A classroom at St. Olaf College has a role in the latest film by Joel and Ethan Coen.
The small Minnesota college had just what the filmmakers needed for A Serious Man: a 1960s-style lecture hall where their main character, a physics professor, could teach. St. Olaf's Science Center 282 fit the bill and, to boot, the building was empty because of renovations. The classroom also had stadium-style seats and a wall-spanning chalkboard, against which the professor gets his head bashed by a nemesis during a dream sequence.
"It was so fortuitous," David Gonnerman, a St. Olaf spokesman, says of the connection with the filmmakers.
Two former physics professors at St. Olaf designed physics equations and information for the large chalkboard and a smaller chalkboard featured in a different scene. James Cederberg, a professor emeritus of physics, worked on the smaller chalkboard. He used his knowledge of Schrödinger's cat to write out historical information on the subject that was both accurate and fit the filmmakers' vision.
Mr. Cederberg says that although the equations weren't on camera for very long, it was fun to see his work on the silver screen.
Along with a film credit in the movie, St. Olaf has received other perks from its time on screen. The film crew was on the campus during the university's Fall Visit Days last summer, so prospective students caught a glimpse of movie makers working. One producer spoke to a class about the film industry, which Mr. Gonnerman says was well timed given the college's new film-studies program.
During a benefit for St. Olaf last month, a framed piece of the large chalkboard from the movie was auctioned off, along with a certificate of authenticity signed by the Coens, for $2,600. The purchasers, Kari Groth Swan and her husband, Kevin Swan, enjoy buying unusual pieces of art. In addition, two of their four sons are mathematically inclined, and her family members are big fans of the Minnesota-born filmmakers, whose parents were both academics.
"The Coen brothers are local guys gone great," she says. "We live in the western suburbs where they grew up, and [we] went to St. Olaf, so it was just a good fit."
Comments
1. riverm - March 17, 2010 at 01:29 am
This is a terrific film. If you were a kid in the 60's, you'll howl.
2. yogateacher - March 17, 2010 at 10:50 am
I was a kid in the 80s and I still howled! It was fabulous!
3. xhros - March 19, 2010 at 11:12 am
Schrödinger's cat - Somebody must watches the big bang theory
4. upallnight - March 21, 2010 at 09:12 pm
The scenes with the student who is failing, but wants to pass the class are hysterical. The conversations with the department head about the tenure review process are also classic. The most memorable scene for me was the one with the blackboard from this article. It had wondered about those equations. What a great story.