97-670: Carter Benedict Burwell (born November 18, 1954) is an American film composer. He has frequently collaborated with the Coen brothers , having scored most of their films. He has also scored films by other directors such as Bill Condon , Todd Haynes , Spike Jonze , Martin McDonagh , James Foley , Brian Helgeland , and John Lee Hancock . Burwell received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score for Haynes's Carol (2015) and McDonagh's films Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), and The Banshees Of Inisherin (2022). Burwell
194-405: A B-picture for a venal movie mogul ( Michael Lerner ). Fink is modeled on playwright Clifford Odets , and the character W.P. Mayhew ( John Mahoney ) is based on William Faulkner . Barton Fink was a critical success, earning Oscar nominations and winning Best Director, Best Actor and Palme d'Or at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival . It was their first film with cinematographer Roger Deakins ,
291-448: A Best Original Screenplay and a Best Actress Oscar for McDormand. Roger Ebert wrote that "it rotates its story through satire, comedy, suspense, and violence, until it emerges as one of the best films I've ever seen. To watch it is to experience steadily mounting delight, as you realize the filmmakers have taken enormous risks, gotten away with them, and have made a movie that is completely original, and as familiar as an old shoe – or
388-653: A Writers Guild of America Award . Film critic Roger Ebert called Synecdoche, New York "the best movie of the decade" in 2009. Three of Kaufman's scripts appear in the Writers Guild of America 's list of the 101 greatest movie screenplays ever written. Kaufman was born in New York City to a Jewish family on November 19, 1958, the son of Helen and Myron Kaufman. He grew up in Massapequa, New York , before moving to West Hartford, Connecticut . In high school, Kaufman
485-426: A chain gang , journey home to recover bank-heist loot the leader has buried—but they have no clear perception of where they are going. The film highlighted the comic abilities of George Clooney as the oddball lead character Ulysses Everett McGill, and of Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro , his sidekicks. The film's bluegrass and old-time soundtrack, offbeat humor and digitally desaturated cinematography made it
582-688: A lesbian and Ethan as straight, and the two have separate partners . They co-wrote the film Drive-Away Dolls , which Ethan directed and Tricia edited. Ethan published Gates of Eden , a collection of short stories in, 1998. The same year, he co-wrote the comedy The Naked Man , directed by their storyboard artist J. Todd Anderson . Ethan Coen and family live in New York, while Joel Coen and Frances McDormand live in Marin County, California . Charlie Kaufman Charles Stuart Kaufman ( / ˈ k ɔː f m ə n / ; born November 19, 1958)
679-532: A "gentle but dark" period comedy (set in 1967) with a low budget. The film is based loosely on the Coens' childhoods in an academic family in the largely Jewish suburb of Saint Louis Park, Minnesota ; it also drew comparisons to the Book of Job . Filming took place late in the summer of 2008, in the neighborhoods of Roseville and Bloomington, Minnesota , at Normandale Community College , and at St. Olaf College . The film
776-496: A Life before its cancellation in 1992. At first, Kaufman found the experience of working on a writing staff nerve-wracking and did not speak in the writer's room for the first few weeks. After his work was well received by other members of the staff, Kaufman overcame his timidity and became more amenable to showing others his work. After Get a Life' s cancellation, Kaufman tried to get work on series such as Seinfeld , The Larry Sanders Show , The Simpsons and Mr. Show , but
873-478: A Thick Pigeon release. On Burwell's soundtrack for Psycho III , Miranda was a featured singer. By 1986 he had composed the music for a dance piece, RAB, which premiered at the Avignon Festival. At the same time, he was touring worldwide with The Harmonic Choir, David Hykes ' experimental vocal group, which specialized in overtone singing. Burwell used the country music genre as the basis for his score for
970-475: A critical and commercial hit. It was the first feature film to use all-digital color grading. The film's soundtrack CD was also successful, spawning a concert and concert/documentary DVD, Down from the Mountain . The Coens next produced another noirish thriller, The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). The Coens directed the 2003 film Intolerable Cruelty , starring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones ,
1067-461: A former colleague of Kaufman's from The Dana Carvey Show , became interested in adapting Kaufman's Anomalisa play script into a stop motion animated film. With Kaufman's permission, Stamatopoulos turned to the crowdfunding website Kickstarter to fund the film. The Kickstarter page was set up in August 2012 and by the time funding had ended $ 406,237 was pledged. The rest of the $ 8 million budget
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#17330852416951164-488: A key collaborator for the next 25 years. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) is an homage to the screwball comedies of Frank Capra and Howard Hawks . Co-written with Raimi, the film follows a mailroom clerk ( Tim Robbins ) who is promoted to president of the Hudsucker corporation by a cynical director ( Paul Newman ) in a scheme to devalue the company's stock; a fast-talking newspaperwoman ( Jennifer Jason Leigh ) tries to scoop
