charlie kaufman

Last weekend, on the first annual "Saturday Morning at the Cinema" we saw Woody's Vicky Cristina Barcelona & Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York. One was full of a playful skeptic's jostling and quips about art and the condition. The other was the sound of the heart breaking.

Charlie Kaufman's an interesting blend. His screenplays (Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine) adapted by Spike & Michel were all instrumental in helping to unearth that compromise of Pop, aesthetics and sincerity. He helped bring about metapop, and is obviously one of the most important minds in cinematic history. But, I say he's an interesting blend because with Synecdoche, New York we see the real Charlie Kaufman. And he's a hopeless romantic, quite metaphysically.

Even though, he's pioneered self-authorship in contemporary art, perhaps the most noticeable difference when taken out of the eyes and hands of whimsical boy auteurs like Spike & Michel is that the cynicism bleeds through when all the cheekiness canvassing it is removed. He sees self-authorship as a timeless trap, not as the ultimate liberation.

When we let our characters die, we live.