1. Joel Coen (1954) and Ethan Coen (1957) Intro to Cinema: WKU “What a couple of a&%holes.”—Frances McDormand on watching an interview with Joel (her husband) and brother-in-law Ethan

2. Joel & Ethan Coen Intro to Cinema: WKU

3. Ethan & Joel Coen (with an employee of the Hotel Earle) Intro to Cinema: WKU

4. Ethan & Joel Coen Intro to Cinema: WKU

5. Ethan & Joel Coen Intro to Cinema: WKU

6. Ethan & Joel Coen (and George Clooney) Intro to Cinema: WKU

7. Ethan & Joel Coen (with Martin Scorsese) Intro to Cinema: WKU

8. The Coen Brothers (with Roger Deakins) Intro to Cinema: WKU

9. Ethan & Joel Coen Intro to Cinema: WKU

10. Joel & Ethan Coen Intro to Cinema: WKU

11. Joel & Ethan Coen Intro to Cinema: WKU

12. The Movies of The Coen Brothers The Movies of The Coen Brothers

13. Intro to Cinema: WKU

15. David Lavery. “’Secret SH#%t’: The Uncertainty Principle, Lying, Deviance, and the Movie Creativity of the Coen Brothers.” Post Script 27.2 (2008): 141-153.

16. Fellini himself once even proclaimed the need for a “cine-mendacity” to replace “cinema-verite” because “a lie is always more interesting than the truth” (Playboy 58). Cine-Mendacity

17. A Sample of The Brothers’ Lies  In the best Alan Smithee tradition, they created a fictional editor for their films, the Brit Roderick Jaynes (of “Hayward’s Heath, Surrey”), for whom they posited an entire professional career and a cantankerous personality—a fiction that was exposed only after his nomination for an Oscar for Fargo. He would later make a comeback, however, writing the introduction to the first volume of Coen screenplays in 2002.) Intro to Cinema: WKU The Coen Brothers

18. A Sample of The Brothers’ Lies  The Coens’ claim in their introduction to the published script of The Big Lebowski that it won “the 1998 Bar Kochba Award, # honouring achievements in the arts that defy racial and religious stereotyping and promote appreciation for the multiplicity of man.”  Ethan told Terry Gross on Fresh Air that he and Frances McDormand were surprised that the character of Marge Gunderson in Fargo was a favorite with audiences—“I thought she was the bad guy.”  They insisted that Fargo was “based on a true story.”  The Boys told all interested parties that they had never read Homer’s The Odyssey (on which O Brother Where Art Thou? was loosely based). # The director of the Bar Kochba, Rabbi Emmanuel Lev-Tov, we also learn, edits the quarterly journal “T’keyah and wrote a memoir entitled You with the Snozz. Intro to Cinema: WKU The Coen Brothers

19. A Sample of The Brothers’ Lies  In “The Making of The Big Lebowskl” available on the DVD version of the 1998 film, the Coens recall on camera, but without once making eye-contact with the lens, how a woman from Floor Covering Weekly had sought and been granted an interview concerning their new film. Since, in the opening scene of Lebowski, a thug urinates on a carpet in the apartment of “The Dude” (Jeff Bridges), thereby setting into motion the chain of events which will propel the film’s Chandleresque plot, we find it mostly credible. Details of the interview follow: the FCW journalist, we are told, was the only interviewer they have ever encountered who couldn’t wait to get away from the usually reticent Coens; Joel and Ethan offered to be photographed for the cover of the magazine; mysteriously, the interview never appeared. Suspicious, they claim, that the interviewer might actually have been a previously snubbed critic and dubious of the existence of a weekly magazine devoted to carpet and tile, The Boys confess that they came to wonder if the whole affair might have been a hoax. Floor Covering Weekly, however, does exist. Intro to Cinema: WKU The Coen Brothers

20. A Sample of The Brothers’ Lies Intro to Cinema: WKU

21. Ethan Coen’s Books Intro to Cinema: WKU Ethan as the more ingenious liar...

22. Intro to Cinema: WKU Ethan as the more ingenious liar... As a philosophy major at Princeton who did his honors thesis on Wittgenstein Steve Martin

