Are the Coen brothers exchanging film for theatre?

A cowboy hits the ground with a shovel in vain: “The ground is too hard. Well, if they wanted a decent funeral, they should have been killed in the summer. or “Did I say you could sit down?” “No, but you strike me as a man who wouldn’t want to waste a chair.” These are undoubtedly dialogues drawn from the impressive cinematographic repertoire of brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. American directors have made genre variations for years that have won the duet more than once. For some time, however, it is no longer ‘The Coen Brothers’ but only Joel Coen who is behind the camera. Brother Ethan threw himself completely into the acting world. Joel Coen’s shoot arrives this month with his first solo film, Macbeth’s Tragedy, which is actually quite similar to a play. “It’s like your opinion, man.”

Are the Coen brothers exchanging film for theatre?

A play is a poem, the first theatrical production written and directed by Ethan Coen, premiered in 2019. Five stories full of dark humor in a noir style, the play was clearly his own. During the previous ten years, the director had written the screenplay for the scene between the making of his films. Shortly after this premiere in Los Angeles Ethan said that he was going to put his film career on hold. An almost unthinkable statement from someone who, along with his brother, is one of Hollywood’s most famous names, but Ethan’s decision is certain.

Joel and Ethan Coen, regulars of Coen Brothers are known for many American feature films they have made since the 1980s. Among other things, overloaded with awards, working as Fargo in There is no country for old people but also cult classics like Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, in The great Lebowski are the brothers. Most of the time, the duo makes comedic crime films that somehow ridicule the United States. It is above all the uniquely written dialogue, the special action scenes and the beautifully shot images (often by cameraman Roger Deakins) that define the work of the Coen Brothers makes it so strong.

Scenes such as the introduction of the character of Jesus Quintana: with a hairnet, dressed in a purple jumpsuit, he is bowling. He sticks his tongue out to lick the bowling ball he hits, then euphorically dances to a Spanish-dubbed version of Hotel California. Coen’s scenes are dryly comic, absurd and even filmed in a way that only these filmmakers can. The worlds of the brothers are full of extraordinary characters, all woven into stories with much to discover. More often than not, with a main character stumbling through it all, from one minor failure to another, hoping for the best in the end.

The step to the stage did not come completely from nowhere, the filmmakers often worked with classic works. This is how the duo founded O brother, where are you on the Greek story of Ulysses by Homer and Barton Fink vaguely on the words of Dante. The Brothers’ Last Movie The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, was also somewhat different from their previous work. Always filled with humor, wacky characters and typical dialogues, but this time carried by an anthology story. Six different stories appear, although they seem to have nothing to do with each other. From a loud singing bounty hunter to a lone prospector, there are only thematically connections between one story and the other. These kind of flower tales occur regularly in the world of radio, literature and theater and eventually formed the basis of Ethan Coen’s first theatrical production.

While one brother is already involved in the theater world, the other is filming an age-old play by William Shakespeare. The eldest of the two, Joel Coen, started working on a film adaptation of the play on his own macbeth. With his own wife Frances McDormand and Denzel Washington as the main character. When you think about it, Macbeth is also a Coen-esque character to some extent. Someone who gets into more and more trouble because of bad choices. Macbeth’s Tragedy became a fairly impressionistic black-and-white film adaptation, in the style of German Expressionist films (think The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). In fact, it seems that Macbeth’s Tragedy filmed as a play. With smaller sets where light and dark determine the image, just like spotlights in a scene. And the dialogues have changed little from Shakespeare’s original Old English texts. A play but filmed.

How thin is the border between cinema and theatre? We can find out that from today now Macbeth’s Tragedy is available for streaming on Apple TV+. Will we see the familiar phrase again in the next film?A film by Brother Coenis it on the poster? Only the future can tell us. Who knows it will be soonA play by the Coen brothers.‘

Roan Andree

Watch The Tragedy of Macbeth streaming online

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