1261-405: A limited series for HBO , to no avail. He also did uncredited rewrites on films such as Kung Fu Panda 2 and Ad Astra . In April 2012, Kaufman was hired to adapt Patrick Ness 's Chaos Walking book series, of which he wrote the first draft before leaving the project. After multiple rewrites by other writers, the film was released in 2021 with Kaufman uncredited. Dino Stamatopoulos ,
1358-454: A miniature-golf course." Geoff Andrew wrote: "the lives and times of Hi, Ed and friends are painted in splendidly seedy colours, turning Arizona into a mythical haven for a memorable gaggle of no-hopers, halfwits and has-beens. Starting from a point of delirious excess, the film leaps into dark and virtually uncharted territory to soar like a comet." The film featured McDormand, William Forsythe , Sam McMurray , Randall "Tex" Cobb and marked
1455-642: A native with a spear. Lassie Come Home (1943) was reinterpreted as their Ed... A Dog , with Ethan playing the mother role in his sister's tutu . They also made original films like Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go , Lumberjacks of the North and The Banana Film . Joel and Ethan graduated from St. Louis Park High School in 1973 and 1976, respectively, and from Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts . After Simon's Rock, Joel spent four years in
1552-748: A nuclear reactor works but is clueless about life". Along with Hawkes, the pilot co-starred Michael Cera , Sally Hawkins , Catherine Keener and Tom Noonan . FX decided to not pick up the pilot. While struggling to get his directorial work made, Kaufman continued to work as a writer for hire, writing numerous unproduced screenplays. These included a satire set on a planet inhabited by everyone who ever lived, to be directed by Spike Jonze; an adaptation of George Saunders 's book CivilWarLand in Bad Decline , to be directed by Ben Stiller ; and an adaptation of Arthur Herzog 's novel IQ 83 , starring Steve Carell. He later attempted to develop his IQ 83 screenplay into
1649-461: A rubber-soled hunting boot from Land's End, more likely." The Big Lebowski (1998) is a crime comedy about Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski ( Jeff Bridges ), a Los Angeles slacker who is involved in a kidnapping case after being mistaken for a millionaire of the same name ( David Huddleston .) It features Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lebowski's flunky, Goodman and Buscemi as The Dude's bowling buddies and Julianne Moore as his "special lady friend". It
1746-482: A score by John Powell . The ethos of the punk rock movement gave Burwell the impetus to start performing. He performed in New York with several bands, notably The Same, Thick Pigeon, and Radiante. Burwell played in Thick Pigeon with Stanton Miranda ; the group released two albums, Too Crazy Cowboys (Factory) and tracks on Miranda Dali (Crepuscule), originally released as a Miranda solo project but later reissued as
1843-479: A secondary concern." Trying to make a return to television when the funding for Frank or Francis fell through, Kaufman sold a series to HBO in the May 2012 with Catherine Keener attached to star, but the series did not get past the scripting stage. Kaufman also directed and wrote a pilot for FX titled How and Why in 2014. The plot was described as being about a "man (played by John Hawkes ) who can explain how and why
1940-683: A son, Pedro McDormand Coen, from Paraguay when he was six months old. McDormand has acted in a number of Coen Brothers films: Blood Simple , Raising Arizona , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Fargo , The Man Who Wasn't There , Burn After Reading , and Hail, Caesar! For her performance in Fargo , she won the Academy Award for Best Actress . Ethan married film editor Tricia Cooke in 1993. They have two children: daughter Dusty and son Buster Jacob. The two describe their relationship as “nontraditional”; Cooke identifies as both queer and
2037-542: A three-month long stop-motion animation film that perished in a fire. Believing the film to be his last chance at achieving the respect and admiration of his peers, B. embarks on an absurdist journey that explores comedy , film theory , philosophy , and social commentary across Antkind 's 706 pages. In January 2018, it was announced that Kaufman was working on writing and directing an adaptation of Iain Reid 's 2016 novel I'm Thinking of Ending Things . In December 2018, it
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#17330852416952134-471: A throwback to the romantic comedies of the 1940s. It focuses on hotshot divorce lawyer Miles Massey and a beautiful divorcée whom Massey managed to prevent from receiving any money in her divorce. She vows to get even with him while, at the same time, he becomes smitten with her. Intolerable Cruelty received generally positive reviews, although it is considered one of the duo's weaker films. Also that year, they executive produced and did an uncredited rewrite of
2231-509: A variety of different television writing jobs. The only offer he got was a Comedy Central series titled Access America , hosted by actor Fred Willard , which coincidentally was being filmed in Minneapolis. Kaufman was prepared to accept the job and move back to Minneapolis until he was offered a job by David Mirkin , writing for the second season of his and Chris Elliott 's sitcom Get a Life , starring Elliott. He wrote two episodes of Get
2328-540: A writer is to deliver a script and then disappear. That's not for me. I want to be involved from beginning to end. And these directors [Gondry and Jonze] know that, and respect it." Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , released in 2004, was Kaufman's second pairing with director Michel Gondry . Kaufman won his first Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and third BAFTA for the film together with Gondry and French artist Pierre Bismuth . The trio also received
