It’s called “Synecdoche New York,” but no one, including everyone at the current Cannes Film Festival knows how to pronounce it (see video below). It sounds silly, but you know if they keep that title it will be a hurdle for audiences (despite what you might think, the percentage of Kaufman/Gondry/Jonze/Brion devotees is not enough to keep this thing afloat – it’s like the bread and butter of our blog and accounts for like a dozen readers). You know, this might be emblematic of the larger, harder sell for this film. Someone will pick it up, surely, but it does have “abstract indie-film for niche audiences” written all over it.
BTW, It’s pronounced sin-eck-duh-kee, kind of like Schenectady. A synecdoche (si-nek-duh-kee) is “a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, as in ’50 head of cattle’ for 50 cows.” ‘Synecdoche’ is also a play on the name of a city in Schenectady County, New York State, which features in the film.
Intellectually playful to be sure, but not exactly all-inclusive cinema. We hate to be the first to heavily imply, “hey, Kaufman, change the film title,” but just sayin’… I mean, we are in a recession, right? Buyers are nervous.
As Variety’s Anne Thompson notes, “Charlie Kaufman’s feature directorial debut ‘Synecdoche, New York,’ which cost $20 million, failed to score a sale out of an early buyers’ screening.”
Watch: No One Knows How To Pronounce The Title Of Charlie Kaufman’s New Movie
