Synecdoche, New York - The Funeral Monologue (editing)
Synecdoche, New York
An analysis of the eulogy scene
Synecdoche, New York explores an individuals obsession with what is truly real and how one explores their own life through the lens of others. Caden 'is a man who is not dead or alive', as Ellen is future 'replacement' states in her audition to take part in Caden's new play. He's a man, with a wife, a job and a daughter but their routine unloved life together changes when Adele appears to remove herself from the toxic Caden. After the loss of his wife and daughter, Caden sorts out to create something unflinchingly real, a play that replicates his life and what it means to be human. However, as the success of his wife's paintings gets stronger, and her paintings get smaller, Caden's theatre piece gets bigger and ends up creating a second world that entangles itself in 'reality'. The use of the term 'Synecdoche' does not only represent a place in New York where it is set but a term of phrase describing something big describing a few (e.g Manchester winning the game, not the whole of Manchester but only the team).
Throughout the play, as people's roles change and we are unable to decide who people really are, the meta form begins to show. When Sammy, the man who had been stalking Caden since the beginning, ends up playing Caden in the play but commits suicide as an act of Caden's true desires. At his 'funeral' (formatted in a scene from the play) we get a eulogy from an unfamiliar character and the words he says go as follows:
"Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you'll never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create. Even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain, wasting years, for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right. And it never comes or it seems to but doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope for something good to come along. Something to make you feel connected, to make you feel whole, to make you feel loved.
And the truth is I'm so angry and the truth is I'm so fucking sad, and the truth is I've been so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for just as long have been pretending I'm ok, just to get along, just for, I don't know why, maybe because no one wants to hear about my misery, because they have their own, and their own is too overwhelming to allow them to listen to or care about mine. Well, fuck everybody. Amen."
What is seen in this eulogy is the selfishness of Caden, our main character. Sammy, the man who killed himself played Caden, followed him and in the end embodied him as he jumped when Caden couldn't. The speech, although about Sammy is truly about Caden, showing his suffocating play that is trying to be 'unflinchingly true' is actually just a manifestation of everything Caden fears. Death. It shows his insecurities, his thoughts and truly everybody's collective fears of death. That we mean nothing, nobody will remember us and that we are ourselves are truly alone.
The use of setting as a set from the play shows the artificiality of the scene, that although Sammy is truly dead, the idea of funerals and mourning is just a spectacle, highlighted by the unfamiliar dramatic mourning of the actors who had never even met the man. The sprinklers at the end with the fake rain also amps up the performance of the funeral, reflecting true life. Kauffman wants to trivialise the act of the funeral, that we dress up, sit in a room and create a spectacle around something that every single person does.
The various reoccurring close-up shots of Caden's face during the monologue encodes the idea that he is a man of his own
"Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you'll never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create. Even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain, wasting years, for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right. And it never comes or it seems to but doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope for something good to come along. Something to make you feel connected, to make you feel whole, to make you feel loved. And the truth is I'm so angry and the truth is I'm so fucking sad, and the truth is I've been so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for just as long have been pretending I'm ok, just to get along, just for, I don't know why, maybe because no one wants to hear about my misery, because they have their own, and their own is too overwhelming to allow them to listen to or care about mine. Well, fuck everybody. Amen."
What is seen in this eulogy is the selfishness of Caden, our main character. Sammy, the man who killed himself played Caden, followed him and in the end embodied him as he jumped when Caden couldn't. The speech, although about Sammy is truly about Caden, showing his suffocating play that is trying to be 'unflinchingly true' is actually just a manifestation of everything Caden fears. Death. It shows his insecurities, his thoughts and truly everybody's collective fears of death. That we mean nothing, nobody will remember us and that we are ourselves are truly alone.
The use of setting as a set from the play shows the artificiality of the scene, that although Sammy is truly dead, the idea of funerals and mourning is just a spectacle, highlighted by the unfamiliar dramatic mourning of the actors who had never even met the man. The sprinklers at the end with the fake rain also amps up the performance of the funeral, reflecting true life. Kauffman wants to trivialise the act of the funeral, that we dress up, sit in a room and create a spectacle around something that every single person does.
The various reoccurring close-up shots of Caden's face during the monologue encodes the idea that he is a man of his own
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