Page - 118 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

118 | Christian Wessely www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 113–120 what this film is about, because this film is about nothing, in the sense of a consistent (hidden) meaning: the film is made to be resistant to decoding (p. 175). Here, Curtis quotes the film critic Richard R. Corliss, who stated that “Either the Coens failed, or I didn´t figure out what they´re attempting” (oh, how I feel with Corliss!). Human be- ings long for revelation – knowledge that is offered to them to cope with the dull everyday and the limits of personal existence, like, “Behold, the wise and mighty state authorities will make your humble life safe and easy”. Curtis makes the link to politi- cal theology, but the Coen brothers connect with superstition, thus unmasking these authorities and their attitudes as secular and fallible respectively. In the second intermission M. Gail Hamner treats formal coherence in the Coen brothers works using the example of No Country for Old Men. As I am a formalist myself (have I mentioned that I wrote my doctoral thesis on the mythological struc- ture of Star Wars?), he is pushing at an open door for me. I agree with many of Ham- ner’s theses – such as the importance of subtle aspects of a movie – but where are the ties to No Country for Old Men? The Coen brothers, Hamner argues, use a very specific approach to visualise a representation of religion: light. Now this is something I find very interesting because it is deeply linked to religious ideas (think of the biblical light metaphors in Gen. 1:3, Matt. 5:14, and John 8:12, for example). And indeed, Ham- ner gradually manages to change my point of view on this very film. Her sentences are beautiful, too: “Landscape and lifescape syncopates the light and breath of eternity with the sights and sighs of each mortal character” (p. 183). Even reflections (actually those on a switched-off TV set) become formal pointers to the “violence inherent in the gridded relations of [all] human culture” (p. 195). I have not yet seen (pun intended) The Man Who Wasn’t There (Transcendence). The conclusion of this chapter, also by M. Gail Hamner, on a film noir about an unfor- tunate wannabe-blackmailer speaks for itself: “The transcendence is not Christian, but as with so many Coen films the failure of religious institutions never precludes the human needs for religious transcendence, a need that constellates the affective need for peace, the intellectual need for meaning, and the existential need for intimacy” (p. 216). A Serious Man (Hermeneutics) by Gabriel Levy is of particular importance to me – our research group www.film-und-theologie.de (English version available) used this film at one of its conferences to illustrate aspects of the theodicy question. Levy states that “the film portrays the idea that being too serious a man is what leads to problems. Being a simple (tom like Job) man is better” (p. 222). He unfolds this thesis in five themes (Materiality, Eros, Evil, Activity, and Physics), in each of which he re- flects about in the context of Jewish culture. He concludes by looking at “Meaning in Humor” (p. 230), which he ties together with “simple life” – not in the sense of a life of frugality but as “simply to live”, facing the fact that “there is a necessary place for evil, negativity, suffering, and materiality in this simplicity – in that wholeness” (p. 230), a statement that reminds me far more of Zen than what Andrus wrote about