Ida Z's Film Class Notes: Joel & Ethan Coen

Joel & Ethan Coen

The Coen brothers
1)began making films in the 1980s and typically write, direct, and produce their films jointly.
2)Their first film was the neo-noir Blood Simple (1984), and
3)they have worked often in the noir genre.
4)Other critical successes or cult classics they’ve directed include
a) Raising Arizona (1987),
b)Fargo (1996),
c)The Big Lebowski (1998), and
d)O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).

Coen Brothers and Fargo - as described by Rodney Hill:
1) In describing the style and thematic patterns of the Coen brothers (and Fargo),
writer Rodney Hill observes,
2)"(The) duality between darkness and light informs all of the Coen Brothers’ work:
3) even their most disturbing film, No Country for Old Men (2007),
has its share of humorous moments;
4) Their zanier, more comedic works – from
a) Raising Arizona (1987) to
b)The Big Lebowski (1998) and
c) Burn After Reading (2008) –
are haunted by nightmares, kidnappings, and even murder.
5)Of all their films, though, Fargo strikes the most perfect blend of these two competing,
or rather complementary, impulses.
6) Such a balancing act between polar opposites is the stuff of mythology, and
7) critics have noted the mythological – at times even epic – dimensions of the Coen Brothers’ ouvre.
8)At the same time, their work is often characterized by
a) a postmodernist,
b)self-aware sense of irony
c) that undercuts a mythologised view of “American life”,
d)even as it enacts that very mythos. Such is the dynamic of Fargo.

Fargo vs The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
1) Shot almost entirely on location in Minnesota and North Dakota,
2) on a budget of $6.5 million, Fargo presents quite a contrast to the Coens’ previous film,
3)The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), a lavish, relatively big-budget spectacle shot entirely in studio.
4)Cinematographer Roger Deakins observed that, on a smaller picture such as Fargo,
5) 'in a certain sense we could be more flexible… Less pressure, a smaller crew,
and a much more intimate production are advantages in many ways.'

Fargo
1) The real horror of Fargo is that many of the characters have thoughtlessly bought into the 'sunny'
veneer of American culture and the empty promise of 'the American Dream',
2) but at the same time they seem unable to reconcile those impossible visions of optimism
with the persistent troubles that plague their lives – often caused by their own lack of self
-awareness.
3) Jerry Lundegaard is the walking epitome of this pervasive emotional crisis;
4) but we also find glimpses of it even in the most minor characters, such as the cashier at the diner,
whose forced smile and false-cheerful attitude threaten to crack wide open at any moment.

In the following clip, the plan of Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) is unraveled by the film's protagonist Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand). Marge and her husband are perhaps the only happy characters in the film as greed fuels and eventually causes the downfall of most of the other characters in Fargo.

Fargo (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1996):