Coen Brothers Retrospective at MoMA

All movies are collaborative, but the fact remains that some are more collaborative than others--and none more so than those written, directed, produced, and edited by the Coen Brothers (they’ll never categorically state who does what). Rumor has it that if you ask either of the two men a question you’ll get the same answer. We saw four of the nine Coen Brothers movies recently screened at MoMA as part of its Collaborations in the Collections series. Here’s what we thought:

Raising Arizona: it’s amazing how much of this movie has stayed with us over the past 21 years (meant as a compliment)

Miller’s Crossing: as unintelligible and mannered as ever (also meant as a compliment, sort of)

Fargo: perfection

The Big Lebowski: a little long, but better on the big screen

Seeing them together emphasized just how much the pair knows their filmic history; watching the movies is almost as good as reading a history of film. They're obsessed with the idea of place: regardless of whether it’s the dry west, the woods outside of New Orleans, the wintry Midwest, or the kooky sides of LA, they want to know--and show--what makes a locale, well, local (this includes, of course, exploring accents and lots of sweeping, panoramic shots). Lastly, after spending so much time in the Coen world, we arrived at the following conclusion: noir is good, but noir + Frances McDormand is better.

Photo: thanks