In regards to whether our background influences our film making ... who knows? We don't think about it ... There's no doubt that our Jewish heritage affects how we see things.
In the mid-1960s, Joel saved money from mowing lawns to buy aVivitarSuper 8 camera.[16] Together, the brothers remade movies they saw on television, with their neighborhood friend Mark Zimering ("Zeimers") as the star.[17]Cornel Wilde'sThe Naked Prey (1965) became theirZeimers in Zambezi, which featured Ethan as a native with a spear.Lassie Come Home (1943) was reinterpreted as theirEd... A Dog, with Ethan playing the mother role in his sister'stutu. They also made original films likeHenry Kissinger, Man on the Go,Lumberjacks of the North andThe Banana Film.[18]
After Simon's Rock, Joel spent four years in the undergraduate film program atNew York University, where he made a 30-minute thesis film,Soundings.[21] In 1979, he briefly enrolled in the graduate film program at theUniversity of Texas at Austin, following a woman he had married who was in the graduate linguistics program. The marriage soon ended in divorce and Joel left UT Austin after nine months.[22]
The duo made their debut withBlood Simple (1984). Set inTexas, it tells the tale of a bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a detective (M. Emmet Walsh) to kill his wife and her lover (Frances McDormand andJohn Getz, respectively). It contains elements that point to their future direction: distinctive homages to genre movies (in this casenoir andhorror),plot twists layered over a simple story, snappy dialogue anddark humor.Janet Maslin wrote: "The camera work byBarry Sonnenfeld is especially dazzling. So is the fact that Mr. Coen, unlike many people who have directed great-looking film noir efforts, knows better than to let handsomeness become the film's entire raison d'être. In addition to its stylishness,Blood Simple has the kind of purposefulness and coherence that show Mr. Coen to be headed for bigger, even better, things."[25] Joel's direction was recognized at theSundance andIndependent Spirit awards.[26] It was the first film shot by Sonnenfeld, who collaborated with the Coens on their two subsequent films and went on to be a director. It marked the first of many collaborations between the Coens and composerCarter Burwell. It was also the screen debut of McDormand, who went on to feature in many of the Coens' films (and marry Joel).[27]
Their next project wasCrimewave (Raimi, 1985), written by the Coens and Raimi. Joel and Raimi also made cameos inSpies Like Us (1985).
The brothers wanted to follow their debut with something fast-paced and funny.Raising Arizona (1987) follows an unlikely married couple: ex-convict H.I. (Nicolas Cage) and police officer Ed (Holly Hunter), who long for a baby but are unable to conceive. When furniture tycoon Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson) appears on television with his newly born quintuplets and jokes that they "are more than we can handle", H.I. steals one of the quintuplets to bring up as their own.Pauline Kael noted its "cornpone-surreal quality" and wrote that the Coens "are going with their strengths. They're making a contraption, and they're good at it because they know how to make the camera behave mechanically, which is just right here—it mirrors the mechanics of farce ... The Sunsets look marvellously ultra-vivid; the paint doesn't seem to be dry—it's like opening day at a miniature-golf course."[28]Geoff Andrew wrote: "the lives and times of Hi, Ed and friends are painted in splendidly seedy colours, turning Arizona into a mythical haven for a memorable gaggle of no-hopers, halfwits and has-beens. Starting from a point of delirious excess, the film leaps into dark and virtually uncharted territory to soar like a comet."[29] The film featured McDormand,William Forsythe,Sam McMurray,Randall "Tex" Cobb and marked the first of many collaborations between the Coens andJohn Goodman.[30]
They followed it withBarton Fink (1991); set in 1941, it follows a New York playwright, the eponymous Fink (Turturro), who moves toLos Angeles to write aB-picture for a venal movie mogul (Michael Lerner). Fink is modeled on playwrightClifford Odets, and the character W.P. Mayhew (John Mahoney) is based onWilliam Faulkner.Barton Fink was a critical success, earning Oscar nominations and winning Best Director, Best Actor andPalme d'Or at the1991 Cannes Film Festival.[32] It was their first film with cinematographerRoger Deakins, a key collaborator for the next 25 years.[33]
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) is an homage to thescrewball comedies ofFrank Capra andHoward Hawks. Co-written with Raimi, the film follows a mailroom clerk (Tim Robbins) who is promoted to president of the Hudsucker corporation by a cynical director (Paul Newman) in a scheme to devalue the company's stock; a fast-talking newspaperwoman (Jennifer Jason Leigh) tries to scoop the story. Critics praised the production design but criticized the tone. It was abox office bomb ($30 million budget, $3 million gross in the US).[34]
The brothers bounced back with the "homespun murder story"Fargo (1996), set in their home state ofMinnesota. In it, car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), who has serious financial problems, has his wife kidnapped so that his wealthy father-in-law (Harve Presnell) will pay the ransom, which he plans to split with the kidnappers (Buscemi andPeter Stormare). Complications ensue, and local copMarge Gunderson (McDormand) starts to investigate. Produced on a small budget of $7 million,Fargo was a critical and commercial success, with particular praise for its dialogue and McDormand's performance. The film received several awards, including aBAFTA award andCannes award for direction, and twoOscars: aBest Original Screenplay and aBest Actress Oscar for McDormand.[35][36]Roger Ebert wrote that "it rotates its story through satire, comedy, suspense, and violence, until it emerges as one of the best films I've ever seen. To watch it is to experience steadily mounting delight, as you realize the filmmakers have taken enormous risks, gotten away with them, and have made a movie that is completely original, and as familiar as an old shoe – or a rubber-soled hunting boot from Land's End, more likely."[37]
The Coen brothers' next film,O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), was another critical and commercial success. The title was borrowed from thePreston Sturges filmSullivan's Travels (1941), whose lead character, movie director John Sullivan, had planned to make a film with that title.[43] Based loosely onHomer'sOdyssey (complete with aCyclops,sirens,et al.), the story is set inMississippi in the 1930s and follows a trio of escaped convicts who, after absconding from achain gang, journey home to recover bank-heist loot the leader has buried—but they have no clear perception of where they are going. The film highlighted the comic abilities ofGeorge Clooney as the oddball lead character Ulysses Everett McGill, and ofTim Blake Nelson andJohn Turturro, his sidekicks. The film'sbluegrass and old-time soundtrack, offbeat humor anddigitally desaturated cinematography made it a critical and commercial hit.[44][45] It was the first feature film to use all-digital color grading.[46] Thefilm's soundtrack CD was also successful, spawning a concert and concert/documentary DVD,Down from the Mountain.
