This month, their new film Inside LlewynDavis comes out. It is a love letter to the 1960s folk scene in Greenwich
Village, starring Oscar
Isaac, Carey
Mulligan, John
Goodman, Garrett
Hedlund, and Justin
Timberlake. It looks to feature wonderful music from T-Bone Burnett
and cinematography from Bruno Delbonnel.
It is already an Oscar favorite and critical darling. Check out the trailer here.
Early Career:
Joel Coen attended New York
University’s undergraduate film program, while Ethan studied philosophy at
Princeton University. After college, Joel worked as a production assistant and
film editor where he met Sam
Raimi who was looking for an assistant editor for his first feature The Evil Dead. Raimi and Coen
also appeared together in Spies Like Us (as
guards outside at the drive-in movie). Raim next directed the Coen Brothers’ second
produced screenplay Crimewave.
In 1984 with the help of Raimi to
fund-raise, the Coen Brothers made their feature directorial debut with Blood Simple.
Blending horror and film-noir genres, the film was an instant success among
critics. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival and
Best Director and Best Male Lead (for M. Emmet Walsh)
at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Next, the brothers wrote and directed
the crime comedy Raising Arizona
about an unlikely couple who steals a baby to raise as their own. It stars a
wacky Nicolas Cage
and Holly Hunter.
While Blood Simple more or less flew under the radar with most movie fans,
Raising Arizona quickly became a cult comedy classic.
Strange But Wonderful
Films:
The 1990s saw the Coen Brothers
really find themselves as filmmakers, churning out what is probably their best
set of films – films that are very different but all feel aesthetically and
thematically ambitious, and a bit odd. First among them, the gangster genre
film Miller’s
Crossing, which is highly underrated and brilliantly written. I would argue
that it is one of the best films of the decade.
Barton Fink
was their next. It is about a critically acclaimed New York playwright who
comes to California to write movies for the money, but finds that he is descending
into Hell while in Hollywood. The film features a great performance by John Turturro, and
is a nice wink by the Coens at Hollywood filmmaking. Nominated for three
Oscars, Barton Fink won the 1991 Cannes Film Festival prize for Best Actor,
Director, and Film (Palme d’Or).
Teaming up again with Sam Raimi
(who co-wrote and served as the second unit director), the Coens next made The Hudsucker
Proxy. It is a film that feels like a classic screwball comedy, with lots
of great nostalgic throwbacks (like a fast-talking Jennifer Jason Leigh,
as a nod to Rosalind
Russell). While the film never seemed to resonate with moviegoers or
critics at the time of its release, it has since found its audience and is much
adored. It was their first Hollywood film, and viewed as an utter failure
(losing lots of money). This was the film that really introduced by to them. I
had seen Raising Arizona, but The Hudsucker Proxy struck me as something
special made by skilled filmmakers. I have been a fan ever since.
For their next film, the Coen
Brothers retreated back into more familiar thematic territory, again making a
crime film (with a black comedy edge). Fargo
was a critical and commercial success, introducing the filmmaking brothers to
many new fans. It won two Oscars (while being nominated for seven, including
Best Picture) for Best Writing and Best Actress (Frances McDormand
– Joel’s wife). It also won the Cannes Film Festival prize for Best Director.
The film caused some problems for the Academy Awards, however. Firstly, the
film exclaims that it is based on a true story during its opening, but that is
untrue. Thus, the Academy did not quite know whether it should be placed in the
adapted or original screenplay category. Secondly, the Academy nominated
Roderick Jaynes for Best Editing, but that is merely a pseudonym for the Coen
Brothers, who edit most of their own films. To this day, Fargo is thought of as
the Coens’ best film by many (though, I would argue their next film is).
Today, The Big
Lebowski is a cult classic that has fully become a part of pop-culture (see
the many reference in Veronica
Mars for example). It is beloved by many fans that have probably never seen
another Coen Brothers’ film (or even know who they are) and the fans of the
directors who have been there for each film (I, myself, saw The Big Lebowski
upon its release in 1998 while in Paris in an empty theater on the
Champs-Elysees and immediately fell in love). When it came out, it played to
mixed criticism and almost no box office receipts. However, Jeff Bridges’s The
Dude is now an iconic character. It is one of my favorite comedies of all-time
as it brilliantly blends almost absurdist comedy with a hard-boiled detective
narrative.
