Annotated Catalogue: How have the Coen Brothers developed as auteurs? (2nd Draft)

How have the Coen Brothers developed as auteurs?

Films:

Item 1- No Country for Old Men (2007)

This film is the second highest grossing Coen brother’s film at $88m to date, it is a thought provoking film that is crafted to make the audience think a certain way. The lack of a sound track only exists to further present the unique way the film was crafted, the lack of extra characters makes it feel as though the characters are stuck in purgatory with little hope of reprieve.

Item 2- Fargo (1996)

Fargo is perhaps one of the earliest films that cements the brothers unique style, the film shares many themes with the later ‘No Country for old men’ including the violence it exhibits and the unique directing style. However the comedic aspect of the film lends itself to other popular Coen brother films yet still creates a narrative that is as intriguing and suspenseful as the more serious toned ‘No country for Old Men’

Item 3- The Big Lebowski (1998)

 The Big Lebowski is possibly one of the Coen brother most well known films, it has quotable dialogue and interesting characters. As with many Auteurs they have re-used actors who frequently star in their other films – Namely John Goodman and Jeff Bridges – this demonstrates the pair’s commitment to their brand of film making as they’ll only use a select group of actors

Item 4- O Brother where art thou? (2000)

This film continues the brothers’ blend of comedic adventures, returning yet again with a familiar cast. John Goodman continues his type casted role as big and loud, it contains a lot of elements that one would expect from depression era Mississippi; featuring chain gangs, Klan rallies, and blues. Although it is overall a lot more light hearted than most Coen brother films their ethos is apparent here through their style and the nuances in their narrative and camera work.  

Item 5- True Grit (2010)

  

True grit shares a lot of similarities with ‘No Country for Old Men’, it explores themes of convictions and is violent with mature themes. It’s a modern take on the western genre that has been absent from Hollywood in the last 15 years, and ‘No Country for Old Men’ can be directly correlated to that, although it has a modern day setting it also is a contemporary western, also sharing characters such as Josh Brolin – Albeit it in a smaller role.

The Internet:

Item 6- http://www.coenbrothers.net/coens.html

The website discusses the Coen Brother’s impact more in depth in transforming themselves to mainstream icons, despite their esoteric and more indie themed films. They show that it is different from the loud blockbusters of today and the nuances involved in a Coen brothers’ film.

Item 7- http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/12-essential-coen-brothers-films-you-need-to-watch/

The blog runs down some popular Coen brother films and their impact on how they have developed, I’ve used a number of these films in my list as they represent the values that make the brother’s film making set apart from other mainstream directors and how they have developed their own style as a result, from their more indie focused beginnings to their modern releases that can appeal to a wider and more diverse audience despite them changing little and remaining faithful to their formula  

Item 8-  https://vimeo.com/106099732

This video gives evidence of their development and the common themes and tropes that make a Coen brother films, it is a good reference when discussing their evolution throughout their careers as it goes in depth – film by film, which helped me to compare the different films throughout the decades much easier.

Item 9-  http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/feb/11/will-self-coen-brothers

This piece in the Guardian comments on the Coen brothers’ whole careers and just what makes them the way they are, it was helpful as it isn’t in the guise of a review but just an analysis of their character and their form of film making and what exactly makes it them the way they are.

Item 10- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coen_brothers

This Wikipedia article acted as a biography and similar to the previous article showed me their history and why they are who they are. It also provides useful statistics such as their entire filmography and the various awards they have won.

Snatch Analysis

Snatch is a 2000 comedy Crime film written and directed by Guy Ritchie. It stars; Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Alan Ford, Vinnie Jones, Benicio Del Toro. It has two intertwining narratives, one following small time boxing promoter Turkish (Jason Statham), and the other dealing with the search of a stolen diamond. The Film opens with the heist of the Diamond, it stands apart from most action films as it starts quietly and follows some men talking. This is done to build tension that finally culminates in the heist.

It follows the Lock, Stock formula closely. Clearly showing Ritchie’s influence at every facet. All the characters are given odd and often comical names (Bullet Tooth Tony, Brick Top, Gorgeous George) and Title cards are used to introduce each one of them and to give a little bit of a background. The intertwining narrative is presented well and it is almost hard to tell where the story differs, the comedy in the film is witty and clever, coming up with a lot of quotable lines. Although the plot can be quite confusing to some, due to Ritchie’s high speed take on film making which means the story dances between characters introducing new ones often enough that all the names can get confusing.

Although complex, the story is good however and the cast of characters are all interesting, although there is a lot of them none of them fall flat and each are memorable. The complexity of the plot can often make it feel like it is inconsequential however and rather it’s just Ritchie’s excuse to hop from one unlikely spectacle to another. The movie is fun and fast paced but the story doesn’t build and just seem to arrive at the end, rather than being built up toward it.

