The title of the seminar alludes to “A Serious Man,” the second movie of the trilogy which opens with “No Country for Old Men” and ends with “Hail, Caesar!”. It is, probably, the most transparent of the three films when it comes to its potential interpretation key: is there a reward/penalty system in the afterlife for the life we lead here? And if such system doesn’t seem exist or doesn’t seem to make sense to us, is there any reason for us to invest in it our believes? A serious theme, presented as a half-serious question through the not at all serious tribulations of the characters, all connected one way or another to religion and faith. The movie presents itself almost as a consumer good – a shinny box, and inside it an object and its user guide. With this key in hand, it becomes coherent to read “No Country For Old Man” and “Hail, Caesar!” as two other movies about posterity: through legacy and though art, respectively.

 

The issue of the purpose of existence is ingrained in our civilisation through its history. It comes with our unidirectional perception of time and makes us look like hardwired to teleology. It makes us concerned about what we leave after us and it is, at it’s most intense manifestations, a way to express a desire for immortality. The popular culture summarized the subtle efforts of many centuries of thinking about our purpose and our meaning in three major questions (which, strangely enough, by becoming sloppy metaphors, sound almost like song hit titles). Is there a life after life? Is there love after life? Is there art after life? While the first two questions concern everybody, the third one addresses the aspirations and the anguish of a restricted category of subjects, living and producing in a quite idiosyncratic milieu.

 

The seminar will be held in english.