Together they created 18 paintings that amaze with their courage and wit. 
18. "Gentleman's Games" (The Ladykillers, 2004) 
Let's get one thing straight - the Coens don't make bad films. However, such a rating suggests that one film will still turn out to be the worst - and even the most ardent fans of the brothers will agree that something went wrong in this remake of the great British black comedy of 1955.
Tom Hanks invites comparison with the legend Alec Guinness in the role of a pseudo-professor who rents a room from an old woman and hatches diabolical plans. The comparison turns out to be against him - as, alas, in the case of the Coens and the original director Alexander Mackendrick.
17. “Intolerable Cruelty” (2003) 
Call this movie an old-fashioned romantic comedy if you want. However, we can't think of a movie in old Hollywood that delved so deeply into the world of scheming lawyers, dodgy prenuptial agreements, Texas billionaires, fake barons and soap opera tricks. Not flirting, but shark fights for prey, not comedy, but a viscous existential drama.
16. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) 
Working with a big budget for the first time in their careers—and Lethal Weapon producer Joel Silver—the Coens managed to make their first major box office flop, a $25 million comedy about the invention of the hula hoop. The scenery is spectacular, the dialogue sparkles with wit, Tim Robbins has never been more charming - but who decided that this movie could be a hit?
15. “The Man Who Wasn’t There” (2001) 
Quiet, interesting, almost impenetrable - these adjectives fit both the film itself and its main character, a barber (Billy Bob Thornton) in post-war California who becomes embroiled in a murder plot reminiscent of the novels of James M. Cain.
The result is not so much a thriller as a thoughtful, understated character portrait. The best thing here is the sumptuous, expressive black and white noir palette of the frame.
14. “Long live Caesar!” (Hail Caesar!, 2016) 
At first glance, the Coens' film seems to be the most old-fashioned of their career: the brothers depict a day in the life of 1950s Hollywood (pregnant stars, narcissistic directors, dumb cowboys and even communists) and at the same time avoid both openly tongue-in-cheek humor and romantic retroness. patinas. The result is not a satire or an ode to bygone times, but a literal indulgence in the art of cinema, written out through meticulously recreated immersions in dead genres, from the water musical to the western.
13. “Burn After Reading” (2008) 
One of the Coens' most superficial films - but how funny it is. The brothers build a cynical farce about several very stupid Washingtonians getting involved in blackmail and espionage. Among others are a CIA retiree (John Malkovich) and his memoirs that have fallen into the wrong hands, his wife (Tilda Swinton), her lover (George Clooney) and two dim-witted but ambitious gym employees (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand). Coming on the heels of the serious No Country for Old Men, the comedy upset some die-hard Coen fans, but even they admit it's full of wit and energy.
12. Raising Arizona (1987) 
The fact that “Raising Arizona” only fit into the second ten of this rating speaks less about its quality, and more about the general level of Cohen’s filmography, in which there have been almost no misses for 30 years.
Having made a name for themselves with their debut Blood Simple, the brothers cemented their reputation as America's most exciting young writers of the 1980s with this rapturous caper about a baby being kidnapped. One of the best roles of Nicolas Cage, among others.
11. True Grit (2010) 
After "Gentleman's Games," the very thought that the Coens would remake another classic raised doubts. However, “True Grit” turned out to be more of an appeal to the original novel by Charles Portis than a retelling of the Western with John Wayne. Jeff Bridges is wonderful as the die-hard federal marshal Rooster Cogburn, and 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld is just as good as the orphan vigilante who hires the old man.
10. “Oh, where are you, brother?” (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000) 
The first of two Cohen road movies built on a love of American music of a certain historical period - the second was Inside Llewyn Davis.
Inspired by Homer's Odyssey, O Brother, Where Art Thou? The Coens turn to the 1930s and tell the story of an escaped convict (George Clooney) and his companions (John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) who experience various misadventures in the southern United States and are interrupted by musical breaks (bluegrass, blues, gospel).
9. Miller's Crossing (1990) 
The dialogue alone, reminiscent of American classic Damon Runyon, would be enough to make this Irish-accented gangster drama a cult classic. However, it also features one of the most emotionally exquisite stories in the Cohen canon - the parable of sons' fidelity to surrogate fathers. The brothers found the script for Crossroads so difficult that, according to legend, they wrote Barton Fink as a distraction.
8. “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” (2018) 
The Coens' latest joint film to date was immediately dubbed the first breakthrough in their filmography in the last ten years.
Six stories of unequal content are united in an almanac and glorify the Western genre. As usual, it is based on the directors’ favorite themes: fate, honesty and dishonesty, the life of artists and their native America. In a world where quite a few have already studied the film language of the Coen brothers, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” may still throw up new unknown words.
7. Barton Fink (1991) 
The well-worn screenwriting maxim "write what you know" is brilliantly deconstructed in the Coens' first foray into Hollywood's golden age. John Turturro is hilariously neurotic as the title character, agonizing over wrestling movie scripts. However, the one who elevated the story to its satirical greatness was John Goodman as his jovial neighbor Mantz.
6. “No Country for Old Men” (2007) 
The brothers adapted Cormac McCarthy's Western thriller into one of the darkest films of their 30-year career. And also one of the best - around an insignificant episode on the Mexican border (a Vietnam veteran finds a suitcase with two million dollars), the Coens built a panorama of hopelessness and nihilism, in the midst of which rises a psychopath with a crazy hairstyle (Javier Bardem's best role). Four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.
5. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) 
The odyssey of brash, narcissistic anti-hero and failed folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is the Coens at their most doomed, sober and heartfelt: a road movie set in the 1960s that spares no one, reflecting on talent, success, disappointment and life. in art.
The sense of time and place is second to none, and the soundtrack is a pure ode to joy. And yes, the best cat in movie history is here.
4. Blood Simple (1984) 
The Coens' acclaimed debut is stripped of their future tongue-in-cheek asides and parodic star cameos—it's a tense, relentless thriller with equal parts Southern Gothic and neo-noir cynicism. The slimy private eye (M. Emmett Walsh) is the Coens' first great character, and the brutal graveside scene shows the influence of Sam Raimi, who introduced the brothers to cinema.
3. “A Serious Man” (2009) 
The Coens have always been criticized for being overly caricatured - but such criticism is answered no better than A Serious Man, in which a satire of the Jewish soul (in the setting of the 1960s suburbs) turns into the best modern retelling of the Book of Job. The film literally vibrates with humor, melancholy and unsettling quasi-mysticism.
2. Fargo (1996) 
Proof that this masterpiece of Cohen's dark humor has stood the test of time is the fact that 20 years later, four seasons of a successful television series were filmed on its basis, and a fifth is in production.
And although the TV remake is very good, the original is just as good - a caustic, effective story of an outbreak of crime in a small Minnesota town. “Fargo” won an Oscar for best screenplay—and it might have won an Oscar for its most inventive use of a wood chipper.
1. The Big Lebowski (1998) 
After the success of Fargo, few expected the Coens to suddenly launch a weed-smoked Los Angeles quasi-detective about the adventures of an aging hippie (Jeff Bridges), a Vietnam veteran (John Goodman) and a dozen other characters of varying degrees of eccentricity.
A tribute to the most relaxed of the classic films of the 1970s, The Long Goodbye became an instant classic in its own right - no other film by the brothers was more loved by the audience.
There are even annual fan conventions held in honor of Lebowski!
0 comments
