The Greatest Filmmakers of the Century so Far: Charlie Kaufman and Richard Linklater

Charlie Kaufman and Richard Linklater are, in my opinion, the greatest filmmakers of the 21st Century so far. Granted, we are only 16 years in, and both have careers stretching back to the 1990s, but both Kaufman and Linklater are beyond doubt great filmmakers, although this is not always recognised in the media. Kaufman's genius is probably more strongly certified, with films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) attracting both popular and critical followings, but the commercial failure of his directorial debut, and masterpiece, Synecdoche, New York (2008), has limited his ability to get films made, resulting in him making only two films in the last ten years, one of which Anomalisa (2015), had to be financed via crowd funding. Linklater, in contrast, has had a much steadier career, but one which has seen far less messiah-worship in terms of critical following. In fact, he only really broke through into the mainstream of critical appraisal in 2014 with Boyhood, despite the film utilising very similar cinematic styles and techniques to his previous films such as Slacker (1991) and Before Sunrise (1995). However, here I aim to show how Linklater and Kaufman use very different cinematic styles to produce works of art that, at the core, share very similar themes and ideas about the world we live in: namely, our loneliness and isolation from others, but our hope in love to form a connection which give our lives meaning.

On the surface, Kaufman and Linklater appear to be very different filmmakers, although, it must here be noted, that for five of his seven films, Kaufman has been the screenwriter, not the director, a fact which has occasionally brought him into conflict with the film's producers, such as with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) of which Kaufman claimed director George Clooney moved away from his script and therefore is 'a movie I don't really relate to.' That said, most critics acknowledge Kaufman's pervasive influence on the majority of the film's he has written, so much so that there were doubts about whether Spike Jonze, the director of Being John Malkovich (1999) and Adaption (2002), could really make good films without Kaufman (doubts put down by Jonze's 2013 film Her).

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Caden Cotard
in Synecdoche, New York

Kaufman is probably the foremost absurdist filmmaker of modern times. His films are all characterised by bizarre comic events punctuating the lives of the protagonists. His films are based in 'reality', in that they all are set in typical modern world settings (Being John Malkovich is set in a office, Synecdoche, New York in a theatre, Anomalisa in a hotel) but these settings are twisted and subverted so as to make the world seem irrational and beyond comprehension. In Being John Malkovich the office the protagonist Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) works in is on floor 7 1/2, and as a result is incredibly small, requiring everyone to crouch everywhere, a reflection of the claustrophobia and feelings of imprisonment the trappings of the office environment bring. And that's not even to mention the magic realist plot of the film, in which Craig finds a wormhole into John Malkovich's brain. It is most important to consider, however, Synecdoche, New York, because it is not only Kaufman's best film but also the film upon which he worked on as both screenwriter and sole director, and thus carries the greatest Kaufman mark. Synecdoche, New York is also a film with a realist setting- that of Caden Cotard's (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the protagonist, ever growing theatrical production- but introduces increasing absurdist elements, as both Caden's physical health and his personal relationships begin to fail. The best example is Caden's love interest, Hazel (Samantha Morton), who lives in a house that is eternally on fire, which is meant to symbolise how our choices impact down through the rest of our lives. Another example, is how, at the beginning of the film, the passing of time is shown through a series of incidental objects: the radio says one date, the newspaper another, the milk carton a further one. The point is to give time a loose feeling- Caden's life is dull and monotonous, so much so that he doesn't even notice time passing.