Suffragette Analysis

Suffragette is a 2015 British historical period drama film directed by Sarah Gavron and written by Abi Morgan. The film centres on early members of the British women's suffrage movement of the late 19th and early 20th century; The film stars Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Meryl Streep. It follows the story of Carey Mulligan’s character Maud, as she goes from disgruntled and abused factory worker to empowered woman of the movement and although being a fictional character she is heavily involved in some of the more major activates of the movement.

 The cinematography was great and this is in large part due to the stand out set’s which recreated early 1900s London faithfully, the camerawork did a good job of showing off these meticulously crafted sets and every scene felt real despite there being a number of different locations used during the film. I did not like the use of shaky cam however in the films more action oriented scenes as I felt it was not necessary and felt out of place in a period drama, when that sort of camera work is more suited in an action film, although I do not like the effect at all.

The narrative of the story however was mixed and in my opinion flawed in its telling of the story, it attempted to focus too much on different things. They showed Maud’s story well to begin with and you felt invested in what was going on with her life and her involvement within the movement, but during the final portion of the film the focus was moved to the movement as a whole and it felt like Maud’s story was put on the back burner in favour of drawing audience appeal of recreating the heroic efforts of the suffragettes.

I did not like this for two reasons, namely they did not finish Maud’s story and left me with many questions that I would have liked to seen tied up, there intent to focus on the movement as a whole nearing the end did not work out well as I felt that a minor character was thrust to the spot light over a major thing she did, there was no character build up with her so I didn’t have time to like her as a character. The final event that was her death was also not that major of a thing to end on and left the film feeling deflated as perhaps the whole ending half hour of the film was poorly executed and the decided to tie off some stories without doing that with ones the audience actually cared about.

 I also wished they would have ended on a more memorable event perhaps, such as the 1918 voting act that extended universal suffrage to women over thirty, seeing as that Is what they were fighting for the whole film it would have been more satisfying to end on that. 

The Martian: Info sheet

NICK NEIL’S: MEDIA TEXT INFORMATION SHEET

TITLE:

The Martian

YEAR OF PROD:

2015?

TYPE:

FILM Yes

TELEVISION

DOC.

MUSIC

ADVERT

MUSIC VID.

OTHER:

DIRECTOR

Ridley Scott

PRODUCER

Mark Huffam, Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer

WRITER

Drew Goddard (Screenplay) Andy Weir (Book)

PRODUCTION COMPANY

Scott Free Productions

KEY CAST /ARTIST

Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristin Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Sean Bean, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mackenzie Davis

KEY CREW

Harry Gregson-Williams (Music), Dariusz Wolski (Cinematography)

GENRE

Thriller, Drama

BUDGET

$108 million

BOX OFFICE

$50 Million (Opening Weekend)

THEMES

Loneliness, Space, Suspense,

AWARDS

TBC

NARRATIVE: During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring "the Martian" home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible, rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney's safe return. Based on a best-selling novel.

LA Haine, City of God Comparison

City of God is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama film co-directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund. La Haine is a 1995 French black-and-white drama/suspense film written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz.

They both follow disillusioned youth with the main themes following the crime and violence that are ever present in their lives, they both feature an ethnically diverse cast and portray the stories of Racism they face as a result of who they are. City of God follows the story of Rocket and his life in the city of god, he is a non-violent character but brushes with Violence daily due to where he grows up, The City of God is a slum and has almost third world conditions, this parallels to the suburbs of Paris where, although they are poor, they still have adequate housing and running water.

This shows that despite France being an established first world country it still can fall victim to the same issues as a newly industrialised nation as brazil. The violent nature of both these films highlight that their situation is a large influence to this, as it gang culture seems to be a part of life where they group up. Particularly in City of God, Rocket comes into contact with crime no matter what he does. As a result of this he is used by the photography company to capture the violence, not thinking about his safety and what might happen to him as a result of capturing this underreported and more personal life within the city of god.

The cinematography in both films is great, LA Haine is shot in Black and white, a deliberate choice by the director to show their drab concreate environment and the dreariness of their situation. This contrast with City of God where it is bright and colourful despite the dower colour pallet of the Favela, it acts as a Juxtaposition the colourful aesthetic makes the dark subject matter look even more out of place and is a clever device to use.

Although both films are foreign language films the performances within them are exceptional, the lack of understanding the languages does not lessen the impact and there is frequent use of close ups to show the emotions on character’s faces, which makes the lack of understandable dialogue less of an issue.