Actor Michael Stulhbarg came to Chicago last week to promote "A Serious Man," the newest back comedy from Oscar-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. After a career spanning over twenty-five years, this is the first Coen Brothers film with genuine Jewish content. Stulhbarg plays a physics professor named Larry Gopnik, who ignores the dark clouds over his head until they finally coalesce into a perfect storm.
Tzivi attended the screening on Wed. Sept. 30 to hear Stulhbarg’s Q&A, and then met with him the next day for a follow-up.
Jan Lisa Huttner: What is Larry Gopnik like at the beginning of "A Serious Man"? What world has he created for himself?
Michael Stulhbarg: Larry starts out as someone who's content in his work and his family life, yet he's so submerged in it that he doesn't see his family is sort of going in different directions. His son is preoccupied in his world, his daughter her own world, and his wife is slowly moving away from him after she's given him some clues that things aren't going well.
But doesn’t Larry relates to his students in the same way? Larry is writing, writing, writing on the blackboard: "See this? See that? See this? And here’s Schrödinger’s cat!" But no one in the classroom has a clue…
Right, right. He's not making connections, and he learns it's a problem.
Someone asked me last night [at the Q&A] about what I'll take away from the process of working on this character, and I think that was the main thing for me: pay attention to the people in your life! No matter what it is that you're doing, love and honor the people in your life because they aren't going to be around forever.
So pay attention to them and give yourself not just to your work, but to the people that you love in your life, because they're like any kind of plant—the more you love it and care for it, the more the plant will grow and thrive. But Larry didn’t have a green thumb when it came to his communication skills with his wife.
In the scene where Larry is with his brother Arthur, sitting on the lip of the swimming pool, what is Larry thinking?
Well I'm trying to get Arthur back into the bedroom! He's outside; he's weeping, and making a lot of noise and it's the middle of the night. Arthur thinks everything is going great for Larry, but nothing is going great. I have nothing left other than to just give him a hug and hopefully say, "It's all going to be okay. We'll get through this."
Does Larry realize during this conversation that maybe Arthur is right and Larry hasn't counted his blessings?
Sure, I think counting your blessings is a good way to think about it.
Can’t help but wonder though, why doesn’t Danny have any grandparents at his Bar Mitzvah?
I think if Larry and Arthur's parents were still alive, Arthur would be living with them, which suggests to me that they have passed away.
Sure, literally there could be a million explanations, but metaphorically a choice has been made. The older generation appears in the Prologue (and all their dialogue is in Yiddish!), but not in the body of the film. Arthur and Larry have been abandoned, stuck in the Midwest, from the snow of the shtetl to Minneapolis?
You're jazz riffin' & I absolutely love it; I love it because all these things are in there to be found. I'm not sure if it was Joel and Ethan's intention, but I love that you found them in there.
Well, there's such an arc in this film—learning to be vigilant but also to be grateful. Last night, during the Q&A, you used the term "archetype" to describe Larry. What’s the difference between a stereotype and an archetype?
I think of “an archetype” as larger than “a stereotype.” Stereotypes are a mix of clichés, whereas an archetype is a universal. The other characters don't have the opportunities that Larry and his son Danny do in the film. In some cases, they have one scene to make an impression. We don't get to see the private lives of the junior rabbi, or of Rabbi Nachtner, or of the next door neighbor. We see them in public, interacting with Larry.
Do you feel hopeful about Larry at the end?
I think he's learned some things, yeah. I think that he'll be more “present,” at least for a while. If his wife Judith does indeed come back into his life again, maybe he will find himself asking deeper questions of their relationship. They might find themselves drawn closer to each other just because of what's happened.
Larry’s been presented with an opportunity to explore his problems with a spiritual leader, not forced to, but he tries it out. I think that’s a constant dilemma for all secular community-based or cultural Jews—to go back and forth between their religion and their history, and to exist within the community that is America.
©Jan Lisa Huttner (10/7/09)
*****
A Serious Man opens in metro Chicago on Fri, Oct 9. To read Jan’s review, visit:
http://chicagoyivo.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/a-serious-man/
*****
Jan Lisa Huttner (Tzivi) is the managing editor of Films for Two: The Online Guide for Busy Couples (www.films42.com). Send comments and/or suggestions for future columns to Tzivi@msn.com. Visit www.juf.org for online copies of prior columns.
:
