Constructing the Coens

Constructing the Coens

Author: Allen Redmon

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2015-02-02

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1442244852

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The films of Ethan and Joel Coen have been embraced by mainstream audiences, but also have been subject to intense scrutiny by critics and cinema scholars. Movies such as Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, and Raising Arizona represent the filmmakers’ postmodern tendencies, a subject many academics have written about at length. But is it enough to reduce their features as expressions of postmodernism or are there other ways of viewing their work—not only their individual films but their entire output as a collective whole? In Constructing the Coens: From Blood Simple to Inside Llewyn Davis, Allen H. Redmon looks beyond the postmodern sensibilities of every film written and directed by the Coens to find an unexpected range of recurring ideas expressed in and about contemporary film. In this volume, Redmon tackles all of the films in the Coen brothers’ canon by examining—among other topics—narrative coherence in The Man Who Wasn’t There, intertextuality in No Country for Old Men, and sexuality in Burn after Reading and O Brother, Where Art Thou? Additional chapters look at their films through the prisms of gender studies, adaptation studies, and a constructivist sensibility weaved throughout their work. Considering the whole of the Coens’ output, as well as many of the topics being discussed in contemporary film studies, this book challenges viewers to reexamine their initial responses to these movies. By engaging both the familiar and foreign elements in each film, Constructing the Coens will appeal to fans of the brothers’ cinema, but also to students and scholars of film theory, adaptation studies, queer theory, and gender studies.


Book Synopsis Constructing the Coens by : Allen Redmon

Download or read book Constructing the Coens written by Allen Redmon and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-02-02 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The films of Ethan and Joel Coen have been embraced by mainstream audiences, but also have been subject to intense scrutiny by critics and cinema scholars. Movies such as Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, and Raising Arizona represent the filmmakers’ postmodern tendencies, a subject many academics have written about at length. But is it enough to reduce their features as expressions of postmodernism or are there other ways of viewing their work—not only their individual films but their entire output as a collective whole? In Constructing the Coens: From Blood Simple to Inside Llewyn Davis, Allen H. Redmon looks beyond the postmodern sensibilities of every film written and directed by the Coens to find an unexpected range of recurring ideas expressed in and about contemporary film. In this volume, Redmon tackles all of the films in the Coen brothers’ canon by examining—among other topics—narrative coherence in The Man Who Wasn’t There, intertextuality in No Country for Old Men, and sexuality in Burn after Reading and O Brother, Where Art Thou? Additional chapters look at their films through the prisms of gender studies, adaptation studies, and a constructivist sensibility weaved throughout their work. Considering the whole of the Coens’ output, as well as many of the topics being discussed in contemporary film studies, this book challenges viewers to reexamine their initial responses to these movies. By engaging both the familiar and foreign elements in each film, Constructing the Coens will appeal to fans of the brothers’ cinema, but also to students and scholars of film theory, adaptation studies, queer theory, and gender studies.


The Cinema of the Coen Brothers

The Cinema of the Coen Brothers

Author: Jeffrey Adams

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2015-07-14

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0231850816

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The films of the Coen brothers have become a contemporary cultural phenomenon. Highly acclaimed and commercially successful, over the years their movies have attracted increasingly larger audiences and spawned a subculture of dedicated fans. Shunning fame and celebrity, Ethan and Joel Coen remain maverick filmmakers, producing and directing independent films outside the Hollywood mainstream in a unique style combining classic genres like film noir with black comedy to tell off-beat stories about America and the American Dream. This study surveys Oscar-winning films, such as Fargo (1996) and No Country for Old Men (2007), as well as cult favorites, including O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and The Big Lebowski (1998). Beginning with Blood Simple (1984), it examines major themes and generic constructs and offers diverse approaches to the Coens' enigmatic films. Pointing to the pulp fiction of Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler, the study appreciates the postmodern aesthetics of the Coens' intertextual creativity.


Book Synopsis The Cinema of the Coen Brothers by : Jeffrey Adams

Download or read book The Cinema of the Coen Brothers written by Jeffrey Adams and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The films of the Coen brothers have become a contemporary cultural phenomenon. Highly acclaimed and commercially successful, over the years their movies have attracted increasingly larger audiences and spawned a subculture of dedicated fans. Shunning fame and celebrity, Ethan and Joel Coen remain maverick filmmakers, producing and directing independent films outside the Hollywood mainstream in a unique style combining classic genres like film noir with black comedy to tell off-beat stories about America and the American Dream. This study surveys Oscar-winning films, such as Fargo (1996) and No Country for Old Men (2007), as well as cult favorites, including O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and The Big Lebowski (1998). Beginning with Blood Simple (1984), it examines major themes and generic constructs and offers diverse approaches to the Coens' enigmatic films. Pointing to the pulp fiction of Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler, the study appreciates the postmodern aesthetics of the Coens' intertextual creativity.


The Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski

Author: Ethan Coen

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2009-01-08

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 0571249329

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The Big Lebowski begins with a case of mistaken identity which escalates when Jeffrey Lebowski - alias The Dude - attempts to seek recompense for the despoilation of his ratty-ass little rug, and then finds himself entangled in a kidnapping caper as a bagman - a situation that goes from bad to worse due to the interference of his hapless bowling partners. In The Big Lebowski the Coen brothers have taken on the preoccupations of Raymond Chandler, but have given them a postmodern spin, while at the same time leaving Philip Marlowe's ethos intact as The Dude wanders thorugh the fractured world of nineties LA trying to do the right thing. Like the award-winning Fargo, The Big Lebowski is suffused with a droll humour and a verbal felicity that is as delightful as it is startling.


Book Synopsis The Big Lebowski by : Ethan Coen

Download or read book The Big Lebowski written by Ethan Coen and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2009-01-08 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Big Lebowski begins with a case of mistaken identity which escalates when Jeffrey Lebowski - alias The Dude - attempts to seek recompense for the despoilation of his ratty-ass little rug, and then finds himself entangled in a kidnapping caper as a bagman - a situation that goes from bad to worse due to the interference of his hapless bowling partners. In The Big Lebowski the Coen brothers have taken on the preoccupations of Raymond Chandler, but have given them a postmodern spin, while at the same time leaving Philip Marlowe's ethos intact as The Dude wanders thorugh the fractured world of nineties LA trying to do the right thing. Like the award-winning Fargo, The Big Lebowski is suffused with a droll humour and a verbal felicity that is as delightful as it is startling.


The Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski

Author: William Preston Robertson

Publisher: W. W. Norton

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780393317503

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With their quirky, arresting, comic, and intelligent movies, Ethan and Joel Coen have carved out their niche as America's preeminent independent filmmakers. Now, in a prose style that complements the Coens' filmic one, this book dissects the brothers' latest endeavor, "The Big Lebowski", to reveal how the movie goes from idea to reality, offering a discussion of the Coens' themes, atypical brand of humor, and artistic vision. 162 photos, 32 in color.


Book Synopsis The Big Lebowski by : William Preston Robertson

Download or read book The Big Lebowski written by William Preston Robertson and published by W. W. Norton. This book was released on 1998 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With their quirky, arresting, comic, and intelligent movies, Ethan and Joel Coen have carved out their niche as America's preeminent independent filmmakers. Now, in a prose style that complements the Coens' filmic one, this book dissects the brothers' latest endeavor, "The Big Lebowski", to reveal how the movie goes from idea to reality, offering a discussion of the Coens' themes, atypical brand of humor, and artistic vision. 162 photos, 32 in color.


Symbolic Construction of Community

Symbolic Construction of Community

Author: Anthony P. Cohen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-03-07

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1134947488

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Anthony Cohen makes a distinct break with earlier approaches to the study of community, which treated the subject in largely structural terms. His view is interpretive and experiential, seeing the community as a cultural field with a complex of symbols whose meanings vary among its members. He delineates a concept applicable to local and ethnic communities through which people see themselves as belonging to society. The emphasis on boundary is sensitive to the circumstances in which people become aware of the implications of belonging to a community, and describes how they symbolise and utilise these boundaries to give substance to their values and identities.


Book Synopsis Symbolic Construction of Community by : Anthony P. Cohen

Download or read book Symbolic Construction of Community written by Anthony P. Cohen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthony Cohen makes a distinct break with earlier approaches to the study of community, which treated the subject in largely structural terms. His view is interpretive and experiential, seeing the community as a cultural field with a complex of symbols whose meanings vary among its members. He delineates a concept applicable to local and ethnic communities through which people see themselves as belonging to society. The emphasis on boundary is sensitive to the circumstances in which people become aware of the implications of belonging to a community, and describes how they symbolise and utilise these boundaries to give substance to their values and identities.


Making of the Big Lebowski

Making of the Big Lebowski

Author: Tricia Cooke

Publisher:

Published: 1998-04-20

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780571193349

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Aiming to illuminate the Coen brothers' artistic process, this is a study of the making of the film The Big Lebowski. Structured around a few key scenes, it follow their evolution from conception, through their visualization as storyboards, to the shooting and post-production stages.


Book Synopsis Making of the Big Lebowski by : Tricia Cooke

Download or read book Making of the Big Lebowski written by Tricia Cooke and published by . This book was released on 1998-04-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aiming to illuminate the Coen brothers' artistic process, this is a study of the making of the film The Big Lebowski. Structured around a few key scenes, it follow their evolution from conception, through their visualization as storyboards, to the shooting and post-production stages.


The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers

The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers

Author: Mark T. Conard

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2008-12-12

Total Pages: 467

ISBN-13: 0813138698

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“Written for both fans of the Coen brothers and the philosophically curious, without the technical language . . . educational and entertaining.” —Library Journal Joel and Ethan Coen have made films that redefined the gangster movie, the screwball comedy, the fable, and the film noir, but no matter what genre they’re playing with, they consistently focus on the struggles of complex characters to understand themselves and their places in the strange worlds they inhabit. To borrow a phrase from Barton Fink, all Coen films explore “the life of the mind” and show that the human condition can often be simultaneously comic and tragic, profound and absurd. The essays in this book explore the challenging moral and philosophical terrain of the Coen repertoire. Several address how Coen films often share film noir’s essential philosophical assumptions: power corrupts, evil is real, and human control of fate is an illusion. In Fargo, not even Minnesota’s blankets of snow can hide Jerry Lundegaard’s crimes or brighten his long, dark night of the soul. The tale of love, marriage, betrayal, and divorce in Intolerable Cruelty transcends the plight of the characters to illuminate competing theories of justice. Even in lighter fare, such as Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski, the comedy emerges from characters’ journeys to the brink of an amoral abyss. However, the Coens often knowingly and gleefully subvert conventions and occasionally offer symbolic rebirths and other hopeful outcomes. At the end of The Big Lebowski, for example, the Dude abides, his laziness has become a virtue, and the human comedy is perpetuating itself with the promised arrival of a newborn Lebowski. The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers sheds new light on the work of these cinematic visionaries. From Blood Simple to No Country for Old Men, the Coens’ characters look for answers—though in some cases, their quest for answers leads, at best, only to more questions.


Book Synopsis The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers by : Mark T. Conard

Download or read book The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers written by Mark T. Conard and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2008-12-12 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Written for both fans of the Coen brothers and the philosophically curious, without the technical language . . . educational and entertaining.” —Library Journal Joel and Ethan Coen have made films that redefined the gangster movie, the screwball comedy, the fable, and the film noir, but no matter what genre they’re playing with, they consistently focus on the struggles of complex characters to understand themselves and their places in the strange worlds they inhabit. To borrow a phrase from Barton Fink, all Coen films explore “the life of the mind” and show that the human condition can often be simultaneously comic and tragic, profound and absurd. The essays in this book explore the challenging moral and philosophical terrain of the Coen repertoire. Several address how Coen films often share film noir’s essential philosophical assumptions: power corrupts, evil is real, and human control of fate is an illusion. In Fargo, not even Minnesota’s blankets of snow can hide Jerry Lundegaard’s crimes or brighten his long, dark night of the soul. The tale of love, marriage, betrayal, and divorce in Intolerable Cruelty transcends the plight of the characters to illuminate competing theories of justice. Even in lighter fare, such as Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski, the comedy emerges from characters’ journeys to the brink of an amoral abyss. However, the Coens often knowingly and gleefully subvert conventions and occasionally offer symbolic rebirths and other hopeful outcomes. At the end of The Big Lebowski, for example, the Dude abides, his laziness has become a virtue, and the human comedy is perpetuating itself with the promised arrival of a newborn Lebowski. The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers sheds new light on the work of these cinematic visionaries. From Blood Simple to No Country for Old Men, the Coens’ characters look for answers—though in some cases, their quest for answers leads, at best, only to more questions.


