So I finally watched the movie in its entirety, and thank god you introduced this movie to us. It's an absolute fucking masterpeice.
srsly?
Us? Wot r u m8, golem?
Sid Binding im sorry i dont speak dumbass
Sid Binding durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Sid Binding (mindfuck)
So if this is your second favorite movie ever, you probably gave it an 8/10, right?
He said in his "Top 10 Films of 2008" that this was a 10/10 film to him.
I see what you did there.
Hahahahaha good one
second fav, so its a definite 5 or 6
6/10
Cleaning can be seen as a metaphor for art. It's therapeutic in the sense that it works as long as he is engrossed in it, but when he stops, his pathologies return.
Upon watching this video, something struck me very hard about what was said around the 7:30 mark. People appreciate his work, but those close to him do not understand it. I feel like Kaufman is trying to tell us that while he is a respected screenwriter, and now director, perhaps those close to him do not fully understand or appreciate his body of work as much as us as the collective of movie nerds. In this fact lies what is truly terrifying or what may be interpreted as "depressing." Everyone dies, but its more frightening to think you might never be understood.
In some small way, you've been understood by 60 people so far.
After performing "The Trial" (the book Hazel was reading) for a drama exam and understanding the themes of the play, its themes are very similar to the themes of Synecdoche. "The Trial" is essentially an extreme abstract, dreamlike performance of the main character Josef trying to work out why he was arrested. Long story short, he never finds out and dies at the end of the play without having completed his goal of discovering the truth. Pretty fitting when relating it to Caden and his work.
Spoiler alert!!!
Synecdoche New York is probably my favorite film of all time. I'm really glad you're doing these. Makes it really cool to look back on. Charlie Kaufman...gosh. What a guy. Anyway. Gotta get watching your video.
You're now my favorite youtuber
seanmcnl Is that all it took? xD
Pretty much, I don't have very high standards.
***** I'm recognized. I feel like a celebrity. :) Hiya~ Nice to see you here from the FMA video.
I totally get that. This is easily a new favorite of mine after viewing it several times. You really have to appreciate the sheer amount of unbridled artistic passion Kauffman put into this. There needs to be more films like it, in the sense that it comes from a deeply personal idea without any of the Hollywood bullshit you may find with a lot of movies today
Watching this amazing film for the first time shook me. It made me feel awful. It was so powerful and probably the best film I have ever seen.
I always thought that the therapist having blisters on her feet shows that she's so desperate to wear attractive shoes that she'll go through physical harm. Goes to show that under her veil of confidence is someone who's very insecure just like the rest of us. (literally the one thing I was able to interpret from this film)
I thought the burning house was representative of how trying to create stability in life is ultimately futile... like buying a home/ starting a family are just illusions of success and independence, because, in death, they will fade like everything else.
+bjortsampson like in the song the daughter is singing at the beginning, she is buying her own coffin
Few of the bits I would like to add:
1.The whole scene where Kaden goes outside, cutting back to the therapist and back to him sitting outside, feels more like a momentary passage in time, as if he was daydreaming. This can be taken as another example of how life is passing him by.
2.When Adele is leaving Kaden, he, for one of the rare instance in the movie reveals his true emotions and we see it getting reciproocated by Adele, becasue she is the kind of the person who lives in the present moment and take decisions based on those. I liked your observation about people revealing only parts of their selves to others and Synechdoche itself means - A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something, or vice versa. And as Frank Underwood says in house of cards, "After all, we are nothing more or less than what we choose to reveal."
3.This specific instance also shows how far disconnected Kaden is with Adele and do not understand her at all. If he would have he would have pleaded her to stay, knowing the fact that she is the kind of person who gives in to momentary emotions very easily.
4.When Kaden refuses Hazel's offer to go to her car and smoke weed, just in next frame we see her going back home. But also that she is crying. All throughout the movie we see her trying to connect with Kaden but him being either reluctant or doubtful. I think her buying a house on fire, also, to my understanding, represents her desire for the broken and damaged and the dangerous, Kaden being the living example of that. This makes sense in the light of the fact that the broker introduces her to his son who lives in the basement, just like a part of kaden is, still living life of doubtful teenager who might as well be living with his parents.
