Who are the Coen Brothers?
The Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan Coen, are two award-winning American filmmakers who have written, produced and directed numerous acclaimed films. Joel, who was born in 1954, is credited with writing and directing their films, and Ethan, who was born in 1957, is credited with writing and producing them. Both of the Coen brothers have shared all of these responsibilities, however, when creating their various films. These films utilize a wide range of genres and are known for their dark humor, unique plots, eccentric characters, and homages to other famous movies and directors. The Coen brothers were raised in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. There, they used earnings from mowing lawns to buy a Super 8 camera, which they used to remake movies they watched on television. They both graduated from Simon’s Rock College of Bard in Massachusetts, and Joel went on to spend four years as an undergraduate of the film program at New York University. In 1984, Joel and Ethan Coen wrote and directed Blood
Arguably, they’re the most controlled and technically proficient filmmakers of their time—peerless writers of stylized dialogue, efficient in pacing, ingenious in plotting, and brilliant in harmonizing every aspect of the craft (music, cinematography, editing, performances, et al.) to best service the whole. But here’s the funny thing about the Coens: Their detractors are likely to agree with nearly every scrap of hyperbole in that last sentence and still hate them anyway. They’d be wrong-headed to do so, but there’s a chilliness that goes along with the Coens’ obsessive pursuit of perfection, even as all 12 of their features to date bristle with intelligence, snap, and the generosity of great entertainers. Many filmmakers could be called chroniclers of the human condition, but the Coens are even further removed from the rest of us—they’re anthropologists and historians, looking at humanity from the other end of the microscope. Coen Brothers 101 Usually, filmmakers need a couple of rag