2425-419: Is a return to noir themes, but in some respects it was a departure for the Coens; with the exception of Stephen Root , none of the stable of regular actors appears in the film. No Country received nearly universal critical praise, garnering a 94% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes . It won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture , Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay , all of which were received by
2522-538: Is also a writer of short stories, theater and poetry. They are known for their distinctive stylistic trademarks including genre hybridity. No Country for Old Men , A Serious Man and Inside Llewyn Davis were included on the BBC 's 2016 poll of the greatest motion pictures since 2000 . In 1998, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked Fargo among the 100 greatest American movies . Richard Corliss wrote of
2619-539: Is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He both wrote and directed the films Synecdoche, New York (2008), Anomalisa (2015), and I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020). In 2020, Kaufman released his first novel, Antkind . One of the most celebrated screenwriters of his era, Kaufman has received an Academy Award , three BAFTA Awards , two Independent Spirit Awards , and
2716-436: Is credited as writer of the film along with Kaufman. The idea came to Kaufman while attempting to adapt Susan Orlean 's book The Orchid Thief into film. Struggling with writer's block , Kaufman turned the script into an exaggerated account of his struggles with adapting the screenplay. Kaufman wrote the screenplay for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind , a biopic based on the "unauthorized autobiography" of Chuck Barris ,
2813-497: Is especially dazzling. So is the fact that Mr. Coen, unlike many people who have directed great-looking film noir efforts, knows better than to let handsomeness become the film's entire raison d'être. In addition to its stylishness, Blood Simple has the kind of purposefulness and coherence that show Mr. Coen to be headed for bigger, even better, things." Joel's direction was recognized at the Sundance and Independent Spirit awards. It
2910-465: The Palme d'Or for Barton Fink at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival . The Coens have written films for other directors, including Sam Raimi 's Crimewave (1985), Angelina Jolie 's World War II biopic Unbroken (2014) and Steven Spielberg 's Cold War drama Bridge of Spies (2015). They produced Terry Zwigoff 's Bad Santa (2003) and John Turturro 's Romance and Cigarettes (2005). Ethan
3007-405: The 88th Academy Awards . The Coens directed the film Hail, Caesar! , about a " fixer " in 1950s Hollywood trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanishes during filming. It stars Coen regulars George Clooney , Josh Brolin , Frances McDormand , Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton , as well as Channing Tatum , Ralph Fiennes , Jonah Hill , and Alden Ehrenreich . The film
Carter Burwell - Misplaced Pages Continue
3104-689: The Atlantic Theater Company Stage 2, opening to mostly enthusiastic reviews. The initial run closed on February 10, 2008, but the same production was moved to a new theatre for a commercial off-Broadway run at the Bleecker Street Theater in New York City. Produced by The Atlantic Theater Company, it ran there from March 2008 through June 1, 2008. and Art Meets Commerce. In May 2009, the Atlantic Theater Company produced Coen's Offices , as part of their mainstage season at
3201-850: The Coen brothers ( / ˈ k oʊ ə n / ), are an American filmmaking duo. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody. Among their most acclaimed works are Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), No Country for Old Men (2007), A Serious Man (2009), True Grit (2010) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). The brothers generally write, direct and produce their films jointly, although due to DGA regulations, Joel received sole directing credit while Ethan received sole production credit until The Ladykillers (2004), from which point on they would be credited together as directors and producers; they also shared editing credits under
3298-445: The FX network. It is created by Noah Hawley and executive produced by the brothers. The Coens also contributed to the screenplay for Unbroken , along with Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson . The film is directed by Angelina Jolie and based on Laura Hillenbrand 's non-fiction book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (2010) which itself
3395-595: The Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature , but like Synecdoche , it did poorly at the box office. Kaufman's debut novel , Antkind , was released in July 2020. Kaufman said in 2016 that the novel was being written so as to be unfilmable, and is itself about "an impossible movie ". In Antkind, film critic B. Rosenberg attempts to recall
3492-955: The Royal Festival Hall in London, England, in May 2005, and at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California, in September 2005, as part of the UCLA Live Festival. In 2009, Burwell was the recipient of the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers . In 2010, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for Where the Wild Things Are . In 2015, he received