5.Mariah is the main factor who pulls Adele away from Kaden. She is high also when they are returning after watching the play. In this very scene we can also see the reason why Kaden is a person as he is, when we see the dynamics of the relation between his parents who argue as they move in the background and he(Kaden) argue with Adele in the front with camera cutting between both the arguments.
6.I also liked the way you noticed the contempt Adele and MAriah have for Kaden and I did too. Two more thing to add there, Kaden refused offer to get high as he is more reserved but Adele did the same with Mariah at home.
Second, towards the end of the scene when Kaden leaves the screen, just momentarily we see Adele resuming her conversation with Mariah but she makes a disgusted face. No prizes for guessing what they would start talking about once Kaden goes off to sleep.
7.When Adele tells Kaden she is going to Germany, Kaden's reaction is not about showing any of the emotions, but rather , he says "How do you think I am supposed to react to something like that?" and we know by now, HE DOSENT. The nature of his parents and the way they argue and the way he tiptoes around them goes to show that he has been brought up in a very different environment with strict rules and morals and ideals about life. This can be attributed as another reason why he breaks down when he is making love with Hazel.
8.Olive asks, "What are those on your face dadd?" and he explain definitions of psychosis and sycosis and his daughter says, "You might have them both" can also be seem as a signal to denote a fact that has been believed in medical science since a ong time,"Outer physical inflictions can be a result of inner psychological troubles."
9. He shares the lunch with Hazel as the only "Date-kind-of" thing and he salivates and forces his food inside his food pipe, being his disgusting best in front of someone who likes him and even he knows that she likes him. But here we are. There is someone, right in front of Kaden who is ready to accept him in all of his parts and he remains totally oblivious to the fact.
10.The nature of sexual relation between Kaden and Hazel is one slightly of that of female domination and male submission.(I hope everybody would have noticed that)
For Franz Kafka's The Trial and how it relates to the themes of the movie, I'll give it a shot. The Trial is about a man who is arrested, put through trial, found guilty and executed. It never specifies what exactly the crime is. Through the book the main character insists he is innocent but he takes very little action to convince others of it, as to the very end he believes the system works properly and someone somewhere will discover the truth before it is too late for him.
Though I would say it is not a central theme of the book, you could see there the theme of time slipping by and not making use of the time you have left as you probably should. Another connection you could draw to the movie is the theme of how much you should worry about things and how much action you should take to try to alleviate that.
The story that is being told within the Trial about the man stopping at a door/gate with a gatekeeper and the man never stepping into it because he didn't know if he was allowed or how to go through it and then later finding at the end of his life finding out that he could've always gone through it, but never dared to just go or ask for it. That theme of waiting for your life to begin, trying to control it, by thinking over it all the time before doing it, rehearsing it, trying to perfect it before you start it, like the play that never gets performed, that absurd illusion, self deceit is attacked by the actor playing the priest in of the funeral scenes.
"The Trial" specifically parallels "Synechdoche" in that the character is referred to a series a lawyers, each more condescending to him, and the last lawyer tries to get him to buy a series of paintings, described as sublime but each bleaker and plainer than the last. This Kafkaesque denial of expectation suffuses the film, which has an anti-plot in which problems are never overcome, merely growing larger along with the scope of the play (life), ad infinitum.
I'd love to hear a deeper explanation on how Adam feels about the audio mixing in this movie. Watching it with headphones you pick up on all of the little sounds, like Sammy leaning in to hear. The scene where Caden is salivating you can literally hear the bite of food go down his throat.
This movie looks like the work of pure brilliance.
I think an interesting note is that his father enters the room and says hello, but then isn't seen in the scene again or even noticed.
