A Serious Man - Clive

The moments with Clive in the movie A Serious Man [2009] by the Coen brothers.

[@samfilmkid]

"I didn't leave anything. I'm not missing anything. I know where everything is." Smooth.

[@kimpeater1]

"Accept the mystery" that was the line that summarized the entire film IMHO

[@yoshirx8]

Meer sir, my sir.

[@jhalloran5280]

Secret test....hush.......hush.....☺

[@zachmorley158]

It summarizes human existence.

[@emilyrobbins6315]

Is it, though? Or is it the answer to the question, "When the truth is found to be lies, and all the hope within you dies, then what?" ;)

[@49dwalin55]

Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you

[@28purplehaze]

Michael Stuhlbarg= Should've been nominated for an Oscar. His finest role so far. Deserves more work.

[@pappatilla8276]

Sandra Curran He was a revelation in Call Me by Your Name since then

[@ruly8153]

He has had allot of work though

[@morbiusprime2043]

"Please... Accept the mystery" I fucking love this movie

[@millerunc]

"In this office, actions *always* have consequences." Larry learns that lesson the hard way.

[@mark9294]

Well spotted.

[@1schwererziehbar1]

Not just physics. Morally.

[@QMPhilosophe]

A brilliant mash-up of the Book of Job and the nonintuitive philosophy of Quantum Theory with some Jefferson Airplane thrown in.

[@abdulrahmanalmatouq7720]

*Larry: Actions have consequences. Clive: Yes, often.*

[@dariusasghari]

What did he not take action on that lead to the apparently dreadful xray news/tornado?

[@GodsSon987]

In Larry's case, inaction has consequences to

[@provetamin]

clive understood physics

[@GODLETMEWINAMEN]

Michael Stuhlbarg really got ROBBED how he wasn't even nominated for Best Actor,he was phenomenal in this and carried the movie all on his own,especially with his facial expressions,great actor.

[@alvarhanso6310]

He and Fred Melamed both. I read a piece that described Sy Ableman as cinema's greatest villain since Darth Vader. Larry Gopnik is sneakily one of the best Coen characters. Every time I watch A Serious Man, I have a new appreciation for it, true of most Coen films, but I like it a lot more each time, not just a scene or line. Stuhlbarg played Larry so well, I think people assumed he was so much like Larry, thus no nomination, his range of characters since then shows he can be vicious as well as this perfect nebbish. His Larry really feels desperate, and Clive really pushes him past his Jobian limit. And there are immediate consequence, just as Larry predicted. Though, that could just be meer surmise.

[@arlobanta9899]

“Is this man bothering you?” is such a brilliant moment. Throughout the movie the gentile neighbor has been passively hostile to Larry, but immediately comes to his defense when he’s in conflict with an Asian person.

It's the pyramid of racism.

[@Evan-rl1rn]

@ since the movie is set in the 60s, the neighbor probably fought in the korean war and that is why he was hostile to koreans

[@dante666jt]

@@Evan-rl1rn bingo!

[@TheMarshmelloKing]

One reason to like the Cohen bros is that level of intelligence and subtlety. The average joe watching might not understand, but it’s so perfect in context.

[@quarantinebored1427]

According to IMDb, even though it looks like the man is asking Larry if the Asian man was bothering him, it was actually written as the neighbor asking the Asian man if Larry was bothering him. If you look closely, he isn’t making eye contact with Larry at all when asking that question. In the context it’s funny because no matter what, Larry is being attacked by everyone in this movie.

[@GrandMasterScotty]

The scene with Clive's father is absolutely brilliant, as is the entire film. Classic Coen brothers.

[@melissalayton213]

I love the parallel the deformation conversation draws with Schrodinger's Cat. It's so clever.

[@someboringperson]

"In this office, actions have consequences." Accepts bribe, gets call from doctor

[@Dgoc813]

it’s brilliant. So soft yet so immediately apparent. He doesn’t get a great life and reward for being morally upright - doing the right thing for a reward would make it selfish, not a matter of justice and morals. But the moment he compromises his morality, the negative consequence is immediate

[@Trystaticus]

This might be the Coens' best film.