With Some Hollywood
Mixed In:
In Preston Sturges
1941 film Sullivan’s
Travels, John Sullivan plans on making a film called O Brother, Where
Art Thou? – the Coen Brothers make it a reality with their narrative
loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey. The film opened to the Coen Brothers’ biggest
box office debut at the time, but the film’s soundtrack featuring great
bluegrass and old time music was an even greater success. The film’s music was
created with the help of T-Bone Burnett and is credited by some as assisting in
the resurgence in interest in American folk music – Burnett is again working with
the Coens on their new film about folk music, Inside Llewyn Davis.
For their next film, the Coens
decided to make a strange crime drama about a barber who blackmails his wife’s
boss for money so that he can invest in dry cleaning – but it all goes wrong. The Man Who
Wasn’t There features maybe the best black and white photography since
films became universally color in the 1950s. Roger
Deakins work is phenomenal. The film itself was almost unseen when it came
out, but is secretly a fantastic movie.
Returning to more Hollywood fair,
though still a little strange narratively and stylistically, the Coen Brothers
then made what are probably their worst two films (and really the only two
films that are not genuinely good). Intolerable
Cruelty was meant as another throwback to screwball comedies of the 1940s,
but it just never really works (though, there is a great scene that feels like
a reference to Network).
The
Ladykillers saw the Coens go from meh to just straight up bad. Firstly,
they remake one of the great comedies of
British Cinema; and secondly, nothing in the film seems to work all that
well – especially Tom
Hanks who just goes way too big.
After taking a three year break,
the Coen Brothers returned in 2007 with No Country for
Old Men, a modern western that exhibited all the best qualities of their
work: electric, well-written characters, stark violence, dark comedy, and
wonderful aesthetics. It is a film that just grabs you from the start, winning
four Oscars (while being nominated for an additional five) including Best
Picture, Best Directors, Best Writing, and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem). It
is one of the best films of the decade.
Now once again in the acclaim of
critics, and with a somewhat newfound following among mass audiences, the Coens
decided to make a very strange comedy – Burn After
Reading, mixing a spy thriller with black comedy. The film played to mixed
reviews, but it is fairly hysterical. Every character is their worst self,
ruled by idiocy. Its strangeness though did not immediately isolate fans, as it
debuted at number one its opening weekend. But again with A
Serious Man, the brothers seemed to continue to try and push away their
newer Oscar-bandwagon fans with an even stranger story about a math teacher’s
decent into madness.
However, in 2010, the Coen
Brothers returned to the western genre with True
Grit (a remake of the John Wayne Oscar-winning film).
The film played to huge acclaim (garnering ten Oscar nominations including Best
Picture, but winning zero) and their biggest box office numbers to date. The
film features wonderful performances, and feels like a classic western – only
slightly warped in the Coens’ style.
Collaborators:
Like many of the auteurs in
cinema, the Coen Brothers work frequently with the same actors and crew
members. Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, John
Goodman, Jon Polito,
and John Turturro have all worked with them more than four times. Other notable
actors that have worked with them more than once include: Bruce Campbell
(appearing usually in cameo or very small roles), Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Richard Jenkins, and
Billy Bob Thorton
(the Coens also, oddly, produced Bad Santa).
Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld
shot their first three films (before becoming a director himself), while Roger
Deakins has shot nine of their films. Composer Carter Burwell has
scored fourteen of their films. Production designer Dennis Gassner
designed six of their films, while Jess Gonchor has
designed their last five.
Upcoming Projects:
The Coen Brothers provided the
screenplay for the remake of the 1966 film Gambit. The new version
directed by Michael
Hoffman stars Colin
Firth and Cameron
Diaz. They are also rewriting director Angelina Jolie’s
new war drama Unbroken.
A TV series
based on Fargo is in the works for 2014, which will involve the Coens as
producers. They are also in talks to write a script for director George Clooney
called Suburbicon.
Finally, it is reported that they are working on a new musical comedy.
Career Highlights:
8)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) – writers,
directors, producers (Blu-ray,
Video
On-Demand, Trailer)
10)
No Country for Old Men (2007)* – writers,
directors, producers (Blu-ray,
Video
On-Demand, Trailer)
*Editor’s picks
No comments:
Post a Comment