I interpreted the small shoes as the terapist being "too big for her boots". Also I liked the dynamic of speeding up the time when they were finally talking about something positive. I think it's demonstrating how we don't appreciate the good things in life but lament over the crappy stuff.
when caden starts cleaning the basement, images of the girl and her mom at the picnic pop up. at the end of the film, we find that this is a flashback that caden has AS ellen, the cleaning lady. and then he begins to clean. super complicated stuff.
Adam, I gotta say, I really wanna thank you for introducing this movie to me. I always look forward to your best of the year lists because it always gives me something intriguing to watch. I watched the whole film on New Years and was absolutely astounded by it. I don't think many things in life have generally affected me in the way viewing this did, I feel it's a film that almost forces self reflection and contemplation on ones own existence. If it weren't for you man, I probably never would have seen this, which is a damn shame.
There are actually quite a few thematic links to Proust's "In Search of Lost Time". As I'm a huge Proust nerd, I'll just go ahead and try to draw some connections (there are many more). First, of course, the fact that both Synecdoche and Proust's novel are about time. The narrator of the novel tells the story of his life. At the beginning he lies in bed, drifting in and out of sleep while trying to remember his childhood but he remembers only some of it. Only later, when he smells and tastes a piece of cake drenched in tea, a sensation that brings him back to his childhood, everything comes back to him. The whole novel deals with this search for the lost time, as the title says. Proust is also interested in how we perceive time and how this perception changes based on the emotions and experiences we go through.
Another connection lies in the fact that Marcel, the narrator, wants to become a writer. He only succeeds at the end of the novel because before, he was too lazy, always thinking that he's not ready yet or that he doesn't know what to write about. At the end he says: now I know how to write the book. It's of course "In Search of Lost Time". And while it's not exactly an autobiography, it is a book about Proust himself. He changed things, he merged people he knew into different characters, but it's ultimately a book about him and his life. He himself was searching for the lost time: he was sick, he holed himself up in his apartment for the last two decades of his life, reliving his past and writing the book. I definitely see a connection there with the movie. Also, "In Search of Lost Time" is long (nearly 5000 pages) and extremely complex. Just as Caden loses himself in his enormous play, Proust couldn't stop, he kept on adding stuff. When his publishers send him the first prints, he just added more stuff on the edges of the page, glueing little pieces of paper to it to have more space to write. And when he died, it still wasn't completely finished.
Another thing that reminded me of Proust was what you said at the end of the first video: this movie is about you, me, us. Kaufman also seems to think of it that way. And here's Proust: “In reality every reader is, when he reads, the reader of his own self. The work of the writer is just a kind of optical instrument that is offered to the reader to permit him to discern that which, without the book in question, he could not have seen within himself.”
Then there's the whole concept of the synechdoche where a part stands for the whole. There's an example for it in Search of Lost Time: Bergotte, a character of the novel, a writer, goes to see Vermeer's painting "View of Delft". He's very sick and he actually dies there in front of the painting (Proust himself went to see this Vermeer exhibit a few months before his death). Bergotte is especially impressed with a little patch of yellow wall on the painting which he perceives to be perfect. It's just a little part of the whole thing, but this little patch of yellow wall represents the whole genius of Vermeer, it contains everything. I should have written like that, he thinks and dies. I just reread the passage and there's something I want to quote because I think it also fits the theme of the movie:
"He was dead. Dead for ever? Who can say? Certainly, experiments in spiritualism offer us no more proof than the dogmas of religion that the soul survives death. All that we can say is that everything is arranged in this life as though we entered it carrying a burden of obligations contracted in a former life; there is no reason inherent in the conditions of life on this earth that can make us consider ourselves obliged to do good, to be kind and thoughtful, even to be polite, nor for an atheist artist to consider himself obliged to begin over again a score of times a piece of work the admiration aroused by which will matter little to his worm-eaten body, like the patch of yellow wall painted with so much skill and refinement by an artist destined to be for ever unknown and barely identified under the name Vermeer. All these obligations, which have no sanction in our present life, seem to belong to a different world, a world based on kindness, scrupulousness, self- sacrifice, a world entirely different from this one and which we leave in order to be born on this earth, before perhaps returning there to live once again beneath sway of those unknown laws which we obeyed because we bore their precepts in our hearts, not knowing whose hand had traced them there - those laws to which every profound work of the intellect brings us nearer and which are invisible only - if then! - to fools. So that the idea that Bergotte was not dead for ever is by no means improbable."