[@savvass5875]

And probably their most underrated yet

[@mequable]

Savvas S as someone said, it isn't underrated (with two Oscars and such...), more like, overlooked. Still, the best film by them, in my opinion.

[@nonperson2723]

it might be better than their best movie too

[@paulhoffbaltzersen3304]

***** To me it's the best movie ever.

[@nonperson2723]

meer sir my sir

[@haveaseatplease]

What an absolute marvel this masterpiece is....

[@zachmorley158]

“Even I don’t understand the dead cat.” Brilliant. Mary’s room thought experiment right here

[@TheCollegemet]

mere surmise sir sir very uncertain

[@TheCollegemet]

+TheCollegemet best line of the movie

[@TatisRingwormCreme]

accept the mystery

[@nonperson2723]

no, i refuse! don't make me do it! i don't want!

[@billthecat666]

cossackal Hashem doesn't owe you any answers. Hashem doesn't owe you anything.

[@jhalloran5280]

Actions have consequences. Often...☺ Culture Clash Tradition No. Defamation ? Cultural appropriation ? No. Cultural appreciation ? Please! Accept the mystery .

[@NOTONLYNOISE]

best film ever!

[@pietroc.6935]

masterpiece.

[@leehan-yeol7049]

Also, giving teachers bribes is, in fact, Korean custom. It's called 촌지(chonji), a small gift Korean parents give to teachers in the custom of Confucian attachment albeit it has waned a lot since the 90s.

[@daliilars3350]

2:29 Ok I didn't expect that calm transition. Nice.

[@paulosj498]

“This is defamation”

[@christopherbutz]

Am I to surmise from this scene that the Professor failed to immediately contact the school's General Counsel's office upon discovering the bribe? It takes two to have an accident.

[@christopherbutz]

In order to make many good films, one must first assume that lawyers do not exist.

[@JustSomeCanadianGuy]

This script is like 4-dimensional chess.

[@kemchobhenchod]

"It doesn't make sense. Either he left the money, or he didn't." "Please -- accept the mystery."

[@Alemag_]

Larry made a moral decision, and the consequence was a physical one.

[@sktelcom91]

Clive deserved to pass as he clearly demonstrated that he understood Schroedinger's paradox better than Larry himself.

[@bradypacleb3030]

Larry made a moral decision, and there were NO consequences to it. That's kind of the point. There was no physical or philosophical connection to Larry's decision. But we're led to believe that as an audience. It was pure happenstance that he received the phone call from his doctor. Even if Larry handled his problems and found the answers he was looking for, he would've received the call anyway. That's what makes the movie so good! Keeps you on your toes.

[@Alemag_]

***** Good point. I made my inference from what I saw in the film and from what I read in another forum and a video I watched about QM, posted by sixtysymbols. These were: Larry saying in his office there are physical and moral consequences; QM topic throughout the film; the doctor telling Larry all was good before he made the choice of changing the grade. I could be wrong, though. The same can be said about your interpretation. The only solution would be to ask the Coen brothers. We just have to accept the mistery.

[@Alemag_]

sktelcom91 Don't know how this relates to my comment

[@Hissanrach]

***** Actually, I think you're kind of missing the point of the movie. The movie does not suggest all things are chance and happenstance and that there are no consequences; it suggests that we do not and cannot know if this is true. It's the whole concept of Schroedinger's cat, the uncertainty principle, which is expounded on by Clive's Father ("accept the mystery"). The events DO behave as if there are consequences however, and in some instances there definitively are. But in this case, it's unclear. You can choose to say that the phone call would always have happened and logically that is the only answer, much like the money. But Larry had no idea that the phone call would take place; to him, there was a very clear moral choice to be made and he shirked his responsibility (how characters react to circumstances being another major theme in the story), and thus to him, there may very well be a connection. But no one knows until something happens, and even when it does we have no way of knowing if there is a connection for sure. The best thing someone can do in a life filled with complete uncertainty is to "accept life with simplicity", and "be a good person". This is the only kind of "wisdom" that the characters who should have the answers give, including the religious figures who can only admit to not knowing more than they do. It's not much consolation, and Larry tries to do this, but he fails often. And to him, the illusion or reality of consequences do not matter; the result is the same, and how he chooses to deal with the new problem is the only thing that can give him the moral, emotional or physical relief that he desperately longs for.