3589-638: The X-Men . Kaufman and Proch tried to get their screenplays produced, sending them to many people in the film industry. The only response the two ever received was a supportive letter from Alan Arkin about their screenplay Purely Coincidental . In hope of finding a talent agent , he wrote a portfolio of spec scripts based on television series such as Married... with Children , Newhart , It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Simpsons . While pursuing his writing career, he began working odd jobs in customer service to support himself and his wife, Denise. During
3686-503: The postmodern film Synecdoche, New York , starring an ensemble cast led by Philip Seymour Hoffman . It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. The idea for the film came when Kaufman and Spike Jonze were approached to direct a horror film . Rather than make a conventional horror film, the two agreed to have the film deal with things they found frightening, such as mortality and life's brevity. Kaufman decided to direct
3783-493: The 2005 novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy . Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss ( Josh Brolin ), living near the Texas/Mexico border, stumbles upon, and decides to take, two million dollars in drug money. He must then go on the run to avoid those trying to recover the money, including sociopathic killer Anton Chigurh ( Javier Bardem ), who confounds both Llewelyn and local sheriff Ed Tom Bell ( Tommy Lee Jones ). The plotline
3880-594: The Band Played On (1993), Conspiracy Theory (1997), Hamlet (2000), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), In Bruges (2008), Twilight (2008), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), The Blind Side (2009), and Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011) and Part 2 (2012). Burwell wrote and recorded the original score for the film The Bourne Identity , but director Doug Liman wanted something else and replaced it with
3977-1044: The Best Score award by the International Cinephile Society for Carol . Burwell was awarded Film Composer of the Year by the World Soundtrack Awards , and the score for Carol received the Public Choice Award for the Best Score of the Year. Burwell received his first Academy Award for Best Original Score nomination for Carol , his second for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri , and his third for The Banshees Of Inisherin . Burwell married Christine Sciulli in 1999. As of 2022, Burwell lives in Napeague, New York . Coen brothers Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957), together known as
Carter Burwell - Misplaced Pages Continue
4074-528: The Christmas black comedy Bad Santa , which garnered positive reviews. In 2004, the Coens made The Ladykillers , a remake of the British classic by Ealing Studios . A professor, played by Tom Hanks , assembles a team to rob a casino. They rent a room in an elderly woman's home to plan the heist. When the woman discovers the plot, the gang decides to murder her to ensure her silence. The Coens received some of
4171-446: The Coen brothers have tied the record for the most nominations by a single nominee (counting an "established duo" as one nominee) for the same film. Orson Welles set the record in 1941 with Citizen Kane being nominated for Best Picture (though at the time, individual producers were not named as nominees), Best Director, Best Actor , and Best Original Screenplay . Warren Beatty received
4268-580: The Coens and Raimi. Joel and Raimi also made cameos in Spies Like Us (1985). The brothers wanted to follow their debut with something fast-paced and funny. Raising Arizona (1987) follows an unlikely married couple: ex-convict H.I. ( Nicolas Cage ) and police officer Ed ( Holly Hunter ), who long for a baby but are unable to conceive. When furniture tycoon Nathan Arizona ( Trey Wilson ) appears on television with his newly born quintuplets and jokes that they "are more than we can handle", H.I. steals one of
4365-638: The Coens' Raising Arizona in 1987. From 1982 to 1987 he worked at the New York Institute of Technology . His work has alternated between live performance, dance and theater commissions, and film scoring. His chamber opera, The Celestial Alphabet Event, was presented in New York in 1991, and other theater pieces include Mother (1994) and Lucia's Chapters (2007), both with the experimental theater group Mabou Mines . In April 2005, Burwell composed and conducted music performed by The Parabola Ensemble for
4462-423: The Coens, as well as Best Supporting Actor received by Bardem. The Coens, as "Roderick Jaynes", were also nominated for Best Editing , but lost. It was the first time since 1961 (when Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise won for West Side Story ) that two directors received the Academy Award for Best Director at the same time. In January 2008, Ethan Coen's play Almost an Evening premiered off-broadway at
4559-578: The Coens: "Dexterously flipping and reheating old movie genres like so many pancakes, they serve them up fresh, not with syrup but with a coating of comic arsenic." Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957) were born and raised in St. Louis Park, Minnesota , a suburb of Minneapolis . Their mother, Rena ( née Neumann; 1925–2001), was an art historian at St. Cloud State University , and their father, Edward Coen (1919–2012),
4656-751: The Distinguished Film Composer award from the Middleburg Film Festival , and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Music Score for Anomalisa and Carol . He was nominated for the Annie Award for Music in an Animated Feature Production for Anomalisa and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for Carol . In 2016, he received the Satellite Award for Best Original Score and