God, Proust was a fucking genius.
I'm not sure if it was mentioned since I started typing this before finishing the video or reading comments, but when Caden is in the basement talking to his wife, you can see a full sized painting in the background. They emphasize the small size of her paintings, but maybe that's Caden just perceiving them to be smaller (less important) than his own (gigantic and complex) pieces of art.
This type of contrast you had mentioned, but I think that it's important to note since it makes Caden seem more selfish.
wow i never noticed that but i fully support this. even when adele cancels on caden on his opening night even the boxes shes shipping her paintings are super small almost invalidating her art entirely. how she invalidates his art by critiquing him for re-staging someones play
That may reflect the size of the warehouse at the end. Maybe it was small all along, just really large in Caden's eyes.
Wow! That would also explain why the only full sized painting later in the film is the portrait of Caden and that one would clearly be the most important one to him
How can anyone dislike this series? It is possibly the MOST important analysis of art on the internet.
Well I'm trying to be nice about it but it's a bit frustrating how it dwells on the obvious, small motifs (passage of time, his obsession with death/disease, etc) rather than getting to the deeper theory of it. Is he actually Ellen? Is Caden fictional? Is Adele? Etc
Especially since it's such a long review... It's very frustrating.
@@seankelly8906 the small motifs are important to understand the movie “specifics don’t matter, everyone is everyone”
but the truth about Ellen thing who tf ever understood what that meant cause I don’t bro I need answer too
@@seankelly8906well how about u tell us then u genius
And here I am, sitting here re-watching this video an entire year after it was made.
time really does fly by huh... 3 more years i will come back to this comment
And here I am, replying to this comment a year after it was made.
And here I am, 11 PM on a friday night, at home, parents asleep, replying to a comment that was made over a year ago, watching a review that came out more than two years ago on a movie that came out more than 3 that I've watched probably 4 times.
I was told there would be... more.
Well...
And here I am replying to this comment from three years ago at 11:03 pm (at least in México) because I thought it was interesting and I watched this analysis because im trying to understand this damn movie.
But what does it matter this comment will be lost like tears in the rain.
Jeff Papi replying so you remember to come back to this comment
That scene with Adele and Maria is 5:47 deeply heartbreaking, look how devastating it is for him being ignored by his wife and mocked by Laura.
In Search of Lost Time, the full work that Swans Way is the beginning of is considered to be one of, if not the, longest novels of all time, totaling out to between 3,000 and 4,200+ pages, depending on printing, and over 1.2 million words. So a gigantic work based of searching for meaning in memory.
Great analysis. Really thorough.
Another thing I found I liked about the film, was that characters are seen to be speaking over or on top of Caden, especially the therapist, who happens to know what he's saying before he says it. This highlights Caden's lack of self-esteem, and also enhances the dream-like quality by drawing on the idea that in dreams, characters would know what you're going to say before you say it because they're actually you.
I don't know if it's stretching to say that every character in this film, from the point on when Adele leaves Caden, seems to understand Caden's troubles perhaps a little too much. It's almost like they can read his thoughts, and understand his motivations. Since Caden's play involves him writing all of their characters and their backstories, perhaps Caden starts to see everyone in his life as a character in his play, someone he can write, someone he can control. Even the idea of a dream-like state implies that the person at the centre of the dream has control over all the elements of the scene, and indeed Caden does seem to have that power, both literally and metaphorically.
It should be of note that there is a theme of boxes, as in "boxed in". Like caden's gift for olive, olive's story about being put in a box for a long time until she comes "home", or caden's room where he resides in his last days.
