Director masterclass: Joel & Ethan Coen

The Coen Brothers have been able to create such strong, individual voices for their characters for so long now it’s hard to imagine a small town life in America without thinking about it in terms of Coen Brothers movie. They have consistently been able to create complex and compelling narratives throughout their 16-film career and everyone of them brimming with dark, dark comedy. They have created a very cohesive body of work which shares the use of many themes, tropes and stylistic choices to the point that it is blatantly obvious when you are watching one of their films. They have made a particularly strong use of musical and dance numbers that have come to head in their latest work Inside Llewyn Davis.

Blood Simple (1984) Opening with a situation found throughout the Coens’ work, a conversation taking place in a car on a long straight road. The conversation is between a married woman and a man who is not her husband as they drive to a motel for a liaison. The husband finds out from a Private Investigator who he subsequently hires to kill them both. However with double crossing and chaotic misunderstandings we are left with a darkly comedic piece with wonderful thriller edges. The killer is also an archetype who we see again and again in the Coens’ work; cold and calculating often with psychopathic tendencies. Specifically in No Country for Old Men where the duo have been praised by forensic psychiatrist Samuel Leistedt for portraying one of the most true to life depictions of a psychopath in any movie.

Barton Fink (1991) This film is wonderful; it is the perfect combination of the Coen Bro’s wonderful writing, dark humour and strangeness with the brilliant production design of a Wes Anderson film. It follows a very political playwright who sells out by moving to Hollywood to write for a studio. It follows his writers block and his almost literal descent into hell. There is also a favourite Coen actor here too – the gabbling John Goodman. We quickly realise that John Turturro’s character, the writer Barton Fink, is unable to write anything on demand and is a very closed minded person, but by the end of the film we wonder whether he deserves his twisted comeuppance. The film is littered with symbols, references and the cult following that it built up sets the scene for the incredible cult following of The Big Lebowski. But first my personal favourite of the bunch….

Fargo (1996) Fargo tells the story of a man (William H. Macy) who wants his wife kidnapped so that he can take the ransom money that his wife’s wealthy father will pay. However, as is the norm with Coen Brothers’ films, it does not go to plan. The bungling kidnappers carry out the kidnapping in a sort of violent slapstick routine, which is as horrible as it is hilarious. It opens with the title card and then this message “THIS IS A TRUE STORY. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.” Now I actually think this is a total fabrication and at the time in an interview and the real reason this title card is there is explained by the this quote from Ethan: “If an audience believes that something’s based on a real event, it gives you permission to do things they might otherwise not accept.” There are some terrible cold-blooded killings in this film by the typical psychopath archetype and his bumbling talking kidnapper buddy Steve Buscemi, they almost have a J and Silent Bob repartee, except they both kill people. The big star of this movie has to be the yocal pregnant cop, played by Frances McDormand. She has been written wonderful dialogue for her comedic Minnesota accent and is the character we sympathise with the most and just puts in an utterly stellar performance. This film also deserves specific mention for its cinematography by the Coens’ long time collaborator Rodger Deakins. Who makes these desolate snowy backdrops infinitely beautiful and as such the violence that occurs in them all the more perverse.

The Big Lebowski (1998) This is the cult movie of our generation. There is so much hidden joy in every scene and so many quotable lines, it’s no surprise that this is still on heavy rotation at the Prince Charles Cinema where you can go to drink white Russians, wear a dressing gown and say repeatedly “Shut the fuck up Donnie!”, “That rug really tied the room together.” and “That’s just like, your opinion, maaaan.”. It has some of my favourite hallucination scenes as well, there is nothing like a large scale bowling themed 1940s Hollywood Musical with all the dancers in amazing costumes set to Kenny Rodgers. This is arguably the Coens’ most famous and deserves all the praise it gets.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Inside Llewyn Davis is a film that follows the life of a musician struggling to get by in the Folk Revival Scene in New York circa 1960. It follows him through an awful few days, starting him with locking himself out of a flat that he was staying with the cat. Which he can’t return. It turns out he has burnt many bridges and is generally disliked in the community. The first thing to mention is that Oscar Issac’s portrayal of Llewyn Davis was fantastic; on top of this almost all of the songs were recorded live on-set and are each played out in their entirety. Issac is clearly a very talented musician. Alongside this the music is produced and writer T-Bone Barnett who created a litany of songs that could just as easily been found on a 1960s vinyl as in a the writings of a modern film and includes one hilarious ‘space race novelty song’ that is so silly and so of the time.

Unfortunately, despite many interesting facets it turns out that Llewyn Davis is quite an unlikeable guy and spending this much time with wasn’t always very fun. Unlike last week’s The Wolf of Wall Street, where we spent time with the unlikeable Jason Belfort, there was a strong didacticism and the point was clear that his behaviour was unacceptable. Here there didn’t seem to be any strong message or point, and though the Coens are known for putting deep hidden meanings in their movies, this was being irritatingly obfuscating. Also the narrative arc wasn’t just confusing but seemed to totally lack cohesion. Though there is a lot to enjoy, I would argue that this isn’t one of the brothers’ best.