23. Ethan Coen: A Brief Bio From The Drunk Driver Has the Right of Way. Ethan Coen lives outside of Marfa, Texas, on the ranch he won arm wrestling Lady Bird Johnson in a cantina in Ensenada in 1962 (the ensuing love story was celebrated in his memoir Don't Tell Lyndon). He is an expert on the poetry of Walter Savage Landor and many other subjects which he travels the world to lecture upon, unsolicited. Coen is Poet-in-Residence at the University of Big Bend and hosted its "Fire in the John" poetry readings until they changed the open bar policy. Under the pen name G. Willard Snunt, Coen is the author of the Moe Grabinsky mystery stories, detailing the adventures of the wily toll-taker/sleuth. In his spare time he is shot from cannons. Intro to Cinema: WKU The Coen Brothers Ethan as the more ingenious liar...

24. At Princeton, Ethan was equally out of step. After neglecting to notify the college that he planned to return from a term off, he tried to cut through the red tape with a phony doctor's excuse (from a surgeon at "Our Lady of the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat") that claimed he'd lost an arm in a hunting accident in his brother-in- law's living room. The school ordered him to see a shrink. --David Edelstein (The Coen Brothers Interviews, 23) Intro to Cinema: WKU The Coen Brothers Ethan as the more ingenious liar...

25. Intro to Cinema: WKU Speaking with one voice...

26. And yet... The Brothers are, in the tradition of Hitchcock, detail obsessive: To say the Coens come prepared to shoot is to understate the case. The script has been rubbed and buffed, the shots storyboarded. On the set they rarely improvise. Joel insists that when you make a movie for so little money, you can't afford to mess around. It's strange then, to hear them rhapsodize about Francis Coppola, a director who can't seem to work without a crisis, hammering out scenes and shots on the spot. 'I have no idea how you can go into a movie without a finished script,' Joel admits. --David Edelstein, The Coen Brothers Interviews 21 Intro to Cinema: WKU The Coen Brothers

27. Repertoire Company: John Turturro Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo, Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou Intro to Cinema: WKU Actors as cattle...

28. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: Jeff Bridges Big Lebowski, True Grit Intro to Cinema: WKU

29. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: George Clooney O Brother Where Art Thou, Intolerable Cruelty, Burn After Reading Intro to Cinema: WKU

30. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: Jon Polito Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Big Lebowski, The Man Who Wasn’t There Intro to Cinema: WKU

31. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: Steve Buscemi Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo, Big Lebowski Intro to Cinema: WKU

32. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: M. Emmett Walsh Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Hudsucker Proxy Intro to Cinema: WKU

33. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: Frances McDormand Blood Simple, Fargo, Big Lebowski, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Burn After Reading Intro to Cinema: WKU

34. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: Holly Hunter Raising Arizona, O Brother Where Art Thou Intro to Cinema: WKU

35. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: Peter Stormare Fargo, Big Lebowski Intro to Cinema: WKU

36. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: Richard Jenkins The Man Who Wasn’t There, Intolerable Cruelty, Burn After Reading Intro to Cinema: WKU

37. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: Billy Bob Thornton The Man Who Wasn’t There, Intolerable Cruelty Intro to Cinema: WKU

38. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: J. K. Simmons Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, Burn After Reading Intro to Cinema: WKU

39. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: Michael Badalucco O Brother Where Art Thou, The Man Who Wasn’t There Intro to Cinema: WKU

40. The Coen Brothers Repertoire Company: John Goodman Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Big Lebowski Intro to Cinema: WKU

41. Indebted to Liz Cooke and William Preston Robertson. The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Film. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998: 16- 23. Coen Motifs & Signatures Intro to Cinema: WKU

42. Coen Motifs & Signatures:  Howling Fat Men  Blustery Titans (Men Behind Big Desk)  Vomiting  Violence (Often Extreme & Very Bloody)  Dreams  Peculiar Haircuts  Eccentric/Extremely Repugnant/Over-the-Top Characters  The Incongruous  Odd Names  Strong Narrative Voices/Voice-Overs  “Hellzapopin’ Camera Work”  Odd Angles/Shots  Extraordinary Tracking Shots  Long, Wordless Sequences  Strange Dialogue Intro to Cinema: WKU

