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In the film A Serious Man, the scene I feel exemplifies when editing makes a significant contribution tot he storytelling and feel of the piece is the Hebrew school scene juxtaposed with the examination table scene. Through the monotonous voice of the Hebrew school teacher, we get a feeling of being trapped, bored and anxious. While the scene in the Doctor's office is also an anxious one, it is of new feelings, cold sterile sounds and breaking the daily routine. The scenes work well together on that level.

Shots are organized in a way that links these two scenes in a coherent way, zooming in on Danny Gopnik's ear with a headphone inserted as segway into Larry Gopnik's ear being examined. Close up shots followed by close up shots make this a natural sequence to watch despite the different subject matter.

The scenes take you into each character's personal space, except for the teacher and the doctor, because those are two characters you are not supposed to be able to relate to, nor know much about. The camera focuses on the faces of those enduring the teaching or medical examination.The shots are fairly quick and show an anxious darting around of the eye, as if to follow where the character you're connected to is looking, and allows you to see the world through their eyes to some extent.

Only when Danny's music disrupts the class is this trance-like monotony broken as the other students roar and bang on their desks. Comic relief after a scene that takes everyone back to a point where they could relate to counting the minutes down in a boring class. The cuts are seamless and natural. (After watching this scene repeatedly, they are obvious as I see them coming.) The rhythm is smooth and the colors place one in the two different locations presented. The dark, cooler tones of the Doctor's office contrasts with the obvious 1960's motif of the classroom and all of its plaid and warm toned students.

This approach to editing does exactly what the directors wanted, to contrast what father and son are up to at a given point in time, and to point out the similarities and differences. It comes across pretty obviously during a casual watching of the film, but as I looked more in depth, I learned much more about the sequence than I ever thought possible.