4753-642: The Linda Gross Theater. Burn After Reading , a comedy starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney, was released September 12, 2008, and portrays a collision course between two gym instructors, spies and Internet dating. Released to positive reviews, it debuted at No. 1 in North America. In 2009, the Coens directed a television commercial titled "Air Freshener" for the Reality Coalition. They next directed A Serious Man , released October 2, 2009,
4850-654: The New Ear debuted in April 2005 at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York . Due to scheduling conflicts, later productions of Theater of the New Ear did not feature the Coens' play, replacing it with Anomalisa , which Kaufman wrote under the pseudonym "'Francis Fregoli". Anomalisa centers on a man ( David Thewlis ) who perceives everyone in the world to be the same person ( Tom Noonan ) until he meets an exception ( Jennifer Jason Leigh ). Kaufman made his directorial film debut with
4947-543: The New Ear , a double bill "sound play", Kaufman wrote and directed the audio play Hope Leaves the Theater , while the other play in the production, Sawbones , was written and directed by the Coen Brothers . Hope Leaves the Theater follows a middle-aged woman, dissatisfied with her life and relationships, watching a play-within-the-play, and featured performances by Hope Davis , Peter Dinklage and Meryl Streep . Theater of
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#17330852416955044-499: The TV series Gilligan's Island . Kaufman first came to mainstream notice as the writer of Being John Malkovich , directed by Spike Jonze , earning an Academy Award nomination for his effort and winning a BAFTA . He wrote the script on spec in 1994, sending it to many companies and studios, all of which turned it down. The script eventually reached Francis Ford Coppola , who passed it on to his then-son-in-law Jonze, who agreed to direct
5141-978: The Theater , and Antkind . Gender identity is also a recurrent theme in his work. Apes also recur in Kaufman's early work: in Being John Malkovich , Lotte has a pet chimp named Elijah; in Human Nature , Puff was raised as an ape; in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind , Penny dreams about an ape; and in Adaptation , the original deus ex machina was a swamp ape. Some writers and directors Kaufman has named as favorites of his, or as influences, are Franz Kafka , Samuel Beckett , Eugene Ionesco , Stanisław Lem , Flannery O'Connor , Shirley Jackson , Philip K. Dick , Patricia Highsmith , Stephen Dixon , David Lynch , Lars von Trier , Roy Andersson , Woody Allen , and
5238-569: The alias Roderick Jaynes . The duo started directing separately in the 2020s, resulting in Joel's The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) and Ethan's Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind (2022) and Drive-Away Dolls (2024). They have been nominated for 13 Academy Awards together, plus one individual nomination for each, sharing Best Original Screenplay for Fargo , and Best Picture , Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for No Country for Old Men . They won
5335-451: The cast, and was released on Netflix in September 2020 to positive reviews. In 2023, Kaufman directed his first short film, Jackals & Fireflies . Based on a poem by Eva H.D., who also portrays the lead character, the film was shot entirely on a Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone by cinematographer Chayse Irvin. Kaufman has written a script about dreams for Ryan Gosling 's production company that Gosling may star in and an adaptation of
5432-407: The creator of such popular game shows as The Dating Game and host of The Gong Show . The film focuses on Barris's claim to have been a CIA hit man . It was George Clooney 's directorial debut. Kaufman criticized Clooney for making drastic alterations to the script without consulting him (instead, Clooney consulted Barris). Kaufman said in an interview with William Arnold: "The usual thing for
5529-513: The film after Jonze left the project to direct Where the Wild Things Are instead. The film premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it split critics, with some calling it the best film of the year and others finding it pretentious. In the years since its release, it has appeared on multiple lists ranking the best films of the 21st century. The film's poor box office resulted in Kaufman finding it difficult to gain funding for scripts to which he has attached himself as director. Kaufman
5626-452: The film. After the success of Being John Malkovich , another of Kaufman's screenplays was produced: Human Nature , which was directed by Michel Gondry and produced by Kaufman and Jonze. Kaufman and Jonze reunited yet again as the screenwriter and director of Adaptation , which earned him another Academy Award nomination and his second BAFTA. Adaptation featured a fictionalized version of Kaufman and his fictional brother, Donald, who
5723-432: The first of many collaborations between the Coens and John Goodman . Miller's Crossing (1990) is a gangster film inspired by Dashiell Hammett 's Red Harvest (1929) and The Glass Key (1931). It stars Gabriel Byrne as Irish mobster Tom Reagan and features Albert Finney , Marcia Gay Harden , Steve Buscemi , Jon Polito and John Turturro . The film was released almost simultaneously with Goodfellas and
5820-616: The late 1980s, Kaufman lived and worked in Minneapolis , working at the Star Tribune circulation department for four and a half years, as well as the Minneapolis Institute of Art . In 1991, one of Kaufman's spec scripts finally got attention, and he gained a talent agent. The agent suggested Kaufman move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in search of more job prospects. He moved to Los Angeles alone for two months, interviewing for
