the cinema of THE COEN BROTHERS
DIRECTORS CUTS
Other selected titles in the Directors Cuts series:
the cinema of ISTVN SZAB:visions of europe
JOHN CUNNINGHAM
the cinema of AGNS VARDA:resistance and eclecticism
DELPHINE BNZET
the cinema of ALEXANDER SOKUROV:figures of paradox
JEREMI SZANIAWSKI
the cinema of MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM:borders, intimacy, terror
BRUCE BENNETT
the cinema of RAL RUIZ:impossible cartographies
MICHAEL GODDARD
the cinema of MICHAEL MANN:vice and vindication
JONATHAN RAYNER
the cinema of AKI KAURISMKI:authorship, bohemia, nostalgia, nation
ANDREW NESTINGEN
the cinema of RICHARD LINKLATER:walk, dont run
ROB STONE
the cinema of BLA TARR:the circle closes
ANDRS BLINT KOVCS
the cinema of STEVEN SODERBERGH:indie sex, corporate lies, and digital videotape
ANDREW DE WAARD & R. COLIN TATE
the cinema of TERRY GILLIAM:its a mad world
JEFF BIRKENSTEIN, ANNA FROULA & KAREN RANDELL (eds)
the cinema of TAKESHI KITANO:flowering blood
SEAN REDMOND
the cinema of THE DARDENNE BROTHERS:responsible realism
PHILIP MOSLEY
the cinema of MICHAEL HANEKE:europe utopia
BEN McCANN & DAVID SORFA (eds)
the cinema of SALLY POTTER:a politics of love
SOPHIE MAYER
the cinema of JOHN SAYLES:a lone star
MARK BOULD
the cinema of DAVID CRONENBERG:from baron of blood to cultural hero
ERNEST MATHIJS
the cinema of JAN SVANKMAJER:dark alchemy
PETER HAMES (ed.)
the cinema of LARS VON TRIER:authenticity and artifice
CAROLINE BAINBRIDGE
the cinema of WERNER HERZOG:aesthetic ecstasy and truth
BRAD PRAGER
the cinema of TERRENCE MALICK:poetic visions of america (second edition)
HANNAH PATTERSON (ed.)
the cinema of ANG LEE:the other side of the screen (second edition)
WHITNEY CROTHERS DILLEY
the cinema of STEVEN SPIELBERG:empire of light
NIGEL MORRIS
the cinema of TODD HAYNES:all that heaven allows
JAMES MORRISON(ed.)
the cinema of ROMAN POLANSKI: dark spaces of the world
JOHN ORR & ELZBIETA OSTROWSKA (eds)
the cinema of MIKE LEIGH:a sense of the real
GARRY WATSON
the cinema of NANNI MORETTI: dreams and diaries
EWA MAZIERSKA & LAURA RASCAROLI
the cinema of DAVID LYNCH:american dreams, nightmare visions
ERICA SHEEN & ANNETT E DAVISON (eds)
the cinema of KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI: variations on destiny and chance
MAREK HALTOF
the cinema of GEORGE A. ROMERO:knight of the living dead (second edition)
TONY WILLIAMS
the cinema of KATHRYN BIGELOW: hollywood transgressor
DEBORAH JERMYN & SEAN REDMOND (eds)
the cinema of
THE COEN BROTHERS
hard-boiled entertainments
Jeffrey Adams
A Wallflower Press Book
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Cover image of the Coen Brothers courtesy of the Kobal Collection
CONTENTS
I would like to thank the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro for granting me a research leave in the spring semester of 2013, during which I was able to research and write large portions of this book.
I would also like to express copious thanks to Yoram Allon, Commissioning Editor of Wallflower Press, whose patient and cheerful support made the publication of this book an unusually pleasant process. Thanks go also to the editorial staff at Wallflower Press, whose comments and suggestions for revisions were invaluable and contributed greatly to the final shape of this book.
Many, many thanks are owed to Dr. Will Dodson for his generous assistance and insightful commentary during the final preparation of the manuscript, and for his always upbeat collegiality and friendly encouragement. I would also like to thank all the students who over the years have taken my courses on the Coen brothers and on film noir, most notably, Budd Wilkins, Clayton Dillard, Steve Carter, Riannon Clarke, Wil Davis, Melissa Willenborg, Katie Campbell, Will Sharpe, Robert Ren Brugger, Kevin Harrison, and Tom Barker, for stimulating, challenging, and deepening my knowledge and understanding of the texts that inform this book.
I would like especially to thank my wife, Anita Campitelli, for her loving support of my work, for her patience during my frequent scholarly hermitages, and for sharing with me not only the life of the mind, but a life of family and friendship all these years still my fantasy girl.
Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to my sons Jason, Dennis, Matthew, and Joseph. Our little achievers, and proud we are of all of them.
By now, after three decades of critically acclaimed filmmaking, the Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel, hardly need an introduction. Since their debut in 1984, the Coens have risen from unknown independent filmmakers to the elite ranks of contemporary American film directors, producing a substantial body of work largely on the periphery of the mainstream movie industry. In this sense, the Coens have become a model for the triumph of the indie auteur over Hollywood. Working in tandem, the Coens write, direct and edit all their films, maintaining complete control over the finished product without interference from the movie studios with whom they partner to finance their productions. Were mercifully free of the Hollywood committee development process, says Joel. The studios understand that if they are going to do a movie with us, theyll let us do it our way (Allen 2006: 169). Freed from external pressures of the movie industry demands of studio producers and expectations for commercial profit the Coens have enjoyed an unsurpassed degree of creative autonomy and can lay legitimate claim to being independent auteurs. Yet, for all their freedom and creative control, the Coens would not define themselves as auteurs, understood as film directors who imprint their work with a unique vision articulated in a recognisable stylistic signature. Nor would the Coen brothers subscribe to the latest definition of the auteur as star director, the new role for the prominent filmmaker whose auteur identity, according to Timothy Corrigan, functions commercially as marketing strategy that exploits for profit the cult status of the auteur (1991: 103). In the eyes of many, the Coen brothers have attained a cult-like status, but in truth they could not be less interested in cultivating an iconic media persona as a promotion and marketing tool. In the blunt words of Barry Sonnenfeld, the Coens director of photography for the early films, thats the great thing about Joel and Ethan. They dont want to be on the