43. Coen Motifs & Signatures (one example):  Peculiar Haircuts: George Clooney in O Brother (right); Brad Pitt in Burn After (left). Intro to Cinema: WKU

44. Blood Simple (1984) Intro to Cinema: WKU

45. Visser's Opening Narration in Blood Simple The world is full of complainers. And the fact is, nothing comes with a guarantee. Now I don't care if you're the Pope of Rome, President of the United States or Man of the Year, something can all go wrong. Now go on ahead, you know complain, tell your problems to your neighbor, ask for help, and watch him fly. Now, in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else... that's the theory, anyway. But what I know about is Texas, and down here you're on your own. Intro to Cinema: WKU The Coen Brothers

46. Blood Simple (1984) Cast Intro to Cinema: WKU

47. Raising Arizona (1987) Intro to Cinema: WKU

48. Raising Arizona (1987) Cast Intro to Cinema: WKU

49. Raising Arizona (1987) Joel: For a movie like Raising Arizona, I guess you can detect our admiration for Southern writers like William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor Ethan: Even if we don’t share her interest in Catholicism! But she has a true knowledge of Southern psychology that you don’t find with many other writers She also has a great sense of eccentric character. (The Coen Brothers Interviews 26) Intro to Cinema: WKU

50. Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) Intro to Cinema: WKU

51. William Faulkner (1897-1962) Intro to Cinema: WKU

52. The book struck her directly over her left eye. It struck almost at the same instant that she realized the girl was about to hurl it.... Mrs. Turpin’s head cleared and her power of motion returned. She leaned forward until she was looking directly into the fierce brilliant eyes. There was no doubt in her mind that the girl did know her, knew her in some intense and personal way, beyond time and place and condition, “What you got to say to me?” she asked hoarsely and held her breath, waiting, as for a revelation. The girl raised her head. Her gaze locked with Mrs. Turpin’s. “Go back to hell where you came from, you old warthog,” she whispered. --Flannery O’Connor, “Revelation” Chapter 18 of Raising Arizona: “Warthog from Hell” Intro to Cinema: WKU

53. Chuck Jones Intro to Cinema: WKU

54. Miller’s Crossing (1990) Intro to Cinema: WKU

55. Miller’s Crossing (1990) Intro to Cinema: WKU

56. Barton Fink (1991) Intro to Cinema: WKU

57. Barton Fink (1991) Intro to Cinema: WKU

58. “Fink, played with a likable, dim earnestness by John Turturro, checks into an eerie hotel that looks designed by Edward Hopper.”— Roger Ebert Edward Hopper, Office at Night (1940) Intro to Cinema: WKU

59. “Fink, played with a likable, dim earnestness by John Turturro, checks into an eerie hotel that looks designed by Edward Hopper.”— Roger Ebert Edward Hopper, Hotel Lobby (1943) Intro to Cinema: WKU

60. “Fink, played with a likable, dim earnestness by John Turturro, checks into an eerie hotel that looks designed by Edward Hopper.”— Roger Ebert Edward Hopper, New York Movie(1939) Intro to Cinema: WKU

61. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) Intro to Cinema: WKU

62. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) Cast Intro to Cinema: WKU

63. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939) Intro to Cinema: WKU

64. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936 [Cooper, Jean Arthur, Capra]) Intro to Cinema: WKU