[@wildboy2222]

"Hush, hush" lol I love that part.

[@samfilmkid]

Meer-sir-mi-sir Genius. Absolute genius.

[@Overlorddz]

Michael stuhlbarg is such a chameleon. I love his acting. I think he should get more work, but maybe he's more into theatre.

[@tonys1587]

"No, sir. I know about my actions."

[@scorpionicdecline]

and other film I would've been disappointed in the ending. for this one it suited it

[@alfa_w]

Great Movie - Great Scenes

[@Overlorddz]

What a brilliant film

[@MrSadGuru]

"No sir, I know about my actions." ..."Very uncertain." hahahaha shit that's funny

[@EricFrydman1993]

This is a metaphor for religion done so brilliantly it has yet to be commented on.

[@sukmaidack]

it doesn't just address religion, but life, social interaction, time, space, physics. It is all part of the same, which is really what this movie is trying to explain, we are all one part of the whole.

[@49dwalin55]

'..Has decided to move us into the basement of the synagogue. We shall form two lines' Followed by 'C-'

[@ot63]

you left out the part with Clive on his bicycle where Larry gets into the car crash

[@jaredabccrisscross]

@ignoblius Actually the envelope could have been there. If you look at the place where the envelope was when Clive is leaving the paper is white and something is sticking slightly out from the edge, implying that the envelope is there. When Larry is looking at his messages, Clive could have put the envelope on his desk, plus his father and him both act like they knew about it.

[@linus7106]

@limaa91 most excellent actors. all of them.

[@ComradeLeonTrotsky]

" I don't even understand the cat " Hush-Hush

[@billscannell93]

"Mere-sir my-sir?" "Mere sur-mise, sir."

[@2kelmo]

Always thought that the protagonist of this film looks like the ex-bassist for the band interpol; Carlos Dengler

[@guitarvibe75]

That's a weird thought...

[@Jan96106]

As an addendum to what I just wrote, it is also true that most people do what the dentist does; when they can't make sense of things, they worry and ask a lot of questions, and then, when things settle down, they just go back to living and forget anything troubled or disturbed them. I guess the second attitude is receiving events with simplicity. But is Rashi correct? Does that make them a sage? Or does that make them a dolt?

[@MrFTW733]

I missed it. When does Clive drop the envelope on Gopnik's desk?

[@yoshirx8]

Accept the mystery :p

[@Acquisitor]

Id just call the cops to file a complaint for bribary.

[@sighisoaraa]

Is this movie worth watching though?

[@copacetic9018]

*YES*.... It'll be the most worthwhile thing you ever do with your life.

[@godswiph]

This is a RIDICULOUSLY good film... and it only gets better with time.

[@ugoodHomeBoy]

first time I watched it I did not like it...I thought it was a boring account of Job...but after watching it a second time some years later it blew my mind. It is a fucking good movie.

[@Earthdogbonzo3]

Is this man bothering you?

[@joerafferty3248]

Schrodinger's bribe.

[@oracleoffinance7313]

I don't think Clive left the money on Larry's desk. Maybe Hashem put it there.

[@Moistcraictical]

#VeryTroubling

[@piooii]

accept the mystery..

[@Nuxunumo]

I'didn't leave anyting I'm not missinganyting I know whereeverthingis

[@YuiCody]

Very trouble... Very trouble...

[@Nuxunumo]

COTURE CRASH

[@basehead617]

COOCHIE CRASH

[@ilovepanslabyrinth]

@shoaib246 I think we have to accept the mystery or we'll suffer like Larry

[@mihaa94sky]

Sy Feltz!

[@tgwnn]

me sir my sir?

[@The4thGuy]

@shoaib246 I have to say that he looks almost totally different though...

[@Elrich89]

Who was on the phone? I've forgotten

[@provetamin]

his doctor

[@chronicillz1879]

4:03 what is he really saying?? what word is he trying to say??

[@JohnWilliamShatner]

"Mere surmise, sir. Very uncertain."

[@celiumpictures]

Meer sir my sir?

[@felingzz]

kan man höja eller?

[@SlyRy]

LMAO 1:04

[@kimbabgig6484]

garbage movie. this is the lowest point of the directors carrier.