5917-532: The life of Dave Van Ronk . The film stars Oscar Isaac , Justin Timberlake , and Carey Mulligan . It won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival , where it was highly praised by critics. They received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song for "Please Mr. Kennedy", which is heard in the film. Fargo , a television series inspired by their film of the same name, premiered in April 2014 on
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#17330852416956014-455: The most lukewarm reviews of their careers in response to this film. They directed two short films for two separate anthology films — Paris, je t'aime ( Tuileries , 2006) starring Steve Buscemi , and To Each His Own Cinema ( World Cinema , 2007) starring Josh Brolin . Both films received highly positive reviews. No Country for Old Men , released in November 2007, closely follows
6111-468: The novel The Memory Police that Reed Morano is slated to direct. Kaufman's works explore such universal themes as identity crisis , mortality , and the meaning of life through a metaphysical or parapsychological framework. While his work resists labels, it is sometimes described as surrealist . He uses metafiction as a literary device, and sometimes includes fictionalized "facts" about his life in his work, notably Adaptation. , Hope Leaves
6208-447: The one-act comedy Talking Cure , which was produced on Broadway in 2011 as part of Relatively Speaking , an anthology of three one-act plays by Coen, Elaine May , and Woody Allen . In 2011, the Coen brothers won the $ 1 million Dan David Prize for their contribution to cinema and society. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) is a treatise on the 1960s folk music scene in New York City's Greenwich Village , and very loosely based on
6305-463: The plays Sawbones, written and directed by the Coen brothers , Hope Leaves the Theater, written and directed by Charlie Kaufman , and Anomalisa , written and directed by Kaufman as Francis Fregoli. This was a segment of the sound-only production "Theater of the New Ear", which debuted at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, with support from Sirius Satellite Radio . It was also performed at
6402-468: The position's significance. The only exception to this rule is if the co-directors are an "established duo". Since 2004 they have been able to share the director credit and the Coen brothers have become only the third duo to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director . With four Academy Award nominations for No Country for Old Men for the duo ( Best Picture , Best Director , Best Adapted Screenplay , and Best Film Editing as Roderick Jaynes),
6499-515: The prestigious PEN American Center 2005 prize for screenplay for the film. David Edelstein described the film in Slate as " The Awful Truth turned inside-out by Philip K. Dick , with nods to Samuel Beckett , Chris Marker , John Guare —the greatest dramatists of our modern fractured consciousness. But the weave is pure Kaufman." After agreeing to participate in Carter Burwell 's Theater of
6596-430: The quintuplets to bring up as their own. Pauline Kael noted its "cornpone-surreal quality" and wrote that the Coens "are going with their strengths. They're making a contraption, and they're good at it because they know how to make the camera behave mechanically, which is just right here—it mirrors the mechanics of farce ... The Sunsets look marvellously ultra-vivid; the paint doesn't seem to be dry—it's like opening day at
6693-445: The ransom, which he plans to split with the kidnappers (Buscemi and Peter Stormare ). Complications ensue, and local cop Marge Gunderson (McDormand) starts to investigate. Produced on a small budget of $ 7 million, Fargo was a critical and commercial success, with particular praise for its dialogue and McDormand's performance. The film received several awards, including a BAFTA award and Cannes award for direction, and two Oscars :
6790-630: The same nominations, first for Heaven Can Wait in 1978 and again in 1981 with Reds . Alan Menken also then achieved the same feat when he was nominated for Best Score and triple-nominated for Best Song for Beauty and the Beast in 1991. Most recently Chloé Zhao matched this record in 2021 when she was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing for Nomadland (which also starred McDormand in her third Oscar-winning role). Joel has been married to actress Frances McDormand since 1984. In 1995, they adopted
6887-469: The script for Suburbicon in 1986. The film was eventually directed by George Clooney and began filming in October 2016. It was released by Paramount Pictures in the fall of 2017. The Coens directed The Ballad of Buster Scruggs , a Western anthology starring Tim Blake Nelson , Liam Neeson , and James Franco . It began streaming on Netflix on November 16, 2018, after a brief theatrical run. It
6984-494: The story. Critics praised the production design but criticized the tone. It was a box office bomb ($ 30 million budget, $ 3 million gross in the US). The brothers bounced back with the "homespun murder story" Fargo (1996), set in their home state of Minnesota . In it, car salesman Jerry Lundegaard ( William H. Macy ), who has serious financial problems, has his wife kidnapped so that his wealthy father-in-law ( Harve Presnell ) will pay
7081-431: The studio was unsure about its chances for success after the financial failure of Synecdoche, New York . Although the future of the project is not certain, Kaufman says "It could still happen. It would have to be reinvented, though. We had a whole cast and we were headed into pre-production. So, I'd have to get people back and who knows if they would be interested anymore. But at this point, we don't have any money, so that's
