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Great stuff- just stumbled across these…
I’m not claiming to know anything about marketing but, if I were in charge of the PR for a movie, I’d try my best to ensure that this kind of thing was sent directly to the people in a good position to show them to a lot of people at no cost, say… fan websites for example. I don’t know why I have to accidentally find them on the internet…
Now that the Coens’ latest is almost out here in the UK (17 days but who’s counting?) reviews are beginning to appear on this side of the Atlantic. First one I’ve seen is this from Empire magazine…
“Ask Ethan Coen to explain his latest fable, and he will scratch his thinning hair and summarise its strange ponderings thus: “It is about the covert world of the CIA and internet dating.” Ask Joel Coen to unravel Burn After Reading, and he’ll stroke his well-trimmed goatee and define its unusual formula thus: “This is our version of a Tony Scott/Jason Bourne kind of movie – without the explosions.” Indeed, to this previously untapped combo of inert espionage and modern dating rituals, they could add the perils of alcoholism, ’70s conspiracy thrillers, computer malfunction and personal training. Not to forget sexual deviancy. In a career steeped in oddity, this is another polished example of the brothers’ predilection for tossing a pile of wacky ideas and multiple movie references into the juicer to see what flavour emerges.
Following that most un-Coen of eventualities, an Oscar triumph, at first glance you might see their latest as an effort to paddle away from the threatening currents of the mainstream and back into the reassuring calm of the left bank – although, given it was made prior to the release of No Country For Old Men, that would require some nifty clairvoyance on their Brillo-haired behalf. Perhaps they just wanted to reawaken the zany in their filmmaking. Compared to the moody poetry of that classy neo-Western, Burn After Reading has the wild abandon of a punk-rock song – it’s all jibs and jabs, the rope-a-dope moves of a boxer. A slighter, less obviously showy piece that will grow and grow with repeated viewing.
So what’s the rumpus? Ozzie Cox (John Malkovich), a low-level data analyst at the CIA’s voluminous headquarters at Langley, has quit in a fit of pique. He didn’t take too kindly to being demoted. Truth be told, he doesn’t take too kindly to anything. However, a disc of what appears to be his hastily penned revenge memoirs turns up in the ladies’ changing room of Hardbodies Fitness Center. Naturally, personal trainer Linda (Frances McDormand), desperate to fund her forthcoming surgical work, together with her eager-beaver underling Chad (Brad Pitt), decide to sell the intelligence to the Russians. Did we mention overly horny Harry (George Clooney), currently schtupping Ozzie’s wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) and soon preying upon lonely Linda through the avenue of internet dating? We should. He’s relevant. All of it is played at the amphetamine pace of Raising Arizona.
Cut from similar cloth to Fargo and Lebowski, this is not quite a thriller, and not fully a comedy, but it is very funny and plotted to within an inch of incomprehensible – just like their beloved Chandler. God knows, it errs on the dark side, but the noir is bleached out in the leafy sprawl of Washington DC. Members of the anti-Coen club (unresponsive to the Muncie song, indifferent to bowling) tend to cite the superficial glaze of their art; the tart, unlikable characters; and the smug self-satisfaction at their own cleverness. There will be no swaying even the floaters this time round. If anything, Burn After Reading plays right into the calloused hands of the naysayers. It lacks the immediate charm of classical Coen: there’s no Marge or Dude – good-natured if unconventional counterpoints to the monopoly of jerks, saddos and crazies. Here it’s pretty much just jerks, saddos and crazies.
Ethan, always the more talkative of the brethren, would remind us that most of the characters were written with exactly these actors in mind. Malkovich’s pouting arrogance is a perfect fit for huffy clown Ozzie. McDormand’s disjointed smile and genius for body-language are ideal for nervy, jabbering Linda. Swinton’s snooty grace is primed for Ozzie’s untrustworthy spouse. Out of the crowd, however, it’s the pretty boys who enjoy themselves the most, defiantly mocking their swish Ocean’s Umpteen images. Pitt uncorks his hyperactive loon, blissfully ensconced in the hollow brain-space of a gym-cute bubble-head bounding into the world of espionage like a puppy. Clooney has a wonderful line in smarm he reserves for just these Coen-arranged occasions. Harry is a true-blue sleazebag – wait ’til you see what he’s got in his basement – who emerges out of the chaos as near enough the leading man.
