Archive of films Serious Man / A Serious Man

USA / United Kingdom / France
2009, 106 min

Section: Horizons
Year: 2010

Without warning, fate’s blows start raining down on Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a small university in the American Midwest. What is God trying to tell him? The Coen brothers’ black comedy draws on their own personal memories of a childhood spent in the Jewish community and the academic world of 1960s Minneapolis.


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

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

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).

Contacts

Palace Pictures
Vodičkova 19, 110 00, Praha 1
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 210 083 527
Fax: +420 224 239 162
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.palacepictures.net

Blue Sky Film Distribution, a.s.
Sněmovní 9, 118 00, Praha 1
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 224 222 398
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.bluesky.pro

Focus Features
100 Universal City Plaza, CA 91608, Los Angeles
United States of America
Tel: +1 818 777 1000
Fax: +1 212 539 4099
E-mail: [email protected]

About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section: Horizons
   
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Screenplay: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Dir. of Photography: Roger Deakins
Music: Carter Burwell
Editor: Roderick Jaynes
Producer: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Production: Working Title Films, Ltd.
Cast: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff, Jessica McManus, Peter Breitmayer, Brent Braunschweig
Contact: Palace Pictures, Blue Sky Film Distribution, a.s., Focus Features
Distributor: Blue Sky Film Distribution, a.s.

Guests

Andrea Machalíková

Other

Richard Signeski

Buyer, Buyer


Milan Dostál

Distributor, Service Company Rep.

YouTube

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