Brothers cohen

The Cohen brothers - Joel (1954) and Ethan (1957) - were born in St. Louis Park , a suburb of Minneapolis ( Minnesota ) into a Jewish family ^[5] . Their father is Edward Cohen, economist, professor at the University of Minnesota , their mother is Rene Cohen, art critic, In St. Cloud . The brothers have a younger sister, Deborah.

In school age, Joel and Ethan, earning a lawn mowing, bought a Super-8 movie camera and began to shoot films broadcast on television. The brothers' first own original project was the amateur short film “ The Lumberjacks of the North ”, where their neighbor friends played in all roles ^[6] .

Each of the brothers studied first at St. High School. Louis Park High School, then at the four-year liberal arts college, ( , Massachusetts ) ^[7] . After graduating from college, Joel entered New York University for a four-year course in the cinema department. During his studies, he made a half-hour black-and-white film Soundings (a sketch about a woman who, during an intimacy with a deaf partner, fantasized out loud about sex with his best friend, listening to her from the next room) ^[8] . Upon graduation, Joel worked as an assistant to the director and cameraman Barry Sonnenfeld ( does not fit in with Sonnenfeld’s biography ), who recalled: “Without a doubt, this is the worst assistant I have ever worked with” ^[8] . At this time, Ethan studied at the Philosophy Department of Princeton University , which he graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree ^[9] . His final work was an essay: "Two Views on Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy."

1980s

In the early 1980s, Joel got a job as an assistant editor Edna Paul, who specializes in shooting low-budget horror films . Soon, director Sam Raimi invited Paul's entire group to shoot his first full-length film, the horror film The Evil Dead ^[10] .

In 1984, the brothers wrote the script and released the first collaborative film, Just Blood . The operator was the aforementioned Barry Sonnenfeld. Together, they prepared a mock trailer , which allowed to attract an investor with $ 1.5 million. The action takes place in Texas (Joel Cohen admitted in an interview that the choice of location was influenced, inter alia, by the availability of cheap foreign labor and the lack of control over its use by unions) ^[11] . The film tells the story of a bar owner who hires a private detective to kill his wife and her lover. The film contains elements that indicate the future director's style of Cohen: respect for the traditions and standards of the genre (in this case, noir ), unexpected plot twists that arise around a relatively simple story, black humor ^[12] . The main female role in the picture is taken by Francis McDormand , who will subsequently become the wife of Joel Cohen and will star in many films of the brothers. The first work of directors was highly appreciated by critics ^{[13] [14]} .

In the same period, the Cohen brothers, together with Sam Raimi, wrote a script in which he directed the film " Crime Wave " (1985). Two killers, crazy caricature characters, commit contract killings. By coincidence, the accusation falls on the protagonist - Victor, who, already on the electric chair, recalls the previous chain of events. Gathering $ 3,500 on the first weekend of the demonstration, the film failed at the box office ^[15] and received the most negative criticism. Typical review: “The plot often goes missing ... The script is disappointing, a few jokes are all that can be seen from the talent of the Cohen brothers” ^[16] .

Coen's next work was the 1988 film " Raising Arizona ." The story of a couple in love: ex-convict High ( Nicolas Cage ) and police officer Ed ( Holly Hunter ), who, unfortunately, is barren. When a local shopping mogul appears on television with his five newborn twins and jokes that there are “more children than you can handle,” High steals one of the boys. Francis McDormand, John Goodman , William Forsyth and Randall “Tex” Cobb are also in the film. The film, a comedy farce, became a kind of antithesis to the Coen brothers' previous film, “Just Blood,” performed in the noir style ^[17] . The American Film Institute placed the film on the list of the hundred funniest American comedies in 31st place.

1990s

In 1990, the Cohen brothers released the crime drama Miller ’s Crossroads , starring Albert Finney , Gabriel Byrne and John Turturro . The film tells about the enmity of gangster groups in the era of prohibition in the United States. The magazine “ Time ” gave the highest rating to the film, including it in the list of 100 best films released since the beginning of the publication of this publication ^[18] .

The following year, the directors released the movie “ Barton Fink ” (1991), located on the verge of black comedy and thriller, which was marked by a large number of cinematic awards of the highest level, including two awards at the Cannes Film Festival and its main prize - the Golden Palm Branch ^[19] . This was their first experience working with cameraman Roger Deakins , which continued over the next 15 years.

In 1994, the Cohen brothers (again with the participation of Sam Raimi) released the film “ Hudsucker’s Undertaker ” - an eccentric comedy styled as the best examples of the burlesque genres of directors Frank Capra , Howard Hawks or Billy Wilder . Criticism, however, saw nothing in the film but a glossy aesthetic. Roger Ebert : “One good reason to go to the cinema is to please the eye without loading our brains. Hadsaker is directly concerned ” ^[20] . At the box office, the film did not have commercial success ^[21] .

The situation is completely different with the criminal thriller Fargo , released in 1996. The hero of the film, experiencing serious financial problems, orders the abduction of his wife so that her father will pay the ransom from his own savings. But the kidnappers deviate and the situation gets out of control. The picture was a commercial success: with a budget of $ 7 million, total revenue worldwide in mid-2011 exceeded 60 million ^[22] . Critics in positive assessments were almost unanimous: “For films like Fargo, I Love Cinema” (R. Ebert, Chicago Sun Times) ^[23] , “Coens show maturity and skill ... Brilliant selection of actors ... "(Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle) ^[24] . The role of Marge Olmstead-Gunderson in the performance of McDormand was recognized by AFI as the best in the corresponding category , the Coens received an Oscar for the best script. In total, the film and the crew members received 55 highest cinematic awards ^[25] .