The Coens directed the 2003 filmIntolerable Cruelty, starring George Clooney andCatherine Zeta-Jones, a throwback to the romantic comedies of the 1940s. It focuses on hotshot divorce lawyer Miles Massey and a beautiful divorcée whom Massey managed to prevent from receiving any money in her divorce. She vows to get even with him while, at the same time, he becomes smitten with her.Intolerable Cruelty received generally positive reviews, although it is considered one of the duo's weaker films.[47] Also that year, they executive produced and did an uncredited rewrite of the Christmas black comedyBad Santa, which garnered positive reviews.[48]
In 2004, the Coens madeThe Ladykillers, a remake of theBritish classic byEaling Studios.[49] A professor, played byTom Hanks, assembles a team to rob a casino. They rent a room in an elderly woman's home to plan the heist. When the woman discovers the plot, the gang decides to murder her to ensure her silence. The Coens received some of the most lukewarm reviews of their careers in response to this film.[50][51]
In January 2008, Ethan Coen's playAlmost an Evening premieredoff-broadway at theAtlantic Theater Company Stage 2, opening to mostly enthusiastic reviews. The initial run closed on February 10, 2008, but the same production was moved to a new theatre for a commercial off-Broadway run at theBleecker Street Theater in New York City. Produced by The Atlantic Theater Company, it ran there from March 2008 through June 1, 2008.[58] and Art Meets Commerce.[59] In May 2009, the Atlantic Theater Company produced Coen'sOffices, as part of their mainstage season at the Linda Gross Theater.[60]
Burn After Reading, a comedy starringBrad Pitt and George Clooney, was released September 12, 2008, and portrays a collision course between two gym instructors, spies and Internet dating.[61] Released to positive reviews, it debuted at No. 1 in North America.[62]
In 2009, the Coens directed a television commercial titled "Air Freshener" for the Reality Coalition.[63][64]
Ethan Coen wrote the one-act comedyTalking Cure, which was produced on Broadway in 2011 as part ofRelatively Speaking, an anthology of three one-act plays by Coen,Elaine May, andWoody Allen.[75]
In 2011, the Coen brothers won the $1 millionDan David Prize for their contribution to cinema and society.[76][77]
Fargo, a television series inspired by their film of the same name, premiered in April 2014 on theFX network. It is created byNoah Hawley and executive produced by the brothers.[82]
In 2016, the Coens gave to their longtime friend and collaboratorJohn Turturro the right to use his character of Jesus Quintana fromThe Big Lebowski in his own spin-off,The Jesus Rolls, which he would also write and direct. The Coens have no involvement in the production. In August 2016, the film began principal photography.[87][88]
The Coens first wrote the script forSuburbicon in 1986. The film was eventually directed byGeorge Clooney and began filming in October 2016. It was released byParamount Pictures in the fall of 2017.[89]
It was announced in March 2019 that Joel Coen would be directing an adaptation ofMacbeth starringDenzel Washington andFrances McDormand.[93] The film, titledThe Tragedy of Macbeth, was Joel's first directorial effort without his brother, who was taking a break from films to focus on theater.[94] The film premiered at the2021 New York Film Festival.[95] The2022 Cannes Film Festival had a special screening ofJerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind, an archival documentary film directed solely by Ethan Coen and edited by his wifeTricia Cooke.[96] In 2022, it was announced that Ethan Coen would be directingDrive-Away Dolls for Focus Features and Working Title from a script he co-wrote with Cooke. It would be Ethan's first narrative film without his brother. The film was released in February 2024.[97]
The Coen brothers' own film production company, Mike Zoss Productions located in New York City, has been credited on their films fromO Brother, Where Art Thou? onwards.[98] It was named after Mike Zoss Drug, an independent pharmacy in St. Louis Park since 1950 that was the brothers' beloved hangout when they were growing up in theTwin Cities. The name was also used for thepharmacy inNo Country for Old Men.[99] The Mike Zoss logo consists of a crayon drawing of a horse, standing in a field of grass with its head turned around as it looks back over its hindquarters.
Up to 2003, Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing, due toguild rules that disallowed multiple director credits to prevent dilution of the position's significance. The onlyexception to this rule is if the co-directors are an "established duo". Since 2004 they have been able to share the director credit and the Coen brothers have become only the third duo to be nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Director.
^Evans, K.L. (2012). "How Job Begat Larry: The Present Situation in A Serious Man". In Conard, Mark T. (ed.).The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 289–303.ISBN978-0813134451.
Cheshire, Ellen; Ashbrook, John (2005).Joel and Ethan Coen (3rd revised ed.). The Pocket Essential.ISBN9781904048398. (Includes all films up toThe Ladykillers and some subsidiary works [Crimewave,Down from the Mountain,Bad Santa].)
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