Joel and Ethan Coen |

It’s a dope thing. I don’t mean that the Coens were potheads. (I don’t mean they weren’t.) But they came of age artistically when Father Knows Best fifties culture was viewed ironically, through a cannabis haze; when kitsch was embraced with a nudge and a wink; when David Letterman turned the folks back home into Larry “Bud” Melman–like freaks; and when David Lynch homed in on the putrefaction under the paneling. Dope creates disjunction by fracturing bogus harmony. Nothing flows together. Nothing is beyond deconstruction. The Coens often cite Stanley Kubrick as a model, but Kubrick in his last three decades depersonalized his actors, whereas the Coens cultivate their actors’ distinctive weirdness. They love them some weirdos. I can imagine them in the editing room—they edit their films under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes, who once “wrote” an essay disparaging them—chortling at the faces onscreen, like poor Dan Hedaya’s as he leaks blood from every orifice in Blood Simple or roly-poly mouth-breather Jon Polito’s as he dies one of several grotesque deaths. The Coens obviously adore John Turturro’s hungry visage and Steve Buscemi’s clammy dyspepsia. They relished John Goodman’s bravura girth before anyone else did. They made Holly Hunter (former roommate of Joel’s wife, Frances McDormand) a movie star by milking the tension between her pixieish face and snapping-turtle delivery. Listen to them on a DVD commentary track for The Man Who Wasn’t There in the company of Billy Bob Thornton: Over and over, they point out “the Ed nod,” the teensy bobbing of the otherwise catatonic protagonist’s head. I could reel off twenty more performances—and I bet they could reel off a hundred. They’re fans. Joel and Ethan Coen were born in Minnesota to academic parents. The brothers were raised in a typical middle-American, middle-class Jewish household. Their childhood was largely unremarkable and aside from the production of a few super-8 home movies, a future in filmmaking seemed unlikely (Ethan’s book of short stories entitled Gates Of Eden contains pseudo-biographical, though ‘fictional’, narratives of the Coens’ upbringing). (2) Joel proceeded to New York University where, in lieu anything better, he enrolled in a film course. Ethan, on the other hand, ventured to Princeton; choosing Philosophy as his major, he composed a thesis on Wittgenstein. Joel’s film school experience would assist him in landing a number of editing jobs on small budget films, providing him with exposure to film production practices. With this grounding the brothers were motivated to make their own film. With the help of investors from the local Minnesota business community the Coens set about making their first feature length film—Blood Simple. Joel and Ethan Coen, known as The Coen Brothers, are Oscar-winning American filmmakers. For more than 20 years, the pair have written and directed numerous successful films, ranging from screwball comedies (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy) to film noir (Miller’s Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn’t There, No Country For Old Men), to movies where those two genres blur together (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink). The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, although until recently Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing. They often alternate top billing for their screenplays, while sharing film credits for editor under the alias “Roderick Jaynes”. They are known in the film business as “the two-headed director”, as they share such a similar vision of what their films are to be that actors say that they can approach either brother with a question and get the same answer.