The Coen Brothers are easily placed amongst my favorite filmmakers. Their ability to interweave total absurdity, nihilism, and extreme violence into their films without sacrificing the rich and deeply poetic philosophical inquiries at their heart is nothing short of masterful. Alongside
No Country For Old Men and
The Man Who Wasn't There,
A Serious Man explores the bizarre interconnectedness of the universe and mankind's growing realization that nothing ultimately matters, and moreso than either of the above mentioned works,
A Serious Man attempts to take philosophy itself to task for its failure to provide any sort of feasible answers to life's perplexities and complications. The ridiculous equation Larry Gopnik attempts to explain to his bewildered students may as well be a map of the universe as a whole, vast and full of complexities, myriad roads and paths all leading nowhere. Existence is vacuous, devoid, a glacial collapse of meaning.
I wanted to work with Carter Burwell's score because it so beautifully articulates the themes of the film: the repetitious and cyclical nature of being, the failure to find meaning in any action, and the ethereal and haunting beauty of the mysteries we entwine ourselves in throughout our meandering lives. There is no noise here, only a calm and inquisitive stagnant stillness, and maybe even a sliver of beauty peaking through the cracks.
-Cory Strand
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies. $18 ppd. in the United States, $30 rest of world.
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