The story follows regional theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) through his dream of creating a memorable grand play that he's staging in Schenectaday, N.Y. His wife (Catherine Keener) leaves him, and his therapist (Hope Davis) is more interested in plugging her latest book, so Cotard goes through a series of relationships as he casts people to play himself and his family in the ever-expanding experimental play.

There's a woman who lives in a perpetually burning house, a warehouse that becomes a city within a city, and many other fantastic sets as the playwright strives to create a groundbreaking piece of art with brutal honesty. This all comes from the mind of Kaufman, the guy who won an Oscar for co-writing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and was nominated for Adaptation and Being John Malkovich. And, since his friend Jonze was working on Where The Wild Things Are, Kaufman decided to direct this movie—his first feature.

Nowhere in the film does he explain the misspelling of the city's name in the title, nor say what "synecdoche" means. Synecdoche (sih-NECK-doh-kee) is a figure of speech where the part is used for the whole (using "screen" to talk about "movies") or a whole stands for a part ("law" for "police").

Kaufman spoke about the movie with SCI FI Weekly at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it had a North American premiere; later, in Beverly Hills, Calif., he sat down with his leading actress, Catherine Keener, to talk more about the film, which has a limited opening on Oct. 24 and then plans to expand nationwide.Charlie Kaufman, this has an amazing surreal narrative, like it's all a dream inside Caden's (the playwright's) head. Is that what you intended?

Kaufman: Well, it is definitely not a dream. But I'm interested in the structure and logic of dreams as a type of storytelling [and] dream logic and images in a non-dream story. Let me make it very clear that this film is not a dream, but it does have a dreamlike logic. You can start to fly in a dream, and in the dream it's just "Oh yeah, I can fly." It's not like what your reaction would be in the real world. So everything that happens in the movie is to be taken at face value. It's what's happening. It's OK that it doesn't happen in real life—it's a movie.Do people always assume that these ideas come from your dreams?

Kaufman: Yes, they do. It wasn't about my dreams, it was about the visceral, emotional feeling one gets in them, the idea you can have things happen that are irrational and they just seem perfectly natural. That's a hard thing to translate into a story outside a dream.What do people seem to react to the most about this?

Kaufman: There's a character in the movie that buys a house she loves that's on fire, and it's cheaper because the sellers are highly motivated. So she lives in it and it continues to burn for 40 years. The idea that you wouldn't try to figure a way to put that fire out, you'd just live with it like a maintenance problem, keep it at bay ...
You don't have to worry, "What does the burning house mean?" It's a burning house that someone lives in—that's funny. You might get more out of it if that particular metaphor speaks to you, but you don't need to. Hopefully the movie will work on a lot of levels, and people can read different things from it depending on who they are.Why isn't this complicated name explained in the film?

Kaufman: When I named Eternal Sunshine [of the Spotless Mind], everybody said nobody would remember it. But what's cool is that the title is really easy to remember now. Everybody who knows that movie knows the title. And if this movie gets the proper amount of response, then people will know this one, and everyone will know the word "synecdoche," which is a good word to know.So you want to educate the masses?

Kaufman: One of the things I think is really exciting and joyful about experience of being an audience member is figuring things out. When you make a connection, it's yours, and there's a thrill to that. So people can look up "synechdoche" if they want. If they do, maybe they'll think about some things it might correspond to in the movie, and if that opens up another understanding of the film for them, that would be great.Everything that you've written and this first directorial debut, too, seems like they could all benefit from a second viewing to understand it better. Is that your intention?

Kaufman: I want the film to be different the next time you see it, and not a repeat. Every time you see a play, it's alive. The interactions between the actors [are] going to be different, and the energy of the audience changes the actors' performances. But a movie is dead and unchanging, so what can you do in a movie that can make it more alive? My approach is to make films that allow you to discover new things upon multiple viewings, and my goal is to make you feel like it's a living thing as opposed to a dead thing.Are there elements of your personality in your characters?

Kaufman: Sure, there are elements of my personality in some of my characters, but they aren't me. ... But it's like [my] writing. You could write something forever; you have to choose a point to stop [or] it will keep evolving and [you will have to] keep adding. Caden is going through the truth in his mind, and I have this idea that is also going through mine.What was it like directing?

Kaufman: Directing was something I always wanted to do. During shooting I was feeling I was in the way. I had a kind of issue about meeting famous people; it was scary for me. It's less so now. ... I felt that I understood this more than any other director off the street, and I couldn't think of any other director I would want to do it. There were a lot of casting sessions, and I got to pick from a lot of people, and I picked the people whom I was interested in.Were there other things about shooting that surprised you?

Kaufman: The amount of money we had. It was very small for this kind of production, and we had only 45 days to shoot and over 200 scenes. Some of them required Phil to go through some heavy prosthetic makeup that averaged about four and a half hours to put it on and one hour to take it off. Phil's day was halfway over when everyone else was coming in. ... The scheduling with a large group of people was very challenging. ... But in the long run it's good when people say, "How did you put a roof over the city?" It looks very real. I'm pleased with what we did.You have a lot of strong female characters in your films, and this one is predominantly women. Why do you think you can write women's roles so well?

Kaufman: I'm as much female as I am male. I don't specifically design a role for a gender. I'm not assigning gender to stuff. There are personality components, then there are dynamics as a male interacts with females. I experience them, but otherwise it doesn't affect what I write.Catherine Keener, you seem to want to jump in.

Keener: I love the way Charlie writes, and have obvious affection for his writing. I love the scene where I am watching the play with my parents and they have a less than positive reaction to the play, but it doesn't seem to have any bearing with the future play, which has never been seen.

Kaufman: It might, I think it might, but I don't want to state that. There is the elusiveness of truth.So there are things you don't quite get in this?

Keener: I'm very comfortable with not knowing the answer, and I'm OK with that. ... You just kind of step into the reality, and before you know it you really kind of understand, and you don't know what you understand, but if Charlie's not questioning it and it's working for him, then it works for you.It's reported that Philip Seymour Hoffman particularly had an emotional experience during this filming, and was going through a lot of what the character was experiencing.

Keener: You go in with what you're feeling and can't ignore it. Phil and I have a great respect and love for each other [after doing Capote together], and for us, we know when we need our space. I know when he needs his time, and I recognize when I need to get away from him for real, and it's not personal. It's what he needs for his work. We still have incredible kindness toward each other. ... But there are things that happen in life, and you're not sure if you're manifesting it, but you start feeling the way your character is feeling. For some people it's unavoidable.