This is precision-built madness. Beneath these chattering lunatics and the pinballing plot lies an intricacy worthy of Kubrick. The sound-editing alone is exquisite: the squeak of a wardrobe door triggering a blast of violence; the hallways of Langley reverberating to the clip-clop of fraught footsteps, rhythmically muffled by carpeting in sonic tribute to The Shining’s zooming trike. Regular cinematographer Roger Deakins may have been on his holidays, but replacement Emmanuel Lubezki (a real person) proves adept at tight, shapely frames and creepy angles.
True Coen fanciers can take solace in such familiar comforts as astonishingly bad highlights in Pitt’s sticky-up hair, the smart-aleck language (although it’s got nothing on the charged patter of Fargo or Lebowski) and a leading character wielding an axe in his dressing gown. And, as is the Coens’ curious wont, the film never quite fits its assumed reality: while we’re darting about contemporary Washington, concerned with such recent preoccupations as social networking and gym regimes, it has the lean, grumbly look of ’70s cinema and the dotty bedlam of trouser-plunging British farce, as if Seven Days In May had been rewritten by Alan Ayckbourn. It is also one of those movies that won’t leave you alone. Percolating away in your brain, its off-centre wit will take shape. The day after, even a week later, one of its peculiar set-pieces will spring to mind.
Ethan might remonstrate, but there runs a theory in certain circles that all Coen films are ultimately about American foreign policy. While it takes work to figure out exactly how that fits The Ladykillers, it is written through Burn After Reading like a stick of rock. Curiously, it’s the schmoes rather than the bureaucrats in the firing line. The CIA suits (led by a too-brief appearance from J. K. Simmons) are benign, bemused and rather gormless; it’s the knuckleheaded plebs who are out of control. America’s troubles, it titters, are of their own making.
As Linda tries to offload the improbable secrets to the very confused Russians, the Agency is baffled. Why the Russians?
The idiots simply can’t think of anywhere else. Farce by its nature is a matter of escalation: each stage of the ever-increasing anarchy is entirely logical, but the net result is insanity. What is Iraq, if not a great, big, terrible farce? Then again, it could just be a big joke on celebrity. There’s nothing that tickles those pesky brothers more than casting a gaggle of gigantic Hollywood stars – including one’s wife – as total nitwits. It’s a high old tale about unintelligent intelligence. That’s the Coens for you.
Verdict
If No Country For Old Men was vintage port, Burn After Reading is a shot of tequila: eye watering and hard to swallow, but the after-effect is terrific.” – Ian Nathan, Empire magazine, issue #233, November 2008 – 4/5 stars
Forget paintings of kids with tears on their cherubic cheeks or dogs playing pool- what you really want are awesome, stylised pieces of art dedicated to the movies that you love – that would really tie your room together! Of course amongst the pieces on offer are some inspired by the movies of the Coen brothers. Check it out here. Keep an eye out for the disturbing Lundergaard family portrait- chilling.
Beware ALL of the images are on one page so it takes bloody ages to load!
This post really has nothing to say. I just wanted to draw your attention to a blog post at Immitation of Life, which also has nothing to say. We all know about the presence of hats in Miller’s Crossing but here it is in pretty pictures.
In addition to this, the same blog has a pictorial look at symmetry in the movie.
Burn After Reading has won the TCM Audience Award at the 56th San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.
“The TCM-AUDIENCE AWARD at the 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival, carrying a cash prize of €70,000 in aid towards promotion of the winning film, goes to “BURN AFTER READING“ by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, distributed in Spain by Universal Pictures Internacional Spain, S.L. This film was granted 8,639 points out of a maximum of 10.”
Also at that site you can watch a 32 minute press conference (in either Spanish or English) with John Malkovich (sporting a frankly AMAZING jacket) who appears to have been the only representation for the movie.
Also here’s the Spanish poster (click for larger).
