Happy 66th Birthday, Joel Coen! Born today in 1954 as Joel David Coen, this American film editor, screenwriter, producer and film director, along with his younger brother Ethan, are collectively referred to as the Coen Brothers.
Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody. The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly.
Born and raised along with his younger brother in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, the brothers were raised in a Jewish family.
When they were children, Joel saved money from mowing lawns to buy a Vivitar Super 8 camera. Together, the brothers remade films they saw on television, with their neighborhood friend.
Joel has said: "In regards to whether our background influences our film making ... who knows? We don't think about it ... There's no doubt that our Jewish heritage affects how we see things."
Joel spent four years in the undergraduate film program at New York University, where he made a thirty-minute thesis film.
In 1979, Ethan went on to Princeton University and earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy.
Two years later, Joel was an assistant film editor on Sam Raimi's 1981 American supernatural horror/splatter film 'The Evil Dead'.
Three years later, Joel co-wrote and directed the 1984 American independent neo-noir thriller/crime film 'Blood Simple'. This was their first commercial film together, and also their directorial debut.
This was the first film of what would be many films dedicated to a filmmaking style that is notably eccentric, ironic, darkly comic and often violent.
It was also in 'Blood Simple' where Francis McDormand made her debut. She had met Joel the previous year when she auditioned for the film as Abby, a bar owner's wife who finds herself embroiled in a murder-for-hire plot gone wrong.
But McDormand played a little hard-to-get during the audition process. When the directors asked her to come to a callback audition, she said no because she had promised to watch her boyfriend's two-line debut in a soap opera.
Years later, McDormand teased Coen in an interview at the Rome Film Festival, saying "That's why you hired me, because I said no."
Coen says that although it was her talent that won her the role, they did appreciate her boldness.
"We really liked that. It was so guileless — just what we wanted for Abby," Joel later said to The New York Times.
It was also the first major film of American filmmaker and television director Barry Sonnenfeld, of whom provided the cinematography. Though providing the cinematography for the film, he would later go on to become a noted director.
Three years later, Joel co-wrote and directed the first film of which he is best known. This was the 1987 American crime comedy/romance film 'Raising Arizona'.
On a budget of $6 million, 'Raising Arizona' grossed $29.2 million at the box office.
The film ranks 31st on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Laughs list, and 45th on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" list.
Nine years later, Joel co-wrote and directed the second film of which he is best known. This was the 1996 American/British black comedy crime/thriller film 'Fargo'.
On a budget of $7 million, 'Fargo' grossed $60.6 million at the box office.
The following year, 'Fargo' received seven Oscar nomination, including Best Picture. However, it only won two Oscars for Best Actress (Francis McDormand) and Best Original Screenplay. This occurred at the 69th Academy Awards in late March 1997.
One year later, Joel co-wrote and directed the third film of which he is best known. This was the 1998 American/British comedy/crime film 'The Big Lebowski'.
Over time, reviews have become largely positive, and the film has become a cult favorite, noted for its eccentric characters, comedic dream sequences, idiosyncratic dialogue, and eclectic soundtrack.
Later that same year, the American Film Institute named 'Fargo' one of the 100 greatest American films in history.
Two years later, Joel co-wrote and directed the fourth film of which he is best known. This was the 2000 British/French/American crime/comedy film 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' The film was based on Homer's epic 1488 poem The Odyssey.
The film was one of the first to extensively use digital color correction to give the film an autumnal, sepia-tinted look.
The title of the film is a reference to Preston Sturges' 1941 American black and white comedy/romance film 'Sullivan's Travels', in which the protagonist is a director who wants to film O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ a fictional book about the Great Depression.
In 2001, a director's cut of 'Blood Simple' was released, the same year that it was ranked number 98 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.
In 2006, 'Fargo' was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"—one of only seven films in its first year of eligibility.
The following year after 'Fargo' had been selected for preservation, Joel co-wrote, co-produced and co-directed the fifth film of which he is best known. This was the 2007 American neo-Western crime thriller film 'No Country for Old Men'.
On a budget of $25 million, the film grossed $171.6 million at the box office.
The film was based on American novelist, playwright, short-story writer, and screenwriter Cormac McCarthy's titular 2005 suspense psychological thriller fiction novel.
One year later, 'No Country for Old Men' won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director(s), Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem) and Best Adapted Screenplay. This occurred at the 80th Academy Awards in late February 2008.
More critics included 'No Country for Old Men' on their 2007 top ten lists than any other film, and many regard it as the Coen brothers' best film.
Two years later, Joel co-wrote, co-produced and co-directed the sixth film of which he is best known. This was the 2010 American Revisionist Western/drama film 'True Grit'.
On a budget of $38 million, 'True Grit' grossed $252.3 million at the box office. The film was an adaptation of American auth Charles Portis' titular 1968 humor Western fiction novel.
The following year, 'True Grit' received ten Oscar nominations. This included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jeff Bridges), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Hailee Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.
Unfortunately, the film won none of these. This occurred at the 83rd Academy Awards in late February 2011.
Three years later, Joel co-wrote, co-produced and co-directed the seventh and final film of which he is best known. This was the 2013 American/British/French black comedy drama/music film 'Inside Llewyn Davis'.
Though Davis is a fictional character, the story was partly inspired by American folk singer Dave Van Ronk's autobiography.
An important figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street".
Among his other credits, Joel (along with Ethan) are known for directing 'Miller's Crossing' (1990), 'Barton Fink' (1991), 'The Man Who Wasn't There' (2001), 'The Ladykillers' (2004), 'Burn After Reading' (2008), 'A Serious Man' (2009), and 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' (2018).
Of all the Coen Brothers films, 'Barton Fink' was the only one to win a Palme d'Or. This occurred at the 44th Cannes Film Festival in May 1991.
Along with his brother, Ethan had helmed a series of stylish, irreverent and cinema-savvy movies that charmed critics while thrilling an initially small, but loyal band of viewers.
Throughout their career, Joel and Ethan have been nominated for thirteen Academy Awards together, and individually for one award each.
Known for many distinctive stylistic trademarks including genre hybridity, a handful of the brothers' films have been ranked in the BBC's 2016 poll of the greatest motion pictures since 2000.
In 2014, 'The Big Lebowski' was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The American crime black comedy drama anthology television series Fargo (2014–present), inspired by the brother's eponymous film, premiered on April 15, 2014 on the FX network.
It was created by American television writer and producer, screenwriter, and bestselling author Noah Hawley and executive produced by the Coen brothers. The series has a total of three seasons and thirty episodes.
The Coens later co-wrote, with British screenwriter, playwright and producer Matt Charman, the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's 2015 American/German/Indian historical drama/thriller film 'Bridge of Spies'.
The following year, the Coen brothers were nominated an Oscar the Best Original Screenplay. However, they didn't win. This occurred at the 88th Academy Awards in late February 2018.
The Coen brothers are known for their stylish films that combine elements of comedy and drama and often centre on eccentric characters and convoluted plots.
Though both brothers contributed to all phases of the filmmaking process, Joel was usually solely credited as the director, and Ethan was nominally the producer, with the brothers sharing screenwriting credit and using the pseudonym “Roderick Jaynes” for editing.
As one of the most visionary and idiosyncratic filmmakers of the late 20th century, the Coen Brothers combine thoughtful eccentricity, wry humor, arch irony, and often brutal violence.
Though they evinced a powerful fascination with film genres - particularly screwball comedy and film noir - the Coen Brothers earned a great deal of respect from the Hollywood community despite their penchant to work outside of the system.
These self-conscious movies-within-movies possessed humorous camera movements, richly textured landscapes, and powerhouse performers spouting beautifully artificial dialogue.
While some complained that the brothers were nothing more than slick stylists, the Coens, nonetheless, achieved a rare feat in entertainment: making the movies they wanted with little-to-no outside interference.
Coen has been active from 1984–present.
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