Theatrical Release Poster for Boyhood

This is all in stark contrast to Richard Linklater's humanist realism. Whilst Kaufman skips over time, presenting it as loose and changeable in order to suggest life's monotony, Linklater's Before Sunset (2004) is a real time film, i.e. every minute on screen consists of a real minute of the audience's time (which is perhaps why the film is only 80 minutes long). Kaufman uses the irrational and absurd to emphasise human isolation, whereas Linklater wants to show how people interact with one another in our everyday lives, and that can only be done by slowing down and focusing or the mundane. For Kaufman the mundane is something nightmarish, depriving our lives of meaning and driving us to isolation. Linklater, in contrast, sees the true nature of life in the mundane. Slacker is a film in which various different characters walk around Austin, Texas, talking with each other. Linklater hopes to present the audience with a slice of real life, and asks us to examine how people interact with one another. Linklater also has a sense of life's meaningless, yet he sees a positive way through it. According to Linklater, a 'slacker' is not someone who is lazy or stupid in choosing not to work, or at least, choosing not to take their work too seriously. Instead, a slacker is someone who understands that life is not to be found in the competitive world of careers and work but rather in the important personal relationships we form. This certainly seems to be the case in Boyhood, as by the end of the film it is the father, Mason Snr (Ethan Hawke), who has taken his time to get a career, and therefore has a new family, who is left happy and optimistic whilst the mother, Olivia (Patricia Arquette), who has a successful career, is the one left despairingly saying 'I just thought there would be more.'

Michael (David Thewlis) and Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh)
in Anomalisa

However, despite their differences Linklater and Kaufman are actually fundamentally concerned with the same question- what is it that gives our lives meaning? This is a very obvious theme to take from any of Kaufman's films, but perhaps is especially clear in Kaufman's animated film Anomalisa in which Michael Stone (David Thewlis) sees everyone else in the world as having the same face and voice (provided by Tom Noonan), except for Lisa who is voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh and has a distinctive facial scar. Michael is at the beginning of the film completely drifting because his life has no purpose- what he needs is some kind of meaning. Linklater's concern is perhaps more subtle because of the realistic nature of his films but his concern with life's purpose is seen fairly clearly in Before Sunset's opening scene in which Jesse (Ethan Hawke) talks about his pretentious idea for his next novel saying 'Happiness is in the doing right? Not in the getting what you want.' Linklater's films are deliberately full of pretentious dialogue about the meaning of life which is not meant to be taken all that seriously- there is no delusion on Linklater's part that this is philosophy- the point is the essence of the characters themselves. Jesse's concern with where happiness lies, reflects a wider human concern of what it takes to be satisfied and happy in life. The point of film as a visual medium is that this should be shown to us not told and that is exactly what Linklater does- the pretentious dialouge doesn't solve the problem of human satisfaction, but the personal relationships between characters and their wants, fears and desires, are what point the way to life's true meaning.

So what meaning, if any, do Kaufman and Linklater find in life? Here again both are in agreement that it is personal relationships, and perhaps specifically for Kaufman, love. In Synecdoche, New York, Caden is constantly drifting and dissatisfied. His first marriage to Adele Lack (Catherine Keener) falls apart and his second marriage to Claire (Michelle Williams) is one of convenience. His true love is instead Hazel but, due to difficult circumstances, and Caden's own social awkwardness, they fail to properly get together until it is too late. Yet the film's main song, the lyrics to which are written by Kaufman, accurately describes a hope inside all of us that love and someone special will save us from life's meaningless mundanity:

'I do my little job
And lead my little life
Eat my little meals
Kiss my little kid and wife.

But somewhere maybe someday
Maybe somewhere far away
I'll meet a second little person
Who will look at me and say:

"I've known you
You're the one I've waited for..."'

Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine
(Julie Delpy) in The Before Trilogy

Linklater places a similar hope in personal relationships. In Before Sunset, both Jesse and Celine (Julie Delpy) are unhappy with the direction of their lives in the past nine years since the first film. Although at first they seem to be much the same as they once were, it becomes apparent that both are much less hopeful and satisfied with life than they were nine years ago. Jesse talks of marrying out of a sense of duty whilst Celine describes how she feels unable to truly connect with anyone. Yet they have hope in each other. Whilst in the first film, they part on an ambiguous note with the audience unsure as to whether they will see each other again, or whether they are even truly suitable to each other (as Jesse puts it in Before Sunset 'Maybe we're only good at talking for one night whilst walking round European cities), in the second film there is a sense that Jesse and Celine really are perfect for each other, and that together they can create a meaningful life together.

