Joel & Ethan Coen

by Peter Körte, Georg Seeßlen

(Limelight). An analysis of the Coen oeuvre through O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). The authors, German film critics, include a previously unpublished interview with the filmmaking brothers on their off-center work in genres they both satirize and pay tribute to: film noir, horror, screwball comedy, and buddy escapade. As Ethan Coen says: "We grew up in America, and we tell American stories in American settings within American frames of reference. Perhaps our way of reflecting our system is more comprehensible to non-Americans because they already see the system as something alien." Well illustrated.

Genres: Film

313 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 1999

Reviews

[Jacob Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smart enough to know the criticisms (postmodernism and empty formalism) but too loving to really wrestle with them and get to the heart of when the Coens are good why they are good. Also irritatingly short. They touch on some good points that could have been expanded on. Does answer the life long question I have had of how the Coen Brothers collaborate. Turns out Ethan is the more literary minded and is the one with the philosophy degree. Joel is the more cinematic minded who sees the images. You put the two together and movies don't really get any better than that. The complete package, albeit severely broken up and rebuilt in strange ways.

[Stringy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea. If I'm going to slog through film theory written in an academic style, I'd like to get some strong opinions or see some new takes on the material. But I found it oddly un-opinionated until the final chapter, which was the best one.

Insights I gained about the films of the Coen brothers:
- violence is the last resort of people who can't get what they want any other way.
- there are more fat old evil patriachs in their films than I'd noticed!
- you can't win if you play by the rules; you can't win if you don't play by the rules; the game is rigged before you begin.
- if you are to care even a little bit about a Coen character, you'll end up hating the system they're stuck in.

PS: Film theorists, psychology has moved on since Freud started it in 1890s Vienna. It's time to stop interpreting art without acknowledging that there's more than one way to look at psychological issues.