Charlie Kaufman discusses Béla Tarr's influence, rejects 'conventional entertainment' at Sands Film Festival

The renowned American director Charlie Kaufman made an appearance at the Sands Film Festival in St Andrews, Scotland, for an onstage discussion, initially advertised as an exploration of the link between poetry and film.

Poetry was recited throughout the evening, but the event, moderated by Kaufman’s long-term collaborator, Eva H. D., also offered one of the filmmaker's most revealing and enlightening public conversations.

The evening kicked off with a showing of Kaufman and Eva’s 2025 short film How To Shoot A Ghost, filmed in Athens, Greece, which made its debut at last year’s Venice Film Festival.

The duo then delved into Kaufman’s distinctive creative methods, accompanied by poems that have influenced him.

“I’m not captivated by the usual concept of entertainment,” Kaufman shared with the audience in St Andrews. “I’m not drawn to a spectacle. I’m drawn to something that encompasses emotion and movement. And, I believe, when it comes to poetry that resonates with me, it accomplishes that. It impacts me, it opens me up. The aim in poetry is to convey something authentic.”

Kaufman expressed that when he starts crafting a screenplay, he similarly tries to diverge from anything “concrete or literal” in pursuit of a narrative that “breathes and extends the chance for viewers to perhaps relate their lives to it.”

He stated that he strives to avoid what he termed “stifling” types of filmmaking that dictate a specific viewpoint to audiences.

“There are numerous strategies and styles that filmmakers use for that purpose. And such films are often well-liked,” Kaufman explained.

“Anything that compels you to view in a particular direction without allowing the chance to ponder. I consider that unproductive. There is an intent there. It is to maneuver and make the audience perceive it this way or that.”

Eva likened this filmmaking style to the “Leni Riefenstahl school of cinema,” referring to the notable Nazi propagandist, to which Kaufman reacted: “Not just Leni Riefenstahl, but Quentin Tarantino as well. However, if you consider a film by someone like Bela Tarr, that’s an illustration of someone who lets you immerse in the surroundings of the narrative.”

Kaufman noted the late Hungarian director as one of his current inspirations and vividly recalled a profound day at Lincoln Center in New York, where he viewed Tarr’s seven-hour movie Sátántangó (1994).

On this occasion, Kaufman primarily selected poems by 20th-century American poets—from Lucille Clifton to Philip Levine—as his primary influences.

It was easy to understand how works like Levine’s The Mercy, which are intensely personal yet broad in scope, could guide the filmmaker behind movies like Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Synecdoche, New York.

Interestingly, Kaufman shared with the Sands audience that he feels his time working freely within the conventional American film industry may have come to an end.

Kaufman went on to mention a brief period when he “managed to get things done, but that was pure luck after many years of no fortune.”

Kaufman’s latest full-length project was I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which premiered on Netflix in 2020.