The Coen Brothers, Second EditionBrought completely up to date, this insightful biography remains "a must for any self-respecting Coen fan" (Screentrade). This fully updated edition of the first biography of the Coen Brothers includes their complete work so far, from Blood Simple to Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), with a reassessment of their remarkable career as a whole. Joel and Ethan Coen have pulled off the ultimate balancing act. Despite having their movies financed and distributed by major studios, they have managed to remain true independents, rejecting commercial clichés and never giving up on their own fiercely idiosyncratic vision. While doing so, they have established themselves among the world's leading filmmakers. From their startling debut, Blood Simple (1984), all of their movies reveal a distinctive stamp: a flamboyant visual style, richly conceived characters, crisp dialogue, and brilliant casting. They have revitalized old Hollywood genres such as noir, screwball, and the western, giving them a contemporary sensibility. In this biography, Ronald Bergan traces the brothers' Jewish roots, their beginnings as film geeks in suburban Minneapolis, their battle to get their first feature made and released, through their early features and the movies of their maturity. He gives blow-by-blow accounts of the making of each movie. New chapters cover all those released since O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), with which the first edition of this book ended. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 84
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... There is never much problem in the cases where the subjects are dead, but with the living it is far more difficult because the story has not ended. This gruesome killing gave my bi-biography, or “bigraphy,” just the sensationalist ...
... There is never much problem in the cases where the subjects are dead, but with the living it is far more difficult because the story has not ended. This gruesome killing gave my bi-biography, or “bigraphy,” just the sensationalist ...
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... There's a guy in No. 7 that murdered his brother, and says he didn't really do it, his subconscious did it. I asked him what that meant, and he says you got two selves, one that you know about and the other that you don't know about ...
... There's a guy in No. 7 that murdered his brother, and says he didn't really do it, his subconscious did it. I asked him what that meant, and he says you got two selves, one that you know about and the other that you don't know about ...
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... there was such a person. The name struck me as invented. Knowing of Alan Jay Lerner, the lyricist of My Fair Lady, I put two and two together: Lerner, Learner, Learning, School Craft. QED. I admit that I subsequently spoke regularly to ...
... there was such a person. The name struck me as invented. Knowing of Alan Jay Lerner, the lyricist of My Fair Lady, I put two and two together: Lerner, Learner, Learning, School Craft. QED. I admit that I subsequently spoke regularly to ...
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Ronald Bergan. Schoolcraft and thought there just wouldn't be enough for two. He was a hulking slab of a lad with a fuzzy blond head and ... There are not too many celebrated Joels either, although two appear in these pages—Joel Silver,
Ronald Bergan. Schoolcraft and thought there just wouldn't be enough for two. He was a hulking slab of a lad with a fuzzy blond head and ... There are not too many celebrated Joels either, although two appear in these pages—Joel Silver,
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... There Be Light! and there was Cinema! Twin brothers John and Roy Boulting interchanged as producer and director, and Albert and David Maysles made their Direct Cinema documentaries together. At another extreme are twin brothers Mike and ...
... There Be Light! and there was Cinema! Twin brothers John and Roy Boulting interchanged as producer and director, and Albert and David Maysles made their Direct Cinema documentaries together. At another extreme are twin brothers Mike and ...
Contents
The Brothers Geek | |
First Blood | |
Hi Stakes VI Double Crossing | |
Hollywood Nuts | |
Yah Yah | |
Cool Dudes | |
Odd Odyssey | |
James M Coen | |
Intolerable Hollywood Bowel Syndrome | |
Blood Complex | |
A Comedy of Errors | |
A Good | |
CapraCoen | |
Common terms and phrases
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