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Joel and Ethan Coen

Biography:

Joel Coen was born on November 29^th, 1954 and Ethan Coen was born on September 21^st, 1957.  They were raised along with their younger sister Deborah in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.  The cold climate drove the brothers inside where they would watch movies all day long. They spent hours with Doris Day movies like Pillow Talk and The Thrill of It All!, and live action Disney movies like That Darn Cat and The Love Bug. 

Trying to remedy boredom they decided to shoot some home movies so along with friend Ron Neter, now a commercial producer, they mowed lawns until they had enough money to buy a Super 8 camera and some film.  Their first project was a steady shot of their television playing Tarzan and the She-Devil.  They followed that up with a remake of The Naked Prey called “Zeimers in Zambia” and their own original story “The Lumberjacks of the North”; all starring friends in the neighborhood.

In the later years of high school, both brothers were set away to Simon’s Rock College of Bard located just west of Boston, Massachusetts.  From there they moved on to universities:  Joel to the Tisch School of Arts at New York University where he studied film and Ethan to Princeton University where he studied philosophy.  Joel then went on to graduate school at the University of Texas, but dropped out after one semester. 

They both found jobs in the entertainment industry with Joel working as assistant editor on Fear No Evil and The Evil Dead, and Ethan as a writer on television’s “Cagney & Lacey”.  With a technique learned from their friend and peer Sam Raimi, the Coen brothers were able to scrape together enough money to independently produce their first film, Blood Simple.

Blood Simple was released on the cusp of a great indie film movement in the in early eighties.  Along with filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee, Sam Raimi, and David Cronenberg, the Coen’s were a major influence on the evolution of independent film. Over the past three decades, the Coens have continued to produce incredible films outside of the Hollywood system like Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and Barton Fink. 

Films:

Blood Simple (1984)

Crimewave (1985)

Raising Arizona (1987)

Darkman (1990)

Miller’s Crossing (1990)

Barton Fink (1991)

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Fargo (1996)

The Naked Man (1998) (Ethan only)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

The Ladykillers (2004)

Paris, je t’aime

No Country for Old Men

To Each His Own Cinema (2007)

Burn After Reading (2008)

 Upcoming Projects:

A Serious Man (2009)

Gambit (2009)

Suburbicon (2009)

Hail Caesar (2009)

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union (2010)

Other Film Credits:

Fear No Evil (1981) (assistant editor) (Joel only)

The Evil Dead (1981) (assistant editor) (Joel only)

Down From the Mountain (2000) (executive producers)

Bad Santa (2003) (executive producers)

Romance & Cigarettes (2004) (executive producers)

Short Films:

A Fever In The Blood (2002) (story) (Ethan only)

Music Video Projects:

none 

Television Projects:

Cagney & Lacey (1982-1988) (writer) (Ethan only) 

Non Film Projects:

Ethan authored the book of short stories titled Gates of Eden.

Ethan authored the collection of poems titled The Drunken Drive Has the Right of Way. 

Production and Other Companies:

The KL Line 

Film Award Ratios (wins/nominations):

Academy Awards – 2/13 (15.4%)

Golden Globes – 1/10 (10.0%)

Sundance Film Festival – 1/1 (100%)

Cannes Film Festival – 6/10 (60.0%)

Writers Guild of America – 1/2 (50.0%)

Directors Guild of America – 0/1 (0.0%)

AFI Top One Hundred Films of All Time – 1 

Quote:
“We don’t generally worry about repeating ourselves.  Being original and always doing the new thing is incredibly overrated.”  Playboy Interview, November 20011

Links:

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