영화의 열린 결말과 불가해성

Open Ending and Incomprehensibility in Film: Focused on the Films of the Coen Brothers

This research discusses what are the common things among open ended films of the Coen brothers, what is the coherent view of the world and human in these films, how it can be related to open ending, and what is the narrative logic which makes it possible to end the films open way. In this paper, open ended films of the Coen brothers like Barton Fink(1991),No Country for Old Men(2007) and A Serious Man(2009) are mainly discussed. Open ended films of the Coen brothers are all about ‘uncertainty.’ It appears in two ways in their films. One is incomprehensibility of absurd and ironical world, and the other is main character’s incapability of understanding it. These two can be associated to Gerard Delanty’s modernity and modern man’s woes. Gerard Delanty defined modernity as “the loss of certainty.” Modern man is not a hero of ancient tragedy who had to face huge destiny but one of common people who has a lack of understanding about real world situations. This paper argues that open ended films of the Coen brothers are argument narratives on incomprehensibility of the world. These are dual layered structures. On the surface layer, plot deals with the main character’s goal and obstacles. It is very sophisticated and complicated plot, but it is ended without solving the problem on this layer. On the depth layer, narrative deals with an argument on incomprehensibility of the world, and the film ends when its argument is completed. Therefore,open ended films of the Coen brothers aim not for the surface layer but for the depth layer, not to solve the problem of the story but to complete the argument.