I think this only applies to readers in the UK but Sky Movies Indie is showing a “season” of Coen brothers movies building up to their premiere of No Country For Old Men showing on Sky Movies Premiere in HD. They’ve dubbed the season “Scream with the Coen brothers” and have put together this frankly ACE trailer which is a compedium of one of the Coens’ recurring themes- people screaming. It starts on 30th March and end on 12th April.

Information on the Sky site is not very well organised but I’ve been able to root this out;

The Hudsucker Proxy is showing on Monday 30th March at 20:00,

O Brother, Where Art Thou? on Monday 30th at 22:00 and Tuesday 31st at 20:00,

Blood Simple on Tuesday 31st at 22:00,

The Big Lebowski is showing on Wednesday 1st April at 22:00,

Raising Arizona is showing on Wednesday 1st April at 20:00 and Thursday 2nd April at 2:00

Beyond that, scrabbled together information I’m not sure if they’re showing more of their movies or not, certainly there are clips from both Barton Fink and Fargo in the trailer but they have no listings on the site. Perhaps those with a Sky subscription could clarify?

Thanks to Will for the info.

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.

If you read all that is out there on the internet since Burn After Reading’s release last week you will notice some common threads emerging time and time again. One of the most common, is the general feeling that the impression the trailer gives of the movie is way, way off. The trailer makes the movie look like a dumb, light-hearted, knock-about comedy which, apparently, it is not. Now, I am yet to see the movie (living as I do in the UK) but it is felt that the movie is a lot darker than the trailer would have us believe. Often it is compared to Fargo in tone, which is a black comedy sure, but it’s more drama than comedy. For my money, almost all of the Coen brothers movies are comedies, albeit black comedies, up to a point with the notable exception of No Country For Old Men which is not original Coen material (and possibly Blood Simple, Barton Fink and Miller’s Crossing- but each of these have funny moments). They are often criticised for the brutal and bloody violence they love to put to screen but it is almost always juxtaposed by something completely silly.

What do you guys luck enough to have seen it think?

Roll on October 17th when I will be able to see for myself.

Jacqui Landrum is a name that may not be familiar to most of you but she