The Sainte-Chapelle and the Construction of Sacral Monarchy

The Sainte-Chapelle and the Construction of Sacral Monarchy

Author: Meredith Cohen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1107025575

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This book offers a novel perspective on one of the most important monuments of French Gothic architecture, the Sainte-Chapelle, constructed in Paris by King Louis IX of France between 1239 and 1248 especially to hold and to celebrate Christ's Crown of Thorns. Meredith Cohen argues that the chapel's architecture, decoration, and use conveyed the notion of sacral kingship to its audience in Paris and in greater Europe, thereby implicitly elevating the French king to the level of suzerain, and establishing an early visual precedent for the political theories of royal sovereignty and French absolutism. By setting the chapel within its broader urban and royal contexts, this book offers new insight into royal representation and the rise of Paris as a political and cultural capital in the thirteenth century.


Book Synopsis The Sainte-Chapelle and the Construction of Sacral Monarchy by : Meredith Cohen

Download or read book The Sainte-Chapelle and the Construction of Sacral Monarchy written by Meredith Cohen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a novel perspective on one of the most important monuments of French Gothic architecture, the Sainte-Chapelle, constructed in Paris by King Louis IX of France between 1239 and 1248 especially to hold and to celebrate Christ's Crown of Thorns. Meredith Cohen argues that the chapel's architecture, decoration, and use conveyed the notion of sacral kingship to its audience in Paris and in greater Europe, thereby implicitly elevating the French king to the level of suzerain, and establishing an early visual precedent for the political theories of royal sovereignty and French absolutism. By setting the chapel within its broader urban and royal contexts, this book offers new insight into royal representation and the rise of Paris as a political and cultural capital in the thirteenth century.


The Coen Brothers

The Coen Brothers

Author: Adam Nayman

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Published: 2018-09-11

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781419727405

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From such cult hits as Raising Arizona (1987) and The Big Lebowski (1998) to major critical darlings Fargo (1996), No Country for Old Men (2007), and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Ethan and Joel Coen have cultivated a bleakly comical, instantly recognizable voice in modern American cinema. In The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together, film critic Adam Nayman carefully sifts through their complex cinematic universe in an effort to plot, as he puts it, "some Grand Unified Theory of Coen-ness." The book combines critical text--biography, close film analysis, and enlightening interviews with key Coen collaborators--with a visual aesthetic that honors the Coens' singular mix of darkness and levity. Featuring film stills, beautiful and evocative illustrations, punchy infographics, and hard insight, this book will be the definitive exploration of the Coen brothers' oeuvre.


Book Synopsis The Coen Brothers by : Adam Nayman

Download or read book The Coen Brothers written by Adam Nayman and published by Harry N. Abrams. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From such cult hits as Raising Arizona (1987) and The Big Lebowski (1998) to major critical darlings Fargo (1996), No Country for Old Men (2007), and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Ethan and Joel Coen have cultivated a bleakly comical, instantly recognizable voice in modern American cinema. In The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together, film critic Adam Nayman carefully sifts through their complex cinematic universe in an effort to plot, as he puts it, "some Grand Unified Theory of Coen-ness." The book combines critical text--biography, close film analysis, and enlightening interviews with key Coen collaborators--with a visual aesthetic that honors the Coens' singular mix of darkness and levity. Featuring film stills, beautiful and evocative illustrations, punchy infographics, and hard insight, this book will be the definitive exploration of the Coen brothers' oeuvre.


The Coen Brothers

The Coen Brothers

Author: Ronald Bergan

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9780752818146

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"Joel and Ethan Coen have pulled off the ultimate balancing act. Despite having their movies financed and distributed by major studios they have somehow managed to remain true independents determinedly rejecting commercial cliches and never giving up their own fiercely idiosyncratic vision." "In this biography of the sibling film-makers, Ronald Bergan, who has played cat and mouse with the Coens over the last few years, traces the brothers' Jewish roots, their beginnings as film geeks in the suburbs of Minneapolis, their battles to get their first feature made and released, the many sources of their inspiration, their unique working methods and their enigmatic, teasing and quirky personalities."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved


Book Synopsis The Coen Brothers by : Ronald Bergan

Download or read book The Coen Brothers written by Ronald Bergan and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Joel and Ethan Coen have pulled off the ultimate balancing act. Despite having their movies financed and distributed by major studios they have somehow managed to remain true independents determinedly rejecting commercial cliches and never giving up their own fiercely idiosyncratic vision." "In this biography of the sibling film-makers, Ronald Bergan, who has played cat and mouse with the Coens over the last few years, traces the brothers' Jewish roots, their beginnings as film geeks in the suburbs of Minneapolis, their battles to get their first feature made and released, the many sources of their inspiration, their unique working methods and their enigmatic, teasing and quirky personalities."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved