A Texas bar owner hires a sweaty private detective to kill his wife and her lover; the debut of a directing pair (1984)
Blood Simple — the title comes from Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest.
Film · Hollywood
Joel and Ethan Coen
Joel born 1954; Ethan born 1957 · American
American independent cinema; neo-noir and black comedy
Joel and Ethan Coen have written, produced, directed and secretly edited their films together since 1984, working so completely as a unit that they were long credited separately only for tax and guild reasons. Their films are black comedies of incompetence: an ordinary person devises a scheme, the scheme unravels, and violence arrives from somewhere indifferent. They swept the Academy Awards in 2008 and have since begun working apart.
How to spot them
- ▸A crime scheme botched by amateurs, with a case of money that nobody ends up keeping
- ▸Regional American accents pushed to the edge of parody — Minnesota, Texas, the Deep South
- ▸Biblical and literary borrowings, dream sequences, and an unhurried, wide-angle camera
- ▸A repertory company: Frances McDormand, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Jeff Bridges
- ▸Cinematography by Roger Deakins and scores by Carter Burwell
Key films
A childless ex-convict and a policewoman steal one of a furniture magnate's quintuplets (1987)
Raising Arizona — Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, with a manically mobile camera.
A Prohibition gangster's right-hand man, a hat blowing through autumn woods, and a plea to look into your heart (1990)
Miller's Crossing — Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney, drawn from Hammett.
A New York playwright sweats in a peeling Hollywood hotel beside a very loud neighbour (1991)
Barton Fink — it took the Palme d'Or, Best Director and Best Actor at Cannes in 1991.
A car salesman's kidnap plot goes wrong in the snow, and a pregnant police chief finds a wood chipper (1996)
Fargo — Frances McDormand won Best Actress and the brothers Best Original Screenplay; the 'true story' caption is false.
A rug that really tied the room together, White Russians, nihilists and a bowling league (1998)
The Big Lebowski — Jeff Bridges as the Dude; its fans hold an annual festival.
Three convicts escape a Mississippi chain gang, sing into a radio microphone and become hit recording artists (2000)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? — loosely after Homer; the bluegrass soundtrack outsold the film.
A captive bolt pistol, a coin toss for a life, and a hitman with a pageboy haircut (2007)
No Country for Old Men — from Cormac McCarthy; Javier Bardem played Anton Chigurh.
Quick-fire facts
- •Both were born in St Louis Park, Minnesota: Joel on 29 November 1954, Ethan on 21 September 1957
- •They edit their own films under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes, who has twice been nominated for an Academy Award
- •No Country for Old Men won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay in 2008, with the brothers sharing the directing award
- •Barton Fink's sweep at Cannes in 1991 led the festival to limit the number of prizes any one film may take
- •Frances McDormand has been married to Joel Coen since 1984; her Best Actress Oscar for Fargo was the first of the three she has won
- •Fargo's opening claim to be based on a true story is an invention; a mild winter forced the crew north to find snow
- •Roger Deakins photographed most of their films from Barton Fink onwards, and Carter Burwell has scored every one
- •The Big Lebowski flopped on release and became a cult; its Dude is loosely based on the producer Jeff Dowd
- •Joel directed The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) alone; Ethan has made documentaries and, with his wife Tricia Cooke, Drive-Away Dolls (2024)
- •Joel's British gothic mystery Jack of Spades, with Josh O'Connor and Frances McDormand, is due in 2026, and the brothers have spoken of reuniting for a horror film
Drill it — 10 cards
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Sources
- British Film Institute — Where to begin with the Coen brothers
- Adam Nayman — The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together