Joel and Ethan Coen |
Coen Brothers Links
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(All links open in new windows) "You Know, For Kids" (A superb fan site dedicated to the Coen Brothers) Coenbrothers.net (Another excellent fan site) Miller's Crossing (Fan site for the film) No Country For Old Men Official Site Intolerable Cruelty Official Site |
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Coen Brothers Filmography. |
All the Coen Brothers films are available in our Coen Brothers UK store & Coen Brothers USA Store.Burn After Reading (2008) No Country For Old Men (2007) The Ladykillers (2004) Intolerable Cruelty (2003) The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) The Big Lebowski (1998) Fargo (1996) The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) Barton Fink (1991) Miller's Crossing (1990) Raising Arizona (1987) Blood Simple (1984) |
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Joel and Ethan Coen - A biography part 1: Early years to 1997. (part 2 ).Joel Coen was born on 29th November 1954 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Ethan Coen was born on 21st September 1957 also in Minneapolis. After studying at university Joel made the leap into the film world working first as an assistant editor on the genuinely strange horror Fear No Evil (1981) and then as assistant film editor on the notorious Sam Raimi cult horror The Evil Dead.
The next Coen Brothers project to hit the big screen was 1985's Crimewave directed by Sam Raimi. The film was written by the brothers together with Sam Raimi with whom Joel had worked with on The Evil Dead. In 1987 the next film written and directed by the brothers was released with the title Raising Arizona. The film is the story of an unlikely married couple Hi and Ed (an ex-convict and an ex-cop) who long for a baby but unfortunately are unable to conceive. "Fortune" smiles on them when a local furniture tycoon appears on television with his five newly born quins that he jokes "is more than we he can handle". Seeing this as a sign from god and an opportunity to redress the natural balance they steal one of the quins and start to bring up the child as their own. Raising Arizona was much more accessible to the mass market with its innocence and wacky slapstick easing the action along amongst some dark humour. With a genuinely innovative and twisting script, the film was also a favourite amongst more left of centre tastes.
The Coen Brothers reputation was seemingly enhanced with every subsequent release, but this took a massive leap forward with their next movie, the visually stunning Barton Fink (1991). Barton Fink is set in 1941 and tells the story of a New York playwright (the eponymous Barton Fink) who moves to LA to write a B-movie. He settles down in his hotel apartment to commence the writing but all too soon he gets writers block and allows himself to get some inspiration by the amiable man in the room next door together with some industry associates. Inspiration comes from the most unusual places and the hotel is definitely unusual and a magnet for the strange and downright bizarre. Barton Fink was a commercial success, but also more significantly a critical success (garnering Oscar nominations plus winning three major awards at Cannes). With this film the brothers added a stunning visual aesthetic (employing the services of Roger Deakins as director of photography for the first time) to their mastery of the subverted genre, which alongside the performances of Coen stalwarts John Turturro and John Goodman help produce a hugely impressive (and enjoyable) classic.
continued on the Coen brothers profile part 2 |
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