Synecdoche, New York

Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 American postmodern drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was Kaufman's directorial debut. The plot follows an ailing theatre director (Hoffman) who stages an increasingly elaborate production that blurs boundaries between fiction and fact. The film premiered in competition at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2008. Sony Pictures Classics acquired the United States distribution rights, paying no money but agreeing to give the film's backers a portion of the revenues. It had a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on October 24, 2008. Despite many favorable reviews by critics, the film generated much less revenue than it took to produce the film. The film's title is a play on Schenectady, New York, where much of the film is set, and the concept of synecdoche, wherein a part of something represents the whole, or vice versa. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden Cotard, a theater director who...