Skip Lievsay has worked on EVERY single Coen brothers movie. Now, as if that wasn’t impressive enough, he’s also worked with Martin Scorsese, Joe Carnahan, Cameron Crowe, Spike Lee and John Sayles. Much like longtime Coen cinematographer, Roger Deakins, he is very much at the top of his game. Indeed Lievsay received Academy Award nominations for Best Achievement in Sound and Best Achievement in Sound Editing for No Country for Old Men. FilmInFocus, the official Focus Features site, has interviewed him about his work in general and particularly on A Serious Man.

Of working with the Coen brothers he says;

“The Coens are precise — they have very specific ideas and they are very articulate in their scripts about the sound.  And they shoot their films in a way that lends itself to a more abstract sound [design].”

15 year-old Aaron Wolff who played Danny Gopnick in the Coen brothers latest movie, A Serious Man, is not old enough to see his own movie! He tried to go see the R-rated movie with a bunch of his pals at his local cinema but was turned away because all of the kids didn’t have an accompanying adult. Read the full story here. Thanks to Padi for sending this one in.
I’ve often wondered how kids in adult-rated movie get to see them. Do they have to wait till they’re old enough? Do they get to go to the premiere? Like another Danny from The Shining, I don’t care how much of the process he saw during the making of the movie, there is NO WAY at his age he could have watched that movie.

Empire magazine’s website has listed what they consider to be the the 20 best micro-part characters from the Coen brothers oeuvre. Here’s are those 20…

1. Loren Visser (M Emmet Walsh), Blood Simple

2. Dot (Frances McDormand), Raising Arizona

3. Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), Raising Arizona

4. Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito), Miller’s Crossing

5. Tic Tac (Al Mancini), Miller’s Crossing

6. Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner), Barton Fink

7. W.P. Mayhew (John Mahoney), Barton Fink

8. Waring Hudsucker (Charles Durning), The Hudsucker Proxy

9. Buzz (Jim True-Frost), The Hudsucker Proxy

10. Mike Yanagita (Steve Park), Fargo

11. Officer Lou (Bruce Lohene), Fargo

12. Marty (Jack Keller), The Big Lebowski

13. Penny Wharvey McGill (Holly Hunter), O Brother, Where Art Thou?

14. Freddy Reidenschneider (Tony Shalhoub), The Man Who Wasn’t There

15. Gus Petch (Cedric the Entertainer), Intolerable Cruelty

16. Wheezy Joe (Irwin Keyes), Intolerable Cruelty

17. Deputy Wendell (Garret Dillahunt), No Country For Old Men

18. Gas Station Proprietor (Gene Jones), No Country For Old Men

19. CIA Superior (J.K. Simmons), Burn After Reading

20. Sy Abelman (Fred Melamed), A Serious Man

Nice to see a couple of entries from Intolerable Cruelty which I still think is massively underrated suffering, as it does, from the weight of Coen quality prior to it.

What do you think? Has anyone been missed?  Only ONE from The Big Lebowski? I would have Knox Harrington (David Thewlis) in there right away! And no Jesus Quintana (John Turturro), surely Jesus’ part is small enough to make this list? None from The Ladykillers? Let’s talk…

Empire magazine’s website has a 5 minute (ish) interview with the star of A Serious Man, Michael Stuhlbarg. In it he discusses just how much of the movie is autobiographical for the Coen brothers and his interpretation of Schrödinger’s Cat.

Stuhlbarg always comes across as a really nice dude and his performance in A Serious Man is top-drawer so I really hope his career takes off in the way it deserves to. Hopefully he’ll work with the Coens again too!

The Coen’s latest, A Serious Man opens today in the UK, Sweden and Iceland!

Even though it opened in the US SEVEN weeks ago some other countries have it even worse! Check out this list of release dates;

JANUARY 2010!!! Wow!

Go see it if you can. Read the YKFK review here.

The guys over at /Film have dug up the “international trailer” for Zhang Yimou’s Chinese “remake” of the Coen brothers’ debut, Blood Simple. Possibly titled Amazing Tales: Three Guns or possibly The First Gun. I really don’t know what to say… at all. Here it is;

I have no idea how this can be considered anything to do with Blood Simple but what do I know? Zhang Yimou has said “We have added a lot of things, and changed the whole feeling [of Blood Simple]… we brought in a lot of comedic elements and changed the relationship and personalities of the characters.” Also click the image below to be taken to /Film where they have two more;

There is another casting session for the Coen brothers’ next movie, True Grit, this time in Waco, Texas. They are seeking a 14 year-old “gritty girl” for the role of Mattie, “preferably the kind that rides horses, gets dirty and speaks her mind.”

The auditions are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in Dodge Hall at the Heart of Texas Fair Complex at 4601 Bosque Blvd. in Waco. More info here.

Thanks to Bunnie for finding this and good luck to anyone who applies!

Empire magazine is running a competition to win a copy of the script for A Serious Man signed by Joel and Ethan Coen (I am presuming)! No regular reader of YKFK will need help with the answer!

Good luck!

I don’t know who Larry Nidus is though…

Awesome movie blog /Film have posted up a UK update. Within it the writer, Brendon Connelly is giving away an A Serious Man poster signed by Joel and Ethan Coen. What you have to do to be in with a chance of winning it is follow him on Twitter and answer the three questions he will post over the weekend. As the poster below states, the movie is out in the UK on 20th of November. I managed to catch it at the Leeds International Film Festival on Sunday, read my review here.