65. Preston Sturges (1898- 1959) Intro to Cinema: WKU

66. Fargo (1996) Intro to Cinema: WKU

67. Fargo (1996) Intro to Cinema: WKU Based on a true story...

68. Fargo (1996) Cast Intro to Cinema: WKU

69. The Big Lebowski (1998) Intro to Cinema: WKU

70. The Big Lebowski (1998) Cast Intro to Cinema: WKU

71. Cult Media Intro to Cinema: WKU

72. The Cult Film A COMPLETELY FURNISHED WORLD. Intro to Cinema: WKU

73.  Table of Contents  Introduction / Edward P. Comentale and Aaron Jaffe Part 1. Ins (Intrinsic Models and Influences)  1. The Really Big Sleep: Jeffrey Lebowski as the Second Coming of Rip Van Winkle / Fred Ashe  2. A Once and Future Dude: The Big Lebowski as Medieval Grail-Quest / Andrew Rabin  3. Dudespeak: Or, How to Bowl like a Pornstar / Justus Nieland  4. Metonymic Hats and Metaphoric Tumbleweeds: Noir Literary Aesthetics in Miller’s Crossing and The Big Lebowski / Christopher Raczkowski  5. The Dude and the New Left / Stacy Thompson  6. The Big Lebowski and Paul de Man: Historicizing Irony and Ironizing Historicism / Joshua Kates Edited by Edward P. Comentale and Aaron Jaffe Intro to Cinema: WKU

74. O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) There is a Bible in every wanderer's bedroom, where there might better be the Odyssey. James Hillman, Re-Visioning Psychology Intro to Cinema: WKU

75. Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) Cast Intro to Cinema: WKU

76. Homer’s The Odyssey  Odysseus—the King of Ithaca  Penelope—Odysseus’ wife (a “spinster”)  The Trojan War: The Trojan Horse  The Journey Home:  Scylla and Charybdis  The Sirens  The Cyclops  Circe/Calypso  Defeating the Suiters Intro to Cinema: WKU

77. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) Intro to Cinema: WKU

78. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) Intro to Cinema: WKU

79. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) Intro to Cinema: WKU A story of a barber who wants to become a dry cleaner.

80. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) Intro to Cinema: WKU

81. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) Cast Intro to Cinema: WKU

82. Other Titles Considered for The Man Who Was Not There (according to Roderick Jaynes in his “Introduction” to the screenplay)  I, The Barber  The Man Who Smoked Too Much  The Nirdlinger Doings  Missing, Presumed Ed  Mr. Mum  I Love You, Birdie Abundas  The Barber, Crane  Edward Crane  The Other Side of Fate  None Know My Name  I Will Cut Hair No More Forever  The Man Who Wasn’t All There  The Man with the Gas Hearth or My Hearth is Gas Intro to Cinema: WKU

83. The Man Who Wasn’t There They got this guy, in Germany. Fritz something-or- other. Or is it? Maybe it's Werner. Anyway, he's got this theory, you wanna test something, you know, scientifically—how the planets go round the sun, what sunspots are made of, why the water comes out of the tap—well, you gotta look at it. But sometimes, you look at it, your looking “changes” it. Ya can't know the reality of what happened, or what “would've” happened if you hadden a stuck in your goddamn schnozz. So there “is” no “what happened.” Not in any sense that we can grasp with our puny minds. Because our minds... our minds get in the way. Looking at something changes it. They call it the “Uncertainty Principle.” Sure, it sounds screwy, but even Einstein says the guy's on to something. Werner Heisenberg Intro to Cinema: WKU

84. No Country for Old Men (2007) Intro to Cinema: WKU

85. No Country for Old Men (2007) Cast Intro to Cinema: WKU

87. Burn After Reading (2008) Intro to Cinema: WKU

88. Burn After Reading (2008) Cast Intro to Cinema: WKU

89. A Serious Man(2009) Intro to Cinema: WKU Please don’t hurt the Jews...

90. A Serious Man (2009) Cast Intro to Cinema: WKU

91. A Serious Man (2009) Ethan and Joel at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival screening of A Serious Man. Intro to Cinema: WKU

92. A Serious Man(2009) “and that means... so that... from which we derive... and also... which lets us... and... Okay? The Uncertainty Principle. It proves we can't ever really know... what's going on.... But even if you can't figure anything out, you'll still be responsible for it on the mid-term.” My Article on Schrodinger’s Paradox Intro to Cinema: WKU

93. True Grit (2010) Intro to Cinema: WKU

94. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Intro to Cinema: WKU

96. ? ? ?

97. Joel Coen (1954) and Ethan Coen (1957) Intro to Cinema: WKU “What a couple of a&%holes.”—Frances McDormand on watching an interview with Joel (her husband) and brother-in-law Ethan