7178-431: The tale of a bar owner ( Dan Hedaya ) who hires a detective ( M. Emmet Walsh ) to kill his wife and her lover ( Frances McDormand and John Getz , respectively). It contains elements that point to their future direction: distinctive homages to genre movies (in this case noir and horror ), plot twists layered over a simple story, snappy dialogue and dark humor . Janet Maslin wrote: "The camera work by Barry Sonnenfeld
7275-537: The undergraduate film program at New York University , where he made a 30-minute thesis film, Soundings . In 1979, he briefly enrolled in the graduate film program at the University of Texas at Austin , following a woman he had married who was in the graduate linguistics program. The marriage soon ended in divorce and Joel left UT Austin after nine months. Ethan went on to Princeton University and earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy in 1979. His senior thesis
7372-647: The works of Federico Fellini to the Sons of Hercules films) aired on a Minneapolis station, the Tarzan films , and comedies ( Jerry Lewis , Bob Hope and Doris Day ). In the mid-1960s, Joel saved money from mowing lawns to buy a Vivitar Super 8 camera. Together, the brothers remade movies they saw on television, with their neighborhood friend Mark Zimering ("Zeimers") as the star. Cornel Wilde 's The Naked Prey (1965) became their Zeimers in Zambezi , which featured Ethan as
7469-772: Was a barrister in the Inns of Court in London before retiring to Hove with their grandmother. Edward Coen was an American citizen born in the United States, but grew up in Croydon , London and studied at the London School of Economics . Afterwards he moved to the United States, where he met the Coens' mother, and served in the United States Army during World War II . The Coens developed an early interest in cinema through television. They grew up watching Italian films (ranging from
7566-537: Was a 41-page essay, "Two Views of Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy", which was supervised by Raymond Geuss . After graduating from New York University , Joel worked as a production assistant on a variety of industrial films and music videos. He developed a talent for film editing and met Sam Raimi while assisting Edna Ruth Paul in editing Raimi's first feature film, The Evil Dead (1981). The duo made their debut with Blood Simple (1984). Set in Texas , it tells
7663-483: Was a Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota . The brothers have an older sister, Deborah, who is a psychiatrist in Israel. 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. Both sides of the Coen family were Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews . Their paternal grandfather, Victor Coen,
7760-617: Was announced in March 2019 that Joel Coen would be directing an adaptation of Macbeth starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand . The film, titled The Tragedy of Macbeth , was Joel's first directorial effort without his brother, who was taking a break from films to focus on theater. The film premiered at the 2021 New York Film Festival . The 2022 Cannes Film Festival had a special screening of Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind , an archival documentary film directed solely by Ethan Coen and edited by his wife Tricia Cooke . In 2022, it
7857-444: Was announced that Brie Larson and Jesse Plemons were signed to co-star as the leads; the film was described as "the story of a woman's trip to a family farm that leads to an unexpected detour leaving her stranded, [and] a twisted mix of palpable tension, psychological frailty and sheer terror ensues." The project began filming in March 2019, with Jessie Buckley having replaced Larson, and Toni Collette and David Thewlis joining
7954-476: Was announced that Ethan Coen would be directing Drive-Away Dolls for Focus Features and Working Title from a script he co-wrote with Cooke. It would be Ethan's first narrative film without his brother. The film was released in February 2024. The Coen brothers' own film production company, Mike Zoss Productions located in New York City, has been credited on their films from O Brother, Where Art Thou? onwards. It
8051-538: Was another critical and commercial success. The title was borrowed from the Preston Sturges film Sullivan's Travels (1941), whose lead character, movie director John Sullivan, had planned to make a film with that title. Based loosely on Homer 's Odyssey (complete with a Cyclops , sirens , et al. ), the story is set in Mississippi in the 1930s and follows a trio of escaped convicts who, after absconding from
8148-484: Was based on the life of Louis Zamperini . It was released on December 25, 2014, to average reviews. The Coens co-wrote, with playwright Matt Charman , the screenplay for the dramatic historical thriller Bridge of Spies , about the 1960 U-2 Incident . The film was directed by Steven Spielberg , and released on October 4, 2015, to critical acclaim. They were nominated for the Best Original Screenplay at
8245-700: Was born in New York City , the son of Natalie (née Benedict), a math teacher, and Charles Burwell, who founded Thaibok Fabrics, Ltd. He graduated from King School in Stamford, Connecticut with George Hofecker and other notables and Harvard College , where he was a cartoonist for The Harvard Lampoon . As a film composer, Burwell has had a long-working relationship with the Coen brothers , providing music for every film they have made (except for Inside Llewyn Davis and O Brother, Where Art Thou? ). Among his best known film scores are Miller's Crossing (1990), And
8342-464: Was funded by the film's production company, Starburns Industries. Kaufman co-directed the film with Duke Johnson , who had previous experience in stop motion filmmaking, and the original cast of the play production returned to reprise their roles. It had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 4, 2015, receiving universal acclaim from critics. The film went on to win
8439-451: Was hired to pitch and write scripts for film projects that were never produced. These unproduced projects included a script for an adaptation of Philip K. Dick 's novel A Scanner Darkly , a pitch for a star vehicle for Don Rickles and Rodney Dangerfield in which they would play a washed-up, murderous comedy duo (an idea Kaufman used in Antkind ), and a pitch for a R-rated version of
8536-542: Was in the drama club, performing in numerous productions before landing the lead role in a production of Play It Again, Sam during his senior year. After high school graduation, Kaufman attended Boston University before transferring to New York University , where he studied film. While attending NYU, Kaufman met Paul Proch, with whom he wrote many unproduced scripts and plays. Between 1983 and 1984, Kaufman and Proch wrote comedic articles and spoofs for National Lampoon . His work included parodies of Kurt Vonnegut and
8633-566: Was influenced by Raymond Chandler 's The Big Sleep (1939) and Robert Altman 's The Long Goodbye . It has become a cult classic . An annual festival, Lebowski Fest , began in 2002, and many adhere to the philosophy of " Dudeism ". Entertainment Weekly ranked it 8th on their Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years list in 2008. It was the first collaboration between the Coens and T Bone Burnett , credited as "Music Archivist". The Coen brothers' next film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000),
8730-715: Was named after Mike Zoss Drug, an independent pharmacy in St. Louis Park since 1950 that was the brothers' beloved hangout when they were growing up in the Twin Cities . The name was also used for the pharmacy in No Country for Old Men . The Mike Zoss logo consists of a crayon drawing of a horse, standing in a field of grass with its head turned around as it looks back over its hindquarters. Up to 2003, Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing, due to guild rules that disallowed multiple director credits to prevent dilution of
8827-554: Was nominated for the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay . True Grit (2010) is based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Charles Portis . Filming was done in Texas and New Mexico. Hailee Steinfeld stars as Mattie Ross along with Jeff Bridges as Marshal Rooster Cogburn . Matt Damon and Josh Brolin also appear in the movie. True Grit was nominated for ten Academy Awards including Best Picture. Ethan Coen wrote
8924-419: Was not a commercial success, but received positive reviews. Christopher Orr calls it "a distillation of all the tropes and themes and moods of the classic gangster film." It was the Coens' first collaboration with production designer Dennis Gassner . They followed it with Barton Fink (1991); set in 1941, it follows a New York playwright, the eponymous Fink (Turturro), who moves to Los Angeles to write
9021-653: Was not hired by any of them. He continued to work on other comedic series: Fox's sketch comedy show The Edge , The Trouble with Larry and Ned and Stacey , the last of which he also produced. The most notable series he worked on in this period was The Dana Carvey Show , which featured writers and performers such as Louis C.K. , Robert Smigel , Greg Daniels , Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell . On all these series, Kaufman struggled to keep his material from being adulterated or not produced at all, because of his unconventional writing and his quiet nature. Kaufman also wrote some pilot scripts of his own, but none of them
9118-406: Was produced. These included two pilots for Disney , Depressed Roomies and Rambling Pants (the former a surrealist take on the "buddy sitcom" and the latter focused on the adventures of a time-travelling poet named Pants) and a pilot for HBO , In Limbo , a naturalistic look at a romantic relationship devoid of the usual tropes of romantic films . Before Being John Malkovich was released, he
9215-399: Was released on February 5, 2016. In 2016, the Coens gave to their longtime friend and collaborator John Turturro the right to use his character of Jesus Quintana from The Big Lebowski in his own spin-off, The Jesus Rolls , which he would also write and direct. The Coens have no involvement in the production. In August 2016, the film began principal photography. The Coens first wrote
9312-471: Was slated to write and direct a film with the working title Frank or Francis . Few details have been confirmed about the plot, except that it is a musical comedy about internet anger culture and was set to star Jack Black , Nicolas Cage, Steve Carell, Kevin Kline , Catherine Keener, Paul Reubens , Jacki Weaver and Elizabeth Banks . In July 2012, Black said that funding for the project had fallen through, as
9409-401: Was the first film shot by Sonnenfeld, who collaborated with the Coens on their two subsequent films and went on to be a director. It marked the first of many collaborations between the Coens and composer Carter Burwell . It was also the screen debut of McDormand, who went on to feature in many of the Coens' films (and marry Joel). Their next project was Crimewave (Raimi, 1985), written by
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