'Synecdoche' makes play on city name

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Director Charlie Kaufman may have found the only film title that people find more difficult to pronounce than Schenectady.

The Oscar-winning screen writer chose the name “Synecdoche, New York” for his latest excursion into dark comedy, hitting theaters in Manhattan over the weekend. The film opens with Kaufman’s lead character — a death-obsessed, self-absorbed playwright played by Philip Seymour Hoffman — being left by his wife while he is staging an unorthodox production of “Death of a Salesman” in his hometown of Schenectady.

“There’s a play on the name of the city,” Kaufman recently explained in an interview with Salon.com. “I found out that many people in the world, outside the United States, don’t know about Schenectady. And they don’t pronounce ‘synecdoche’ in the same way anyway. So it’s useless.”

A synecdoche — pronounced si-NEK-doh-key — is a type of metaphor in which a part of something symbolizes the whole. In Kaufman’s film, the term is used as a play on words: His main character later tries to literally re-create a living replica of his world within a vacant New York City warehouse.

The film’s connection to the city of Schenectady is fleeting, and that’s probably a good thing for the city, considering the somewhat bleak message some critics gleaned from the film’s first showing. But some are hoping Kaufman’s work on the movie will bring a bit of celebrity for the city.

“I suppose we have to be grateful that it does focus on Schenectady, even if it’s in a more arcane way,” said Mayor Brian U. Stratton, who confessed to being a big fan of Seymour Hoffman’s filmography. “As the mayor, I have an obligation to feel good [that] they’re bringing some attention, although in a somewhat dark way.”

Philip Morris, the chief executive officer of Proctors, agreed. He said Schenectady being named in a film that has received international acclaim couldn’t be a bad thing for a city, especially one that’s trying to highlight the vibrancy of its arts community.

“It seems to me that all the news [from the movie] is good news,” he said.

Offbeat movies

Kaufman is best known for writing “Being John Malkovich” in 1999 and for winning an Oscar with his screenplay for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” He also wrote the hit comedy-drama “Adaptation” and “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” the screen adaptation of former game show host Chuck Barris’ autobiography.

The distant connection between Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” and Schenectady, N.Y., was almost a lot closer. When county officials learned of Kaufman’s film, they reached out to see if the writer would be interested in filming part of his movie on location.

“When we saw Schenectady, New York, we said lets at least call them,” recalled Ray Gillen, chairman of the Metroplex Development Authority. “After all, we have plenty of big warehouse space.”

But the cost of shooting in Schenectady would have been too much for the supporting cast of the film. Many of them were already based near the production studio in Yonkers, explained Doug Sayles, a former city resident whose younger brother John is the major motion picture screenwriter.

“It’s not every day you get a major film that has a reference to Schenectady,” said Sayles, who made some inquiries on behalf of the city about the possibility of filming here.

Though its not clear where or when the film will debut in the Capital Region, it will certainly be coming to Schenectady, assured Joe Masher, the chief operating officer for Bow Tie Cinema. Masher, also a self-professed fan of Kaufman’s work, was enamored by “Synecdoche, New York” when he saw the film at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

“I loved it,” he said of the film. “It was a great film, especially if you’re a fan of [director] Charlie Kaufman.”

Masher said the film should be opening in Schenectady sometime in late November. Although the genre isn’t the type ordinarily shown at the Bow Tie, Masher hopes the bizarre title and the Schenectady reference will pique the curiosity of movie fans.

“I’m hoping there’s a connection,” he said. “We do want to bring it to our theater in hope that people want to see it.”