Richard Linklater, director of Slacker, The Before Trilogy
and Boyhood

It is tempting, therefore, to say that Linklater is more positive about finding life's meaning than Kaufman. In contrast to the rather cliched, cheesy and hopeful song of finding 'the one', in Synecdoche, New York Caden does eventually get together with Hazel, but on their first night together she dies of smoke inhalation from her burning house. The ever presence of death in Kaufman's film, in fact, makes any hope seem far away, especially as Kaufman seems to imply through Hazel's death that any love and meaning that can be found in life will be fleeting, an idea similarly seen in Anomalisa where Lisa begins slowly to adopt Tom Noonan's voice and thus loses her individuality- in other words Michael's perception of her as someone special turns out to be wrong, she is just the same as everybody else. In contrast, Boyhood is a film of optimistic belief in the power familial relationships. At the end of the film, when Mason Jnr breaks up with his girlfriend, his family are there to support him. He asks his dad what the meaning of life is, to which Mason Snr laughs and replies he has no idea, except that it's important to keep feeling things. For Linklater, meaning is therefore found in our emotions and relationships, whatever they may be, and thus he could be judged to be more optimistic than Kaufman.

Charlie Kaufman, writer of Being John Malkovich,
and director of Synecdoche, New York and Anomalisa

However, this is too broad a brush and ignores the various changing ideas that have influenced the directors throughout their careers. To label Kaufman purely as a pessimist is to ignore the positivity in his films. The clearest example of this is in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which Joel realises that wiping his memory clean of his relationship with Clementine, no matter how sad he feels about it now, is to remove the meaning that the relationship gave him. The final meeting between Clementine and Joel, in which it is implied that they start a new relationship, is probably the most optimistic Kaufman ending, as love in the end wins out, to some extent. It is perhaps not surprising that this optimistic ending resulted in Kaufman's most commercially popular film to date. That said, Anomalisa also has some optimism in its ending. Although Michael is still as self-pitying and despairing as he was at the beginning of the film, the relationship between him and Lisa allows Lisa to begin enjoying life again, symbolised by her optimism at the end of the film, and more significantly by the fact that the friend Lisa is with has her own individual face, instead of the generic puppet face which she has worn for the rest of the film. Meanwhile, Linklater is not entirely optimistic about human relationships. Before Midnight (2013) ends in a climatic and emotionally brutal fight between Jesse and Celine as they argue over their children, Celine's feelings of underachievement, Jesse's alienation from his son and more. In the end, the meaning of love is implicitly disputed. For Celine, love is romantic passion, so when she tells Jesse at the end of the fight 'I'm not sure I love you anymore' it means that they have perhaps lost the social dynamic that first kept them together. However, for Jesse love is something deeper- it is a steady, enduring feeling of companionship and dedication to another person. He realises it isn't perfect, but that no matter what happens he and Celine must depend upon each other to give their lives meaning. It is not an optimistic picture of love- it is not idealised and it certainly isn't implied to be perfect or to last forever- but rather it is the love of real life, guiding us away from dissatisfaction, and that is ultimately what makes Linklater's films great.











http://blogs-images.forbes.com/markhughes/files/2015/01/Boyhood.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjicDudLY-cBi5lau7nKZYZylwovJMWVhXQnN21sCa6CLT-yBu4SdizZBocebVWHuIrN9T0WEc1NZ00-b4IyOPWAmaSg_tSfBBx7xdAjqKLa6Abvso4XokTJjiBMEWDp7bKfuhnZI4i6KI/s1600/tumblr_mmis71PPRb1qmz9d7o1_500.png
http://www.clashmusic.com/sites/default/files/field/image/Richard-Linklater.jpg
http://i2.wp.com/bitcast-a-sm.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/wp/wp-content/images/synecdoche11.jpg
http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/2015/article/charlie-kaufman-on-his-puppet-love-masterpiece-anomalisa-20151230/222232/large_rect/1451335631/1401x788-079-ANOMALISA-011R.jpg
http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2016/01/22/13/Charlie-Kaufman.jpg