I think this is one of your best 2 part series. It's nice to see what you love and that was a great in-depth perspective of the film I'm sure if the director saw, he would genuinely appreciate someone like you. You're like a directors dream bro.
Wait, a part 3? That was a good place to stop..
Dude. He's only made it through like half the movie. Just wait.
He's only like 40 minutes into the actual movie. There's probably two or three more parts to go.
another thing you didnt mention: Caden's psychiatrist is Madeline Gravis (M. Gravis), and Myasthenia Gravis (M. Gravis) is a debilitating muscular disease.
Reassuring to read many of the comments about this film and Adam's analysis. For there is an audience for such an existential work. The affect of watching Synecdoche New York and of Adam's understanding of the film clarifies my own preoccupations but has stirred up a cauldron of uncomfortable feelings hiding just under the surface. It makes me cry to think about it.
You missed that fantastic metaphor that the actor playing Willy Loman (the main character of the death of a salesman) provides:
that he is "crashing ambivalently"
it, to me at least, perfectly describes a feeling of losing your life in time
also... read The Trial, it's Franz Kafka's undeniable masterwork
I still feel the general running plot regarding Maria, Adele, and Olive to be the most interesting one for me, as well as Caden's general view towards his children (see: Olive vs Ariel), so I'm going to be very interested to see Adam discuss Maria's influence upon the story further.
seriously, i cannot see the maria-olive context outside of a grooming context and it's unsettling as hell. Which generally works with what I've read about how originally the script was penned out to be a horror movie, but more... adult horrors. The loss of parents, growing older and dying, losing your children. I think having a long-time friend of your wife end up dating your daughter and prrrobably certainly maybe be a pedophile is fucking horrifying.
Also got some mild dom tones from Hazel. I thought it was interesting, at least, assuming it was actually there. It helps to shed some light on Caden and Hazel, I think. She admits herself that she's thirty-six and only now buying a house, she works the lobby of a theater, so it's entirely possible that she feels lost and uncertain about her place in life at the time, and I could entirely see Caden finding some kind of comfort in taking on a submissive role in terms of sex, like how cleaning causes the television to fog over and he manages to let go of the ever-gripping fear of death for even a little while.
oops overanalysis oh well
The "sycosis, not psychosis" conversation with his daughter. I thought that was really significant.
Olive says, "But you could have both," and he says something like, "But I don't." Immediately after that you see Sammy in the background for a split second. It made me feel the paranoia of thinking you were healthy, or things were alright, but realizing that due to your personal limited perspective, you might not be able to tell.
In a scene soon after that, he sees himself in a commercial while tending to something on his leg. If we look at him seeing himself on TV as a delusion or hallucination that could be associated with some type of psychosis, this is a pairing of physical and mental health problems, as if it's the manifestation of the hypothetical Olive stated earlier.
On my first viewing I completely missed Sammy until he was formally introduced
I so desperately wish for more films like this to be made. It would do good for ourselves.
I've been on the verge of tears more times than ever in just a fraction of this movie. Just trying to put myself in this dystopia and also seeing what Kayden goes through and how it relates to me and people in general makes me feel so vulnerable. This movie is so fucking deep in a way I never thought was imaginable
I don't usually comment on youtube videos but I want to personally thank you for doing these reviews. While I don't watch most of the movies you review good or bad, your take on each and everyone of them is brilliant. This series in particular is probably one of my favorite of all time. The amount of thought that went into the movie and figuring out this movie is quite simply beautiful.
The color of Hazel's house is bright yellow in contrast to the other beige houses surrounding it.
It looks very appealing but it is on fire. The choices we make can kill us.
My favorite detail (because it’s surface level enough for me to pick up) is that Maria and Adele are literally looking down on Cadens work. Very easily could’ve set it in a theater with a raised stage and lowered audience. Just nice and simple visual storytelling.
I think sammy's stalking can relate to how death is always around the corner and you'll never see it.
