Brothers Joel Cohen and Ethan Cohen are famous American film directors, screenwriters, and producers, and the two often collaborate to complete their works, so they are called "Coen Brothers" and "Double-Headed Directors". From crime suspense to absurd comedy to literary biography, the Coen Brothers' films are diverse and stylistic, full of strong humanist feelings and discussions of the philosophy of death. Over the years, the Coen brothers have insisted on independent production, ensuring the realization of the director's conception and the uniqueness of the film, which is loved by fans and is the well-deserved standard-bearer of American independent films.
Joel and Ethan were born into a family of Jewish intellectuals in Minnesota, USA, to professors of economics and art history, respectively. The brothers have had a keen interest in movies since childhood, especially crime and detective films. They also saved up money to buy a super 8mm camera and "shoot" a movie. After graduating from high school, the brothers studied at Bard College simon rock, then Joel went to New York University to study film, and Ethan studied philosophy at Princeton University. In their spare time, the two write scripts for independent producers.
The brothers have been working together for nearly 40 years
In 1984, the Coen brothers spent $800,000 and 2 months to complete their debut film "Blood Labyrinth". The film tells the story of a boss who is angry when he learns that his wife and subordinates have an adultery, and hires a killer to try to kill them, but because of the killer's conspiracy, he triggers a foggy serial murder incident. After the release of "Blood Labyrinth", it triggered a hot discussion in the film industry and pioneered the trend of dark comedy independent films. In 1985, the film won the Feature Film Award at the inaugural Sundance Film Festival, the world's premier independent film festival.
Stills from Labyrinth of Blood
"Blood Labyrinth" is also the debut of the main actor McDormand, and she and Joel are also related to this film. The two married in 1984 and have been together for nearly 40 years, collaborating on nearly 10 films, each of which is a classic.
Joel and McDormand have been together for nearly 40 years
In 1995, Joel Cohen and his wife adopted a boy from Paraguay, named Pedro McDormand Cohen.
Released in 1991, Barton Fink was the film that really made the Coen brothers internationally famous – winning the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor awards in the main competition section of the Cannes Film Festival that year. The film tells the story of the screenwriter Barton Fink (John Te toro) who fights himself in Hollywood. However, the plot is somewhat obscure, and it is called the most difficult to understand in the Coen brothers' work. Only by savoring it carefully can you feel the various metaphors in the film. This film can be understood as the story of "a person wrestling with his own soul", and can also be interpreted from the aspects of race, religion, politics, war, etc., such as the Bible story, the criticism of Nazis, the criticism of Hollywood pop culture, the criticism of money worship, but also the justice of the Jews, etc., these are also the real ideas of the Coen brothers.
Stills from "Barton Fink"
"Barton Fink" won the top three awards at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. The first left is Barton Fink's actor John Teturro.
The protagonists in the Coen Brothers' films are ordinary people, even marginal people, but the Coen brothers have extracted extremely distinct personality characteristics from them, through the real emotions and simple language of the small characters, with the help of comedy or black performance techniques, in humor and irony, in the brisk laughter and calm thinking to complete the image shaping, but also increase the viewing of the film.
The film "Ice Storm" tells the story of a car dealership sales manager who is in financial difficulties but cannot get financial support from his rich father-in-law, so he hires kidnappers to kidnap his wife in order to demand ransom from his father-in-law, but it leads to various bloody cases. "The film is passionate, painstaking nuances, and unusual black humor from the script to the director" (Empire magazine review), "like a spell cast, there is a really strange charm" (Washington Post review), the characters are vivid, especially the female police officer McDormand's "comedy performance is outstanding but not visible" (Los Angeles Times review), "will undoubtedly become a classic" (San Francisco Chronicle review). Sure enough, the film "Ice Storm" won the 69th Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress.
Stills from Ice Storm
The filming scene of "Ice Storm"
McDormand and the Coen brothers took the stage to receive the 69th Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress
Released in 2007, "Old Nobody" is recognized as the coen brothers' most perfect work since the film, adapted from the novel of the same name by American novelist and playwright McCarthy. It's a typical Western: Hunter Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles into a gunfight drug trade while hunting and finds a cart of heroin and a large sum of cash. Because of a moment of greed, Moss takes the money and has been hunted down and killed by the cold-blooded killer Anton (Javier Baden). Meanwhile, veteran Sheriff Tom (Tommy Lee Jones) is investigating a string of killings. When the audience applauded the hunter's bravery, but unexpectedly he was chased by the killer in the blink of an eye, there was no place to settle down, and he ended up with a tragic death; when the audience thought that the killer had gone against the sky, he was inexplicably broken by a private car; the old sheriff chased the murderer all the way but always rubbed shoulders with the murderer, and his heart was severely damaged, and while remembering the glorious years of his fathers, he deeply felt that he was powerless in reality.
The Coen brothers are good at plot layout, atmosphere creation, black humor, and high IQ suspense, which are vividly reflected in this movie, and topics such as human nature, time, and fate are deeply explored. In 2008, "Old Man" won best film, best director, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor at the 80th Academy Awards.
Stills from "Old Nobody"
The shooting scene of "Old Nobody"
In 2008, "Nobody" won best film, best director and best adapted screenplay at the 80th Academy Awards, and Javier Baden won best supporting actor.
The Coen brothers have always been cautious about the soundtrack of movies, such as "Ice Storm" and "Old Nobody" almost no soundtrack. But in 2013, the brothers made a very good music film , "Drunken Folk Song". Compared with the previous dark and complex brain-burning films, this one can be described as a delicate sketch, just to recall the struggle of a group of folk singers in the United States in the 1960s. At that time, young people pursued themselves, did not bow to the world, and expressed their attitudes in the form of shallow chanting or shouting. The film's protagonist, Levin (Oscar Isaac), is one of them, and the film begins with a chant from him.
Le Vienne came to New York to pursue his dreams, he longed for success, but he has always rubbed shoulders with success, and his life is poor. At the end of the film, the Coen brothers put a clip exactly like the beginning of the film, as if to tell the audience that Le Vien returned to the original point after a turn.
The story told in Drunken Folk is not completely fabricated, Le Vien is based on the famous American folk singer Dave Van Juncker, and also has the shadow of Bob Dylan, and the small bar they sing in the film is the gas lamp café of the world folk mecca. In "Drunken Folk Songs", the Coen brothers describe the confusion of that generation in a weighty way, they are anti-war, peace-loving, freedom-seeking, real life is a failure, but live in the spiritual highland.
Stills from Drunken Folk Songs
"Drunken Folk Song" work photo
In addition to Levin, the film also shows many other singers of different styles, who combined to form the voices of that era, and most of the songs were sung by the actors themselves on the set of the shooting.