A Trip Down Memory Lane: 1999 BBC Doc Sheds Light on the Coen Brothers' Early Days | No Film School

No one does dark comedy quite like the Brothers Coen. (A pregnant police chief coming upon a bleach-blonde criminal feeding his partner's body through a wood chipper, a perfect mixture of ruthless violence and Minnesota nice, is something only they could pull off.) There has been quite a lot of buzz circulating about their latest film Inside Llewyn Davis, but Joel and Ethan's filmmaking journey began back in 1984 with their critically acclaimed neo-noir Blood Simple. This 1999 BBC documentary reaches back into the Coens' past to discuss not only their early films (pre-O Brother, Where Art Thou), but the sensibilities that started before they ever said "action".

The Coen Brothers are known for many things: their perfect collaboration, dry humor, and use of dogs in their films. However, possibly one of their most encouraging hallmarks to indie filmmakers is their desire to stay as pure to their original vision as possible, which often meant sacrificing funding in order to have more control over what went in and what went out of their films.

As you'll see in the documentary, the Coens' past is discussed at length by friends, acquaintances, and actors. Not only do we get to see yearbook photos of Joel and Ethan (very jealous of Ethan's fro), but we get to hear about their comedic sensibilities, impeccable writing, and use of storyboards to get their whole cast and crew involved in the making of each film.

Check out the doc below. (Thanks to Cinephilia and Beyond for sharing this.)

What did you find interesting about the documentary on the Coen Brothers? What inspires you most about the filmmakers? Let us know in the comments!

[via TheSheik1976 & Cinephilia and Beyond]

screenwriting documentary directing coenbrothers joelcoen ethancoen

What's the Hype With 'Interstellar' Revisiting Cinemas After a Decade in 70mm IMAX?

Here's Why You Need to Revisit 'Interstellar' in 70mm IMAX

Celebrate the love and hope at the center of Nolan's space epic in the format it was meant to be seen.

If we know anything about Christopher Nolan, he likes to go big. Nolan started with smaller-scale stories (as many of us do) with early noir adjacent works like Following, Memento, and Insomnia, then started going and staying big with his illusionist drama The Prestige. Since then, the scale has been various degrees of massive, with the biggest scope in his time-and-space sprawling epic, Interstellar.

While Interstellarmight not be everyone's favorite Nolan outing, there's no denying it's an impressive feat of filmmaking and his most emotional—if watching Matthew McConaughey's Cooper desperately try to reach his family through quantum space-time doesn't make you cry at least a little bit, what's going on, dude?

With Interstellar'sIMAX release, it's a great time to shed some tears in a public setting in one of the most prestigious film formats around. As we mentioned in our film gauge piece, Nolan loves shooting on film and utilizes 65mm intentionally to provoke a tone of massive scale. In that regard, Interstellar was made for 70mm IMAX. That goes without saying, dawg. That being said, other factors make Interstellar a perfect movie to revisit in theaters while you can.

Let's break down the release further below.

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