In 1998, the film Big Lebowski was released.

2000s

The next film of the Cohen brothers was “ Oh, where are you, brother?” "(2000) - the story of the travel and adventures of three fugitive convicts in the United States during the Great Depression . In accordance with the opening credits, the film is based on the Odyssey of Homer , although the directors themselves did not read the epic, they were familiar with it only by various adaptations and used only some plot lines ^[26] . The picture showed good results at the box office (more than $ 70 million in fees with a budget of 26 million). ^[27] Professional criticism was restrained and benevolent. Negative reviews most often concerned the statement that the film lacks integrity, the Cohen brothers were unable to put together several scenes and sketches into a single work: “Each of the scenes is wonderful in its own way, but the film left me in limbo and dissatisfaction” (Roger Ebert, “Chicago Sun Times ") ^[28] .

Over the next six years, the Coens will release three feature films: the Noir Thriller The Man Who Was Not (2001), the romantic ironic comedy Unbearable Cruelty (2003), the black comedy The Gentlemen 's Game (2004), and one of the short love stories in the almanac “ Paris, I love you ” (2006). If the first of the mentioned films of this period was awarded 23 prizes (plus received another 32 nominations), then the others remained outside the scope of attention of the largest cinema events and authoritative film critics. Moreover, some of them called the beginning of the 2000s a period of “inhibition” ^[29] or the idleness of the directors: “Some films could not have been made, but the only way to understand this is to make them” ( Some movies just don ' t need to get made - but the only way to find out is to make them , from a review by San Francisco Chronicle ) ^[30] .

A thriller based on the novel of the same name by Cormack McCarthy “ Old Men Doesn’t Take Place Here ” (2007) was adopted completely differently. A harsh, multi-layered narrative, deprived of the will of the authors of the musical line, almost instantly turned the picture into a cult film (95% of 100% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes ) ^[31] and movie classics (according to the classification of Empire magazine) ^[32] . The film received 98 top cinematic awards (not counting another 48 nominations) ^[33] , including the most honorable - 3 BAFTA awards , 4 Oscars and 2 Golden Globe awards.

The cinematic career of the brothers was continued by the criminal comedy “ After Reading Burn ” (2007). In it, the directors create another world with “private manifestations of idiocy in a global context” ^[34] . At the same time, according to them, they did not lay any political meanings in their film. “If someone reads them in our paintings, then we are not against it. But not for it ” ^[35] .

As happened earlier, directors change their atmosphere, styles, genres from film to film. The 2009 picture “ Serious Man ” is a drama with elements of black humor. The brothers recognize the high degree of biography of the plot: “History does not repeat our childhood exactly. We tried to create the atmosphere that surrounded us in our small commune. We studied at a Jewish school, studied Hebrew, we had a bar mitzvah, our father was a professor at the University of the Midwest, we were surrounded by about such neighbors - all this is largely an autobiography. But if we talk about history, it is invented from beginning to end ” ^[36] . Some critics accused the film of the lack of correct coverage of interethnic relations, the ethnic caricature of the characters, drawn with the directness characteristic of the Cohen brothers, "reaching sadism" ^[37] .

2010s

December 22, 2010, the premiere of Western Iron Grip was premiered, which became the Coen Brothers highest grossing film and one of the highest grossing westerns in cinema history ^[38] . The film claimed the Academy Award in 10 nominations, but did not win in any of them, losing main awards to the films “ The King Says! "And" Fighter ".

In 2013, the Cohen brothers staged their second musical tape in their careers, “ Inside Lewin Davis, ” based on events from the life of the 1960s American folk musician Dave Van Ronck (1936-2002), the blues guitarist and creator of the new folk scene Greenwich Village , York, with Bob Dylan , Tom Paxton, and Joni Mitchell speaking ^[39] . All songs in the film were recorded live using a single instrument ^[40] .

In 2016, the picture “ Long live Caesar! ", Which takes place in the Hollywood of the 1950s. The plot is based on facts from the biography of Eddie Mannix , executive producer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and, in combination, a "cleaner" - a person who hid certain details of the personal life of movie stars in order to protect the public image of the studio. The film was warmly received by critics and almost three times paid for its budget.

Joel Cohen has been married to actress Francis McDormand since 1984, they adopted a Paraguayan boy named Pedro. Ethan Cohen is married to Trichet Cook. Spouses have two children.

Four Oscars :

• three - for the film "The Old Men Can't Be Here " (adapted script, directing and best film).
• one for the original screenplay for the movie Fargo .

Award for directing at the San Sebastian Festival ( Miller 's Crossroads ).

Cannes Film Festival :

• Golden Palm Branch for the movie Barton Fink;
• Grand Prix for the film Inside Lewin Davis ;
• Award "Best Director" for the film " Barton Fink ", "Fargo", " A Man Who Was Not There ."

British Film Academy : David Lean Award for Achievements in Directing (Fargo) and Best Director ( Old Men Out of Place ).

Grand Prix in the category “Dramatic Film” (“ Just Blood ”) at the Sundance Festival . The Cohen brothers took second place in the list of best screenwriters of all time, which was compiled by the American portal Vulture ^[41] .

• Cohen Brothers Site
• Joel Cohen on the Internet Movie Database
• Ethan Cohen on the Internet Movie Database