A Serious Man

Colour, 35 mm
USA, United Kingdom, France, 2009, 106 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.” For the new film – or rather for its protagonist – the Coen brothers could not have chosen a more apt quotation than this bit of wisdom from medieval French rabbi Rashi. That’s because Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a Midwestern university, finds himself in a Job-like situation – fate’s blows mount up for no apparent reason and his once safe little world begins to fall apart. Why, God? Larry isn’t the first or the last to ask heaven a similar question, but neither God nor the Coen brothers respond. Set in the familiar world and time of their childhood, A Serious Man appears to be the sibling duo’s most personal picture to date. The academic environment of 1960s Minneapolis and the local Jewish community are the venues for "a tale of woe [...] that keeps you wondering if the punch line, when it comes, will make you laugh or want to kill yourself, or both.” (David Edelstein).

About the director

Joel (b. 1954, Minneapolis) and Ethan (b. 1957, Minneapolis) Coen make up a one-of-a-kind creative team: until recently they were both credited with their scripts, with Joel cited as director and Ethan as producer. Beginning with The Ladykillers, however, they have both taken credit for writing, direction, and production. They are noted for larger-than-life variations on classic genres, which they push to the point of absurdity. Filmography: Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller’s Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991, Palme d’Or at Cannes), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Fargo (1995, Oscar for Best Screenplay), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001, Best Director at Cannes), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), The Ladykillers (2004, Jury Prize for Irma P. Hall at Cannes), No Country for Old Men (2007, Oscars for Best Film, Director, and Screenplay), Burn After Reading (2008).