A Serious Man

FADE IN:

SNOWFLAKES FALLING IN BLACK

The flakes drift lazily down toward us. Our angle looks straight up.

Now an angle looking steeply down: the snow falls not quite dead away to collect on a

foreground chimneypot and on the little shtetl street that lies maplike below us.

It is night, and quiet, and the street is deserted except for one man who walks away from

us, his valenki squeaking in the fresh snow. He leads a horse and cart.

We cut down to street level. The man walks toward us, bearded, and bundled against the

cold. Smiling, he mutters in Yiddish—the dialogue subtitled.

Man

What a marvel . . . what a marvel. . .

HOUSE INTERIOR:

Its door opens and the man enters.

Man

Dora!

Voice

Yes. . .

The man crosses to the stove with a bundle of wood. Dora’s voice continues:

. . . Can you help me with the ice?

The man dumps the wood into a box by the stove as his wife enters with an ice pick. pick.

. . . I expected you hours ago.

Man

You can’t imagine what just happened. I was coming back

on the Lublin road when the wheel came off the cart—

thank heavens it was the way back and I’d already sold the

geese!

Wife

How much?

Man

Fifteen groshen, but that’s not the story. I was struggling to

set the cart upright when a droshky approaches from the

direction of Lvov. How lucky, you think, that someone is

out this late.

Wife

Yes, very remarkable.

Man

But that’s the least of it! He stops to help me; we talk of

this, we talk of that—it turns out this is someone you know!

Traitle Groshkover!

His wife stares at him as he beams. He takes the stare as a sign that she can’t place the

name.

. . . You know, Reb Groshkover! Pesel Bunim’s uncle!

The chacham from Lodz, who studied under the Zohar reb

in Krakow!

Still she stares. Then, quietly:

Wife

God has cursed us.

Man

What?

Wife

Traitle Groshkover has been dead for three years.

Laughter erupts from the man but, as his wife continues to stare at him, he strangles on it.

Quiet.

Wind whistles under the eaves.

The man says quietly:

Traitle Groshkover has been dead for three years.

Laughter erupts from the man but, as his wife continues to stare at him, he strangles on it.

Quiet.

Wind whistles under the eaves.

The man says quietly:

Man

Why do you say such a thing! I saw the man! I talked to

him!

Wife

You talked to a dybbuk. Traitle Groshkover died of typhus

in Pesel Bunim’s house. Pesel told me—she sat shiva for

him.

They stare at each other. Outside, the wind quickens.

A rap at the door.

Neither husband nor wife immediately respond.

Finally, to her husband:

. . . Who isit?

Man

I . . . invited him here. For some soup, to warm himself.

The wind moans.

. . . He helped me, Dora!

THE DOOR:

We are looking in from the outside as the door unlatches and creaks in, opened by the

husband in the foreground, who has arranged his face into a strained look of greeting. In

the background the wife stares, hollow-eyed.

Man

Reb Groshkover! You are welcome here!

Reverse on Reb Groshkover: a short, merry-looking fellow with a bifurcated beard. He

gives a little squeal of delight.

Reb Groshkover

You are too kind, Velvel! Too kind!

He steps into the house and sees the wife staring at him.

. . . And you must be Dora! So much I have heard of you!

Yes, your cheeks are pink and your legs are stout! What a

wife you have!

The husband chuckles nervously.

Man

Yes! A ray of sun, a ray of sun! Sit!

Wife

My husband said he offered you soup.

Reb Groshkover

Yes, but I couldn’t possibly eat this late, or I’d have

nightmares. No, no: no soup for me!

Wife

I knew it.

Reb Groshkover laughs.

Reb Groshkover

I see! You think I’m fat enough already!

He settles, chuckling, into his chair, but Dora remains sober:

Wife

No. A dybbuk doesn’t eat.

Reb Groshkover stares at her, shocked.

The wife holds his look, giving no ground.

The husband looks from wife to Reb Groshkover, apprehensive.

A heavy silence.

Reb Groshkover bursts into pealing laughter.

Reb Groshkover

What a wife you have!

He wipes away tears of merriment; the husband relaxes, even begins to smile.

Man

I assure you, Reb Groshkover, it’s nothing personal; she

heard a story you had died, three years ago, at Pesel

Bunim’s house. This is why she think you are a dybbuk; I,

of course, do not believe in such things. I am a rational

man.

Reb Groshkover is still chuckling.

Reb Groshkover

Oh my. Oh my yes. What nonsense. And even if there

were spirits, certainly. . .

He thumps his chest.

. . . I am notone of them!

Wife

Pesel always worried. Your corpse was left unattended for

many minutes when Pesel’s father broke shmira and left

the room—it must have been then that the Evil One—

She breaks off to spit at the mention of the Evil One.

—took you!

Reb Groshkover is terribly amused:

Reb Groshkover

“My corpse!” Honestly! What a wife you have!

Wife

Oh yes? Look, husband. . .

She steps forward to the reb, who looks enquiringly up at her.

. . . They were preparing the body. Pesel’s father shaved

one cheek. . .

As his eyes roll down to look at her hand, she draws it across his smooth right cheek.

. . . Then he left the room. He came back, and shaved the

other. . .

She reaches across to the other cheek, Reb Groshkover’s eyes following her hand—

. . . You were already gone!

—and drags her fingers across. A bristly sound.

Reb Groshkover laughs.

Reb Groshkover

I shaved hastily this morning and missed a bit—by you this

makes me a dybbuk?

He appeals to the husband:

. . . It’s true, I was sick with typhus when I stayed with

Peselle, but I recovered, as you can plainly see, and now

I—hungh!

The wife steps back.

Reb Groshkover looks slowly down at his own chest in which the wife has just planted an

ice pick.

Reb Groshkover stares at the ice pick.

The wife stares.

The husband stares.

Reb Groshkover bursts out laughing:

. . . What a wife you have!

The husband can manage only a shocked whisper:

Man

Woman, what have you done?

Reb Groshkover looks down again at the ice pick in his chest, the sight refreshing his

laughter. He shakes his head.

Reb Groshkover

Yes, what have you done?

He looks at the husband.

. . . I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man: which of us is

possessed?

Wife

What do you say now about spirits? He is unharmed!

Reb Groshkover

. . . What a wife you have!

The husband can manage only a shocked whisper:

Man

Woman, what have you done?

Reb Groshkover looks down again at the ice pick in his chest, the sight refreshing his

laughter. He shakes his head.

Reb Groshkover

Yes, what have you done?

He looks at the husband.

. . . I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man: which of us is

possessed?

Wife

What do you say now about spirits? He is unharmed!

Reb Groshkover

On the contrary! I don’t feel at all well.

And indeed, blood has begun to soak through his vest.

He chuckles with less energy.

. . . One does a mitzvah and this is the thanks one gets?

Man

Dora! Woe, woe! How can such a thing be!

Reb Groshkover

Perhaps I will have some soup. I am feeling weak. . .

He rises to his feet but totters.

. . . Or perhaps I should go. . .

He smiles weakly at Dora..

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