I was happy to see you mentioned the song writing (the soundtrack to this film is probably one of my favorite "bummer" albums of all time). Not enough people talk about this.
I'm really excited for part three.
This film has so much effort put into it, it is truly amazing. Just so many hidden things which really make you say 'wow, that's dedication.'
Good Analysis, YMS.
"X was dead the whole time" is such a boring way to interpret something.
Tell that to game theory.
Game theory, is Adele Transgender, as you'll notice she splits up with him almost immediately after the movie starts, and when it shows the sheets saying she had sex there was no figure of a man. But dat's just a feowy
secretagentlucario The impacts of The Sixth Sense.
It's a sound literary device that has been used many times, but I don't really believe Kaufmann uses it here. He is telling us about the reality of life and death as experienced by Caden and the other characters.
glad you pointed out how dumb it was about the title fading it. had to skip past that in part 1 because i rolled my eyes so hard i thought i was going to experience vertigo
Sometimes when he does these serious videos about his love for deep artsy movies I enjoy them greatly because in the back of my head I keep remembering he's a charming and wonderful individual and we are lucky to have him.
Whether intentional or not, the scene of Caden obsessively fixating on scrubbing to keep himself distracted from fixating on his leg is such a hard-hitting and painfully accurate representation of what it's like to have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (at least in my experience)
Watching your review after watching the movie, I noticed the dream Ellen has about the picnic she had with her mother is happening during the chemotherapy drug commercial Caden watches in his wife's studio. Caden is also in the commercial, but what is weirder is that he is in the same park watching the picnic he is latter told to he experienced earlier in his life.
I probably shouldn’t have watched this during an emotional episode and now I’m questioning everything
Although I loved Eternal sunshine more I just watched this film yesterday and I can't stop thinking about it. That's when you know a film is great. All I've been doing since it ended is trying to understand it.
I've never seen such a thorough analysis of this film. You're almost reverent in your approach to this movie, and that's really admirable. I'm really happy you made this.
The therapista talks to Caden about the 4-year-old who wrote the book and says he killed himself at 5. Caden asks why the kid killed himself and she says "Why did you?". then he asks "What?" and she changes the question "I said why would you?"
Maybe he is already dead, after all...
I heard that too. I think it's obvious he is.
15:28 Six... Six... Six...
When I was watching this film I noticed this, this is (in my opinion) playing into the idea that Caden's cleaning is portrayed as a sort of salvation, whereas when he explores and obsesses over his health issues, he is back in the hands of uncertainty and despair (perhaps into the hands of the beast)
It's also nice to note that Caden is oblivious to the fact that the cleaning helped him/Ellen. Maybe not because he is oblivious in general, but because of the reality and emotional low that ensued towards the end (also a reason why he avoids Hazel for so long) He feels safer knowing that something is certain, and that certainty is death. Not the emotional stability from cleaning, or a caring lover, or even his health.
I never really noticed all the little things with this movie. When I watched it I really took it at face value. Either way, it really made me look at my own life. Made me wonder all the what if's. For the most part it was in a good way. Made me wanna strive to do better while I still have the opportunity to. I'm definitely going to go back tomorrow and rewatch this with looking for the small things in mind. Thank you for introducing me to this movie
16:40 the sign in the background of Adele's picture saying "rettungspring" means love handles in german, but if split it two it becomes "rettung" the german word for rescue and "spring", which could be a reference to the introduction of the film where the german writer states that fall signifies the end of spring. Fall is a time of death and spring is a time of life. For me this kind of shows Adele's character as not just being an antagonist to to Caden but that she is a person too. Not only that but one who lives with a lot of guilt and I think she feels like she was never allowed to have feeling because those feelings always involved another person's feelings getting hurt so she always suppressed them. Getting away with Caden and bringing Olive with her rescued her and gave her life. The fact that she is almost immediately world famous (famous enough that she is featured on the front page of American magazines despite being in Germany) shows that she was being held back and in a way this makes me feel like Caden is quite a selfish character. With this in mind on my next viewing i kinda noticed a lot of what you were saying about him being indifferent to the suffering of others even more. Just wanted to share. I know this is old news.