I don’t really know where to start on this. Here’s an article from the Minnesota Post (who have a “thoughful approach to news” apparenlty) outlining that Joel and Ethan Coen are involved in some kind of inter-familial lawsuit, being sued by their sister (if I’m reading it correctly) for acting as “intermediaries” in a business deal between their dad and uncle? Like I said, I’m a little confused by it. Hell, from the link you can even read the entire 222 page document (I declined). Oh and, amusingly, they’re referred to in the suit as John Doe One and John Doe Two, presumably to mask their identity, what with them being famous Oscar-winning directors and all.
I debated with myself about posting this at all since it’s nothing to do with the Coen’s movie output, however it has left me scratching my head in puzzlement. Actually I might delete the post entirely, I don’t like feeling like a gossip…
Remember Empire’s Big Lebowski cover? It is one of 101 for this month’s issue celebrating their countdown of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. 10,000 readers, 150 of “Hollywood’s finest” and 50 “key” film critics were polled to generate the list. Anyhoo, five, 5 count ‘em, Coen brothers pictures made the grade. Oscar winning No Country For Old Men appears at #228, Fargo at #198, Miller’s Crossing at #117, Raising Arizona at #101 and The Big Lebowski at a dizzying #43- the 43rd Best Movie of All Time! Wow.
You can see the entire countdown here but, for your curiosity, here’s the top 10 Greatest Movies of All Time…
1. The Godfather
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
4. The Shawshank Redemption
5. Jaws
6. GoodFellas
7. Apocalypse Now
8. Singin’ in the Rain
9. Pulp Fiction
10. Fight Club
It’s interesting to see how the position of the Coen brothers films above differs from their relative position in the YKFK poll. They both have Lebowski way in front but 2nd in the YKFK poll is Fargo, followed by Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing then No Country For Old Men. Raising Arizona only has 2% of the votes on YKFK. Interesting.
Hollywood legend Paul Newman has died at the age of 83 after a long battle against cancer. An Oscar winner, philanthopist and foodie with genuine movie-star looks best known to us here at YKFK as Sidney J. Mussburger from The Hudsucker Proxy, died at his farmhouse in Westport, Connecticut with his family and close friends. RIP.
EDIT- Empire Online has a photo feature of Newman’s 10 Greatest Roles. His role in The Hudsucker Proxy features.
EDIT 2- Found this clip on YouTube. The man was a true, bona fide LEGEND, the world’s a worse place without him in it.
Hey all, in a bit of downtime I stumbled across this frankly brilliant piece of typography animation…
There are many, many others like this on YouTube but none compare in my opinion.
From that I found this- the infamous “this is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps” terrible TV dub. Hilarious…
And I think I heard “feed a stoner scrambled eggs” in there too. Bizarre!
Carter Burwell has once again produced the goods for a Coen brothers movie. He started his collaboration with the Coens with their debut Blood Simple and has worked on every one of their movies since. His score for Burn After Reading is available to buy now on Lakeshore Records on old fashioned CD from stores and also from iTunes and Amazon Digital. Also available on iTunes is an album called Gym Music from Burn After Reading which would appear to be Chad’s workout music.
Filmfocus.com (the website for Focus Features) has an interview with Burwell where he discusses his approach to working with the Coens and his score for their latest movie. Here’s a pertinent quote;
Since the characters [in Burn After Reading] thought they were in a spy movie, Carter Burwell thought the composer should be equally deluded. “I liked the idea that the composer is as deluded as the characters so that his soundtrack fits the movie the characters think they are in, rather than the actual film we are watching.”
His long relationship with the Coens, however, gives his collaborations with them a special quality. Their relationship “makes it easy for a couple of reasons,” explains Burwell. “There is a lot of trust on both sides. They know I’ll finish and get my job done, and they’ll give me the time to try out different things. And I don’t worry that they’ll overreact if I play them something radical. When you are talking about [the relationship between] music and cinema, there isn’t a completely perfect, established language, but ours is as good as it’s going to get. Another big difference when [working with the Coens] is that we don’t worry about the opinions of other people. It’s rare that we sit around and think, what will the producer or the audience think of this? We are mostly trying to make a movie that we think is good and that will entertain us. And then, of course, we hope that other people will think it’s good too.”