Ethan Coen Newsletter
Sign-up to receive daily news on Ethan Coen by email.
Ethan Coen Filmography
Source:
Theiapolis
Ethan Coen Resources
Table of Content
Ethan Coen: Film Noir and misunderstanding
Stylistically, Coen Brothers movies show a heavy debt to film noir, featuring stark contrast in lighting (most notably in
Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, and Fargo) and the typical theme of people being in over their heads in a scheme. Their movies often deal with kidnapping. A near universal plot device is misunderstanding: misunderstanding over who killed The Rug and who took his hair causes friction between different mobs in Miller's Crossing; misunderstanding of Norville's blueprint causes him some grief later in The Hudsucker Proxy; everyone except for the nihilists in The Big Lebowski misunderstands Bunny's kidnapping; and in Blood Simple, misunderstanding is the driving force behind the entire plot past the thirty-minute mark. The Coen brothers' film The Man Who Wasn't There pays homage to film noir, with a plot that seems an update/twist of The Postman Always Rings Twice. The film is in black and white and has been lauded by various critics for both its cinematography and its sharply drawn, fairly sympathetic characters, though many critics take issue with the sharp turn in plot towards the end.
<<
Blood and guts -
Depictions of various cities, states, and regions of America >>
Table of Content
Latest Film News
See Also:
