For the first time to direct the film, Kurfman explored the proposition of "life" through a stage play-from its brewing to its end. At the beginning of the play, Kurfman led everyone into the chaotic and frustrating life of Caden (theatre screenwriter). His frustration, the coincidence of sudden illnesses and a rare opportunity to create the background of the story.
1. Exploring. With
Caden's dazedness and confusion about the sudden changes in life, Kurfman asked the first question "What is death?".
In the first part of the movie, Caden is undergoing a series of unusual changes. His body is out of control with his wife and his daughter. He is depressed and loses hope. Facing the sudden bonus and opportunity, he feels that he needs to change the environment and create another world. . Looking for a large group of actors and rehearsal venues, he was as confused as everyone else. It was this at a loss that gave him the idea of teaching all the actors to explore the development of the script with him.
When the haze of death loomed over the top five, Caden was indulging in all that was lost and the fear of the end. Although everything in front of him was fresh and lovely, he could not devote or cherish it. However, as the days passed, as the plot gradually developed, the importance of death in Caden's life was slowly diminished; the audience watched him wandering between the lost and the unobtainable, witnessing He established and then lost a second home.
So far, the death that Caden has been worried about has never come; the immediate question is replaced by "be responsible for the people and things you create"-how to deal with the relationship with his wife, daughter and lover? How to clarify the context of the drama, Present the developing story in its entirety?
The originally messy story came to the middle of the movie and began to see its structure, and the plot slowly took shape. The surnames and first names of the characters are constantly added and subtracted. It becomes irrelevant. The stories created by a group of actors also have their own independent value. Caden built a wall for the cloth and gave them real life (Now that every story has a life of its own).
The experimental drama has thus reached a critical point. It was originally Caden's monologue of thinking about his own life, but now it has become a situational drama of peeking lives of others; Caden even simply pulls out his own role and lets others play it. From an active participation to a detached audience watching.
2. Answer
Art is the creative thinking about life. The work of art is the answer that the creator thinks about the proposition.
As the saying goes, "bystanders are clear, and authorities are fans." When Caden hired actors to play himself, what he saw was no longer purely fictional or mock reality. The man who played Caden taught him to see his true side, and the actress who succeeded him as Caden and the director made him understand the meaning of life.
There are two dialogues in the movie that specifically point out the theme. One is the scene where the pastor (Pastor) delivers a speech, and the other is Ellen’s Voiceover:
Pastor:
"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 20 years… and you may never, ever trace it to its source. And you get only once 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. And even though the world goes on for eons and eons… you are only 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 it doesn't really.So you spend your time in vague regret… or vaguer hope that something good will come along. Something to make you feel connected. Something to make you feel whole. Something to make you feel loved. And the truth is… I feel so angry. And the truth is… I feel so fucking sad. And the truth is, I've felt so fucking hurt for so fucking long. And for just so long, I've been pretending I'm okay… 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. Well, fuck everybody. Amen."I've been pretending I'm okay... 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. Well, fuck everybody. Amen."I've been pretending I'm okay... 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. Well, fuck everybody. Amen."
Everyone has a certain vision and yearning for life, but not necessarily all actively strive for it. Many people have been waiting all their lives, waiting for things to happen or their dreams to come true. Attachment to what you have or could not have in the past while waiting, forgetting to grasp the present. When time passed by every second, I realized that what I had been waiting for might never come, but it was too late to be angry and hateful.
Ellen's Voiceover
"What was once before you, an exciting and mysterious future… is now behind you, lived, understood, disappointing. You realize you are not special. You have struggled into existence and are now slipping silently out of it. This is everyone's experience. Every single one. The specifics hardly matter. Everyone is everyone. So you are Adele… Hazel, Claire, Olive. You are Ellen. All her meager sadnesses are yours. All her loneliness. The gray, straw-like hair. Her red, raw hands. It's yours. It is time for you to understand this. Walk. As the people who adore you stop adoring you… as they die, as they move on… as you shed them, as you shed your beauty, your youth… as the world forgets you, as you recognize your transience… as you begin to lose your characteristics one by one… as you learn there is no one watching you… and there never was,you think only about driving. Not coming from anyplace, not arriving anyplace… just driving, counting off time. Now you are here. It's 7:43. Now you are here. It's 7:44. Now you are gone."
Some people will say that fate is at fault, neglecting every choice they make to affect themselves and at the same time affect others. Believing in the present and feeling freely or regretting it later is often far from the difference. In the end, Caden didn’t put on headphones and listened to others to make puppets. Instead, he got a premonition and followed his heart. However, in reality, how many people can get away from the moment or see the meaning in their eyes?
3. On the
scale of performance techniques , Synecdoche, New York and a lot of epic war films are just as good, and its ambition is evident. Due to the large number of actors, Kurfman did not create independent personalities or faces for everyone; this kind of treatment is like simulating the real world-the repertoire performed by the actors is like the life of the audience, you and me are like looking at yourself The story is painted, and the sense of involvement has greatly increased, and it has aroused strong resonance.
Through ingenious dialogues and monologues, Kurfman analyzes the proposition more thoroughly, leading the audience to become ambiguous and enlightened. In the two-hour play, he clearly explained his views and understanding of life; if Godard is a wise man who talks about the origin of love, then Kurfman is also a philosopher of life.
Background Music: Battle for the Sun-Placebo
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