《A Serious Man》　嚴肅的男人　那些關于意義和信仰的事

No.035　《A Serious Man》　嚴肅的男人　那些關于意義和信仰的事

英文導讀

A Serious Man is a 2009 dark comedy written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a Minnesota Jewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and personally, leading him to questions about his faith.

The film tells a story about an ordinary man who searches for clarity in a universe. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances, Sy Ableman, who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larry's unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. While his wife and Sy Ableman blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry's chances for tenure at the university. Also, a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person—a mensch—a serious man?

As of February 10, 2010, it has had worldwide gross earnings of $31,312,437.

It has received mostly positive reviews from critics, with an aggregate score of 89% from Rotten Tomatoes, based on 194 reviews. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, rated the film four out of four stars, feeling that it "bears every mark of a labor of love", and Variety's Todd McCarthy commented that "the Coens' filmmaking skills are sharply attentive", and that A Serious Man is "the kind of picture you get to make after you've won an Oscar". Claudia Puig of USA Today writes, "A Serious Man is a wonderfully odd, bleakly comic and thoroughly engrossing film. Underlying the grim humor are serious questions about faith, family, mortality and misfortune."

The film attracted a positive critical response, including a Golden Globe nomination for Stuhlbarg, a place on both the American Film Institute's and National Board of Review's Top 10 Film Lists of 2009 and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

獲獎情況

2010年第82屆奧斯卡：最佳影片提名。

 

影片信息

導演：伊桑·科恩、喬爾·科恩

編劇：喬爾·科恩、伊桑·科恩

主演：邁克爾·斯圖巴、理查德·坎德、弗雷德·邁拉麥德、薩林·萊尼克

類型：劇情、喜劇

制片國家（地區(qū)）：美國、英國、法國

上映日期：2009-10-02（美國）

片長：105分鐘

又名：《正經(jīng)好人》《較真之人》《嚴肅的人》《正經(jīng)人》

劇情簡介

拉里·戈普尼克是美國明尼蘇達州雙城區(qū)某大學的物理教授，在學校正決定是否頒發(fā)給他終身教授資格時，一位韓國學生向拉里抱怨考試評分不公，遭拒絕后，則向拉里行賄。與此同時，拉里的妻子朱迪斯說她愛上了她的同事，要求離婚。

在這個非常時期，拉里無業(yè)、神經(jīng)質的哥哥亞瑟越來越成為拉里生活的負擔，兒子的猶太成人禮在即，女兒偷錢準備為鼻子做整容手術，而一封匿名信更是要將他的前程毀掉。焦頭爛額的拉里求助于猶太牧師拉比，但信仰是否能幫他走出困境？

制作花絮

影片里和小丹尼一起乘坐校車的同學的名字都來自于導演科恩兄弟的童年玩伴。

拉里后來去找的刑法方面的律師羅恩·麥斯德席爾其實就是明尼阿波利斯當?shù)氐穆蓭煛Ｖ劣谀莻€寫在學生賄賂金信封上的地址，其實就是這個律師在市區(qū)的地址。

拉里在影片最后拿出來了學生的成績冊。成績冊上最后一個學生的名字是瑪麗·索弗瑞斯，其實就是本片的服裝設計師。

影片里那個給拉里打電話的來自哥倫比亞唱片公司的工作人員，由沃倫·凱斯配音。這不是他第一次在科恩兄弟的電影里“只聞其聲不見其人”了。其實早在《冰血暴》一片中，他就曾經(jīng)給沒有露過臉的來自GMAC的雷利·迪芬巴赫配了音。

科恩兄弟在自己的家鄉(xiāng)明尼蘇達州完成了影片的拍攝。距離上一次他們在家鄉(xiāng)拍攝電影《冰血暴》，已經(jīng)過去13年了。

重點學習

And his daughter Sarah is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job

文中的save up相當于save，是“儲蓄”的意思，for是介詞，是“為…目的”的意思，所以save up for可譯為“為……而儲蓄”，比如：In the past 15 years, he had been working to save up for a house.（在過去15年中，他一直在努力掙錢以便可以買個房子。）

Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions

在英語中，cope with是一個常見的固定搭配，它是“處理，應付”的意思，比如：We put off the conference in order to better cope with the tense situation. （我們推遲了這個會議，以便能夠更好地應付緊張的局勢。）另外，我們常說的“處理問題”和“應付壓力”分別可用短語cope with problem和cope with stress來表達。

單詞時間

acquaintance[??kweint?ns] n. 熟人；相識；了解；知道

feckless[?feklis] adj. 無效的；軟弱的；沒精神的；不負責任的；無氣力的

discipline[?disiplin] n. 學科；紀律；訓練；懲罰

shirker[??:k?] n. 懶骨頭；逃避責任者；開小差的人

blithely[?blaieli] adv.快活地；無憂無慮地

bribe[braib] vt. 賄賂，收買

defamation[?def??mei??n] n. 誹謗；中傷

torment[t?:?ment] vt. 折磨，使痛苦；糾纏，作弄

equilibrium[?i:kwi?libri?m] n. 均衡；平靜；保持平衡的能力

affliction[??flik??n] n. 苦難；苦惱；折磨

righteous[?rait??s] adj. 正義的；正直的；公正的

mensch[ment?] n. 公正的人；受尊敬的人；高潔的人

engrossing[in?ɡr?usi?] adj. 引人入勝的