Biography for
Ethan Coen

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Date of Birth

Estatura

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Trade Mark

Frequently casts Steve Buscemi (6 times), Frances McDormand (5 times), Jon Polito (5 times), John Goodman (4 times), John Turturro (4 times), George Clooney (3 times), Michael Badalucco (3 times), Charles Durning (2 times), 'M. Emmett Walsh' (2 times), Peter Stormare (2 times), 'Richard Jenkins' (2 times), 'John Mahoney' (2 times), Tony Shalhoub (2 times), 'Stephen Root' (2 times) and Billy Bob Thornton (2 times).

References to the films of Stanley Kubrick.

Films often center around or include a botched crime.

Often creates at least one lengthy sequence in most of his films where only music plays as a major event unfolds, i.e Raising Arizona (1987) when Nicolas Cage is being chased after robbing a store. Also sequences in Miller's Crossing (1990), The Big Lebowski (1998), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), and Fargo (1996).

The Coens frequently focus on round spinning objects: hat in Miller's Crossing (1990), bowling balls and tumble-weed in The Big Lebowski (1998), hair pomade tins in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), UFO and a car wheel in The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) ...or the fans in Blood Simple. (1984).

Often has a certain phrase that is repeated throughout the movie or a specific scene.

Typically makes movies set during a specific time period in the past.

Films usually contain at least one fast-talking character.

Films often include characters or places with the stereotypes of the regions they take place in. The Mid-Western accents and snow-covered landscapes for Fargo (1996), the South-Eastern accents and barren deserts of Arizona for Raising Arizona (1987), the Southern accents and dust-bowl landscape for O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Los Angeles accents and life-style in The Big Lebowski (1998), and the accents and cramped environments of Los Angeles in Barton Fink (1991).

Trivialidades

Brother of Joel Coen.

Graduated from Princeton University.

Works so closely with his brother Joel Coen, that the two of them are often jokingly referred to as "The Two-Headed Director".

Alumnus of Simon's Rock College, Great Barrington, MA, with brother Joel Coen. This is a fully-accredited college for students who typically enter the age of 16 - before graduating high school.

Ranked #88 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List with brother Joel Coen. They had been ranked #92 in 2002.

Brother-in-law of Frances McDormand.

He and brother Joel Coen have had final cut on all of their films since Blood Simple. (1984), their debut film.

Frequently includes kidnapping-plots in his films.

Has used the character name of Marva Munson in both of his past two films. First, in Intolerable Cruelty (2003) (Judge Marva Munson) and secondly, in The Ladykillers (2004) (Marva Munson).

Worked as a statistical clerk at Macy's before setting off to make Blood Simple. (1984).

As of 2008 joined (along with his brother Joel Coen) the prestigious group of individuals to have won Oscars for writing, directing and producing in the same year, for the film No Country for Old Men (2007). The others are Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), 'James L Brooks' for Terms of Endearment (1983), Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather: Part II (1974), Billy Wilder for The Apartment (1960) and Leo McCarey for Going My Way (1944). James Cameron also won three Oscars for Titanic (1997) but they were for directing, producing and editing.

Only three times in Academy Award history have director-collaborators been nominated for Best Directing Oscars: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007). (Wise/Robbins and the Coens actually won the award).

The first Coen brothers film where both he and brother Joel Coen are given directing and producing credits was The Ladykillers (2004). They have shared these duties on all of their films, but Joel has always been listed as director and Ethan as producer.

Personal Quotes

It's easy to offend people. People get uncomfortable, for instance, when the main character in a movie is not sympathetic in a Hollywood formula way. Our movies are loaded with things that aren't to everyone's taste. On the other hand, there's a scene in [O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)] where a frog gets squished that everyone seems to like. It's all right to do the frog squishing.

We aren't the grandfathers of any movement. In the 1980s, the so-called indie film movement was a media creation. What I found irritating is that 'independent' became an encomium. If it was independent, it was supposed to be good, and studio films were bad. Obviously, there are bad independent films and good studio films.

The movie people let us play in the corner of the sandbox and leave us alone. We're happy here.

The awards put a movie on people's radars. Festivals are good, even though the idea of putting movies in competitions-this one is the best this, that one is the best that-is ridiculous.

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