[@Elliotspeck]

This film is brilliant. I just realized how the "Either he left the money or he didn't" "Please. Accept the mystery" scene is clearly a reference/parallel to the Schroedinger's Cat paradox explained throughout the movie. Is the cat dead or not dead? And to quote Larry himself while explaining the Uncertainty Principle: "We can't ever really know what's going on." The Coens can do no wrong. :D

[@QMPhilosophe]

Yes! And the opening scene, with the old man getting stabbed, is also an allusion to the Cat Paradox.

[@nonperson2723]

mentaculus works. i feel like there is a scene that didnt make the final cut that would tell you that the money came from his brother's card games. the question of who ordered the abraxis album is without ambiguity. the angry letters are clearly from sy ableman...excuse me were from sy ableman until he died. we know who took the wig at the beginning of miller's crossing. there are a lot of things the coen bros tell the movie audience but keep from the characters. i also think the ending could have been made to clearly be punishment of the main character by hashem for boosting his student's grade with an implication of it to be taken as a serious form of misconduct. the opening scene in a serious man seems to not play in anywhere to the rest of the narrative but given the coen brother's anal retentive story telling it seems like they were going for something they just made too many mistakes to get it just right. still though great movie regardless. i just think the filmmakers were shooting a little higher but whatever footage didnt make it just didnt feel right to keep it in. anyway lighten up. death is coming for you.

[@Stoney-Jacksman]

@@nonperson2723 non person sy ableman indeed. I thought maybe he is the devil or the demon represented in the beginning of the movie

[@andygnatovich]

It's both. The cat is both dead and not dead. The was left and it was not left.

[@etsneroj]

Clive's father actually states the central message of the whole movie: Accept the mystery.

[@argentofan123]

"Actions have consequences." "Yes - often."

[@Obencober]

No. ALWAYS! Actions always have consequences!

[@Johnny-rj9on]

@@Obencober Can't believe it took 14 years for someone to leave this response.

[@Scary7064]

"I'm not missing anything". Genius line.

[@wildboy2222]

"Hush, hush" lol I love that part.

[@megadog_]

a hashu hashu

[@KDog510]

"I'm not missing anything...I know where everything is" Priceless

[@janterrirocks]

someone said you have to be Jewish to appreciate this film. That's completely FALSE! you just have to be a Coen Bros. fan.

[@janterrirocks]

I happen to think it's their masterpiece....and I love them all(even Intolerable Cruelty)

[@mequable]

agree, absolutely. also, it *is* their masterpiece.

[@paulhoffbaltzersen3304]

mequable I think it is the greatest masterpiece in filmmaking.

[@mequable]

***** happy to read somebody thinks like me.

[@billthecat666]

janterrirocks It's a move meant to be seen multiple times and to be analyzed. It has many layers to go through.

[@viplovem]

I think what is most ironical about this whole thing is that the guy who can't do math is an Asian.

[@Kyle2516]

Viplove Maheshwari It's not that he can't do math. The film illustrates that Clive took the concept of Shrodinger's cat as just a fable that explains the mystery of life. To him there's no reason to do the mathematics as the mathematics aren't pertinent enough to understand the fable. The mathematics are made up human concepts that cannot fully explain anything, nonetheless something so mysteriously spiritual. In fact, Clive is embodying the knowledge of Shrodinger's cat paradox with his answers to Larry. "Very uncertain." Actions only have consequences "often", not always. Larry teaches this and can't understand the teaching, but the student can. Clive says it's unjust that he received a failing grade because he does in fact know the answer, and him not knowing it is only Larry's shortsided perception of the answer.

[@dustypixelretrogameplay9335]

@@Kyle2516 wow, kudos sir!

[@lightronv]

This is defamation!

[@Jonas42]

My favorite scenes in a great picture. "Even I don't understand the dead cat."

[@say-cred]

The straightfaced, frank Clive really serves to strongly emphasize the emptiness and absurdity of the professor's words as he rambles about "consequences" and "morality."

[@mark9294]

Well he’s not so frank is he?

[@wesspect]

⁠@@mark9294He is not Frank. He is Clive. I know who everyone is.

[@sTeVe-vl3nh]

One of my favorite films. It’s definitely on another level.

[@nonperson2723]

i didn't order abraxis

[@jituteron]

The bribery parallel to the dead cat theory is just amazing

[@tomphoenix8697]

The whole length of the movie you are waiting for this "serious man" to show up. Who should that be? With the ending you realize: It's god. He is serious about what he expect from us.

[@dustypixelretrogameplay9335]

I was writing a 100 lines comment about how brilliant this movie is but if you can see it there's no need to say.

[@genesclean1]

Columbia Record Club...Oh My hahahahahahahahaha I still owe them from 1962

[@tgwnn]

also Sy's message is strangely funny "Let's have a good talk"

[@Jan96106]

This is one of my favorite movies. A comic Job. A comedy about the problem of evil.

[@sancho7863]

Be like clive and not like Larry. Clive doesn't lose sleep at night wondering about the meaning of things.

[@Jaquass]

Oh my God hahahah "Actions have consequences." "Yesu - often."

[@Tripp393]

An asian that doesn't understand math: the real paradox.

[@TheEmeraldTrade]

I fucking love these two scenes.

[@evelau]

This film was so good. Both sad and hilarious. How unlucky can that poor Larry Gopnyk be. Michael Stuhlbarg is such a good actor too.

[@Jan96106]

It's not an either/or tautology. It's Schrodinger's Paradox. Is the cat alive or dead? Leave it to the Coen Brothers to begin one of the most intentionally ambiguous films ever made with the saying by Rashi, "Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you."

[@themusic6808]

To me this film was a better version of Barton Fink. Both stories with really no plot just a character study centered around one man in a mid life crises but I found A Serious Man a bit more entertaining and engaging whereas Barton Fink was more stylish and left more to the viewers imagination as to what to make of it.

[@starryeyedellie]

"hush hush" gets me everytime.

[@Jan96106]

This is such a wonderful movie. I love it so much. Re-watching these clips really cheered me up.

[@Jan96106]

This is not a film that can be wrapped up with easy answers such as seeing a connection between Larry accepting the bribe and being punished for it. And if even if one wanted to make that connection and make everything less than a mystery, one can't. Certainly just punishment for a bribe is not finding out you have cancer or your son blown away by a whirlwind (which we don't know happens for sure either; the movie ending is as enigmatic as the beginning).

[@Kyle2516]

Jan96106 The ending isn't meant to be entirely ambiguous. It mirrors the end of the book of Job, which is what this movie is loosely based on. At the end of the book of Job, God comes to Job in a whirlwind (tornado in this movie) to restore everything that was taken from him. What the Coen brothers are doing is they're making it a literal whirlwind that comes, not a figurative or metaphorical one, and the answer always results in death or the impending certainty of death, as well as the meaninglessness of what occurs before it. In the end Danny is trying to rectify a wrong and do what's just in repaying his bully. It is shown throughout the movie that it was never truly his fault that he couldn't pay the bully back, but forces beyond him interfered and caused the initial situation. In the end Danny is still trying to be "a good boy", as the Rabbi asks, but just as he is about to do that the tornado comes. It's not really meant to be interpreted as whether Danny lives or dies, but rather the FINAL answer to all questions of life, which is death.

[@livingisaight]

that's how korean people really are. I'm not racist, I'm just a student at IU

[@jdhathrisen]

"Actions have consequences" "Yes, often".

[@gsnts725]

Clive ftw he went to my high school :D

[@pakk82]

how could the son have heavier accent than the father.

[@dobobobo]

I loved the scenes with Clive in a film that I loved. (Though I can see why people diskliked it) Many thanks for sharing!!

[@leehan-yeol7049]

This is such an accurate portrayal of the Korean personality. So accurate it's scary! lol

[@DSelwyn21]

A strange bit of Coen brothers WTF: at the 2:34 mark of the video, as Larry is reading the 2nd telephone memo from Dick Dutton, beneath the memo is a brown file folder with a white subject label that reads: "655. Comparison of techniques for pancreatic islet transplantation in dogs." There are so many things out of place with that file folder being on the desk of a physicist. One of the strangest is the use of the word "dogs" instead of "canines" in a work of medical research on animals. What is Hashem trying to say here ?