Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 American drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was Kaufman's directorial debut. 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. 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 finds his life unraveling. Suffering from numerous physical ailments and growing increasingly alienated from his wife, Adele , he hits bottom when Adele leaves him for a new life in Berlin, taking their daughter, Olive , with her. Shortly afterward, Caden unexpectedly receives a MacArthur Fellowship, giving him the financial means to pursue his artistic interests.
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