+Joshua Hayles At the same time it reinforces the point you've made that taking Olive away from Caden also represents her taking his life away.
+Joshua Hayles It actually says "Rettungsring", a German word meaning lifesaver. Thus it does not reference spring and while being a colloqialism for love handles, in this case the word more likely refers either to how Adele experiences her stay in Germany as a sort of last hold on her own life or in turn Caden's perception of Adele as something that might save him from his worries.
Danke!
almost made me mad and that guys pulled a 100 lines out of his ass
I'm loving every minute of this analysis. Thanks for doing this.
I'm binge watching YMS videos just like Caden cleans. I can tell I'm going to run out of videos soon and it's already giving me anxiety.
Why is Hazel even interested in Caden? He's obsessed with his own death, he seems nervous all the time, he's not rich, and he's trying to fix his marriage, which even Hazel can see is very broken.
i know this is 8 years later lol but hazel is 36 and very eager to start a serious relationship (shown by her aggressive advances on caden and her later husband dennis), i interpreted her as very eager to get married and start a family as she feels she is running out of time. her own desperation to feel loved outweighs any sign of them being incompatible, which was a theme of the movie YMS already mentioned
This video and movie hurts to watch so much on an emotional level. I got my heart broken on Wednesday.
your most depressing, and beautiful series yet.
Man I really enjoy these. In the past I would watch movies aimlessly, but now I find myself paying attention and giving every frame more thought. Thank you and I can't wait for the next upload!
Thank you so much for doing such an excellent job of shining a spotlight on this wonderful film. I first discovered it a couple years ago, after listening to the playlist of songs you regularly include in your videos. I was so moved by the song I'm Just A Little Person (now a favorite of mine) that I googled the movie and was shocked to discover that it had been written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, whom I adore. And scored by Jon Brion! How could it get any better than that? I immediately watched the movie. I remember having to pause the film several times just to give my mind an opportunity to reel. I was struck by how ingenious the storytelling was and the way they were confronting all of these dark themes so directly, so unflinchingly. By the end of the film I knew I could confidently call it my favorite movie. It has only gotten better upon rewatching. I've seen it six times now. I like to pay special attention to an additional layer of the film every time I rewatch, like the increasingly apocalyptic mis en scene, the foreboding messages and clues you can hear in Caden's diegetic world, the way time fluctuates and progresses. And those character performances are so subtle and achingly wonderful. This movie is an insane little masterpiece. And still, you've been bringing up things I hadn't even thought of, or things that I've noticed but couldn't explain. I personally don't mind you looking super deep for your arguments about the film. Kaufman is clearly creating a multilayered and oftentimes ambiguous story, so there are definitely elements of it that you will only catch upon rewatching or researching, and there are definitely different ways to interpret many of scenes. Furthermore, isn't that the point of art? A director or writer's creation doesn't exist in a vacuum, the art itself is meant to be subjected to our individual interpretations and experiences of it. The individual, subjective experience of something that others experience as well (like that a single human experiencing life, a person seeing a piece of art in a museum, or a filmgoer interpreting a film) is, for me, one of the most significant synecdoches of the whole movie. Caden experience's life as a torturous, worrisome death march. Others experience it simply (like Adele). But in the end, everybody lives and everybody dies. We are all just parts of the whole.
I'm excited to see what you have to say about the conclusion of the film. Also excited to see more videos of you bashing stupid movies. I come here for both.
Thanks for doing these man. I'm on my second watch of these. I find more each time, just like rewatching movie. Great work, new Fav. channel.
Ha, I like that the video starts with a time skip from the end of the last one. Nicely done
These videos are fantastic. You found things I would have never thought to look at. I can't wait for part 3.
All your content is fascinating to me, keep up the good work.
I'm really, really, really enjoying this breakdown of one of my favourite films. take as long as you need for the other parts. Great work!
Videos like this make me glad I subscribed to this channel. Very good insight.
Thanks Adam for making this. That part about the obsession thing really made me feel better about myself. I thought about those things when I first watched it but couldn't convince myself that I was the same ( I obsess over cancer) but hearing it from you makes me feel a whole lot better
I was hoping you would point out how the therapist initially says "Why 'did' you?" then says she instead said "Why would you?" I thought this was a bit of interesting foreshadowing of his suicidal attempt. It was the first play on scripting that made me truly love this movie.
After seeing you recommend this film, I watched it and I was surprised of how anything could ever be so beautiful. There were so many subtle words and expressions that I couldn't help but cry at and I am extremely happy that I took the time out to watch it. Charlie Kaufman is a literal genius!!
I've loved all your videos on this film! You have a good way of pointing things out that you've noticed and find interesting without asserting them as fact, and I find a lot of the the time same conclusions you reached were similar to mine upon first viewing of the film, but that you're able to put it all in better words that I ever could!
Keep up the good work.
Keep those videos up! I love them. Synecdoche New York is my favourite film of all time and I really like your analysis.
Good work, I love this film and I've watched it three times but still there are so many details I had never noticed before your videos.
One of the, if not THE best analysis for a Synecdoche or any other movies I've ever seen. Being an audience from India, it's not so easy to ignore one of the gods of India on a poster in the movie at 11:54. Kaufman is known for the minute details he puts into a frame. Just curious what might be the reason to include a poster of an Indian god, in an American film, that talks about death, relationships, health, and time.
Thank you for not rushing your videos and releasing them with a shit quality! I appreciate it :)
Charlie Kaufman is a genius! Love this brilliant film. Epic performance by the late great PSH! May his beautiful soul rest peacefully.
This series of insights for this one movie was very educational in terms of film theory and of course, time. YMS, why you never became some sort of educator, I'll never know, you just sound so professional when you're serious and talking deep works. Keep it up man.
i love this so far! This movie deserves heavy dissection and I cant thank you enough for it.
I really enjoy these in depth movie analyses. I take so much away from them:). Thank you Adam:). Your love for the art really shows through:).
This is amazing, hope this goes on for at least two more videos!
This movie makes me so uncomfortable in so many ways. ._.
My depression went 📈📈 after watching it
i also want to thank you adam, i took the time yesterday to watch the movie and it really is amazing. more than just a movie but a whole experience with great teaching. the ending absolutly devastet me and i actually had to cry, but properly cry like i haven't done before since maybe 3 or 4 years, but it also had something liberating. after the movie i felt sad but in a good way. also i think its great how much time and passion you put into your reviews and how you actively include your viewers comments. i would like to know though which movie you think it is that is better than this one, because you mentioned its your second fav of all time. i know you mentioned your fav movie in some other video before, but i forgot which one it was
I've been seeing tidbits about this movie for years but after watching your in depth review I am finally going to sit down and watch it.
This has got to be one of the best movies I've ever seen!
Your analysis is captivating, moar please!! :D
Adam, Love this analysis. I always enjoy when you bash on a film but this is a real treat to watch and a great change. Keep it up! Cant wait for part 3!!
i like the really in depth analysis you're going into really enjoying this :)
10:57 Adum has improved a lot as a presenter, but this might still be the best paragraph he's written for the channel. It's so surgically efficient yet poetically compelling, much in the same spirit as the movie he's critiquing.
I recommend reading The Trial or at least looking into the themes in Kafka's work. When I first saw this movie, it reminding me of him. When The Trial was brought up, it was even more obvious that it had a huge influence on the movie.
Loving it! I did notice the song at the end credits, powerful lyrics, I'll have to check out the entire album now.
I really liked these videos (stayed up too late to watch both). I only gave this movie one try when I was tired, and several critics I like weren't very jazzed about it. It's probably a movie that's very difficult to form an opinion about when you've just seen it in a theater once.
Might come back to it one day and see it. Looking forward for part 3.