Finally found another style continuation after "Barton Funk" and "The Absent Man"-"Serious Man". After reading the five flavors, one thought is that the two brothers are almost perfect.
There are actually many reasons why "serious people" and "Barton Fink" and "absent people" continue. One of the core is that they all talk about "how a man faces an uncertain world", and in screenwriting, audiovisual There are a lot of hints, correspondences and metaphors. For example, in "The Serious Man", the designs of the Larry brothers and the two in the hotel in "Barton Fink" are similar-"the same person has two spiritual sides." Among serious people, the big fat man has never appeared alone, and always appears at the same time as Larry. There are a lot of things like that in the film, so "The Serious Man" is a film worthy of careful consideration.
No matter in terms of director (introverted and interesting in one), screenwriter (very brilliant structure and dialogue), performance (large collection of Cohen's facial makeup), photography, art, recording (very small details) and other aspects, they are excellent, and the aftertaste is called A good one. Like the rules of the Jewish community, the entire audio-visual design is also rules and does not go beyond the thunder pool (of course, there are a few paragraphs such as the roof, smoking marijuana and other unconventional tricks, and the pen is clear).
I'm going to watch it the second time in the near future, but let me just say a few words first, I really feel good.
I think all three of Cohen's works are considered as one series, so I named it "The man" series, which is about people, modern people. Talk about the absurdity and sense of emptiness of men facing the world... and so on. Cohen is more just showing, thinking, but not giving any answers. These three films also have some "director's sense of substitution", which hints at the director's worldview.
In the film "Serious Man", when you say that it has "serious thinking", you always feel that the Coen brothers are smirking at the back, saying that you Y is too serious. But if you want to say it is a comedy, obviously it is not. Although there are a lot of laughs in the whole film, the tone can be described as "cups". This angle is a bit similar to "Burn After Reading". But the narrative of "Serious Man" is more "focused", more refined, and more inner and spiritual, that is, there are a lot of suggestive passages (or metaphors)-but you can also say that it has no metaphors. For example, the lens of the first feature film, the earphone, can be interpreted a lot, but the lack of interpretation does not hinder its interestingness and correspondence between context. When you think about it at the end, you feel that these details should obviously not be over-interpreted, but you can't help but regard it as an important element. Anyway, there is a considerable aftertaste for people to ponder.
For example, the opening scene is a very strange way of writing, a small passage that seems to have nothing to do with the story itself, a legend of a Nordic village, and the proportions of the classic screen. You can think of this paragraph as not having any connection with the main line, but if you think about it carefully, this paragraph has a lot of connection with the main line. Friends in the family are still sudden demons, indistinguishable phenomena, dilemmas, plausible details, the way men and women treat this matter... Anyway, you can analyze it like this, also You don't have to think about it this way. What lies ahead is a possibility. The editor and director's attitude is ambiguous and detached, meaning that it is outside the narrative. From the beginning, the script has established a way of thinking about this movie, and the main line of this movie is to continue this way to let you step by step into the heart of the man and the world he faces.
In the first scene of the main show, the son goes to class and the father is checked, which is a very intriguing arrangement.
From a certain perspective, the son and the father are the two stages of man, so in this movie, the plots about the two men can also be viewed in conjunction. First of all, as an important life goal of man, in the movie it is said to be a "serious man"—the one called "serious man" in it is Say (a man who became a friend and wife three years after his wife's death) Man) and the title given to him at his funeral. In the same scene and the same place, the son’s adult ceremony was held, which represented him on the way to become another "serious man". In such a well-regulated Judah community, we can probably regard the growth of our son as a hint from the father in the past-he has experienced the same adult ceremony before, but now he is sitting below in a mess.
Going back to the first scene, the son listened to headphones in class-this behavior led to him being chased by the strong man in the class in the whole movie (it can be seen as the ceremony before the boy adult style, this strong man It also has a certain symbolic function, he appears as a symbol); his father is undergoing a physical examination, which implies that he has reached the age when he considers his health, and an adult is beginning to grow old. But the two scenes were edited in parallel, and the incident happened directly on the son's side, and there was no sign of the father's side. So at the end of the film, we know that this beginning may actually be the heaviest blow to the father, but the film does not give a clear message, but we can foresee that the father is not good. On the son’s side, it was done as an adult, symbolizing that he was truly moving towards “life” and facing life like a “man”, and he also took back his own headphones (the passionate rock music in the headphones corresponds to Judas Human music is also a symbol), which resolves all contradictions. For the son, the beauty of life is unfolding in front of him. For his father, life may have closed an important door for him at this time. (Additionally, there are two parallel editing in the film, both of which have a major impact on the father’s life.) At
this time, the tornado struck. The last point of view of the film is to watch the tornado slow from behind the son. Slowly roll to yourself. The storm of life is such a sudden, unpredictable future, can you become a serious man or become utterly devastated like a father? The focus of the film was on the son's earphones, and the enthusiastic music sounded, which seemed to imply hope and resistance—a little bit of sarcasm, too.
This piece of music happens
to be the answer to the most authoritative rabbi’s question to his son: When the truth is found to be lies
and all the joy within you dies
don't you want somebody to love
don't you need somebody to love
wouldn' t you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love
Some people also say, why is the father's situation in this movie one after another? It's a coincidence. This is probably a matter of intention. This movie is to tell the reaction of "this man facing the unpredictable world" in this absurd and concentrated form. The storms of life have always come in unpredictable ways. There are joys and sorrows. Although the father has lost a lot of things when he "does nothing", he seems to find feeling after his son's adulthood, accepting life, and temporarily reaching an agreement with the "friend" of life. Some compromises were made (changes in grades), and it seemed to be smoother, but at this time, the "devil" of life slowly approached him. Therefore, the overall tone of the film is still rather gloomy, almost desperate.
This is just a beginning and a tail. There are many paragraphs in the middle, which seem to be unremarkable, all with very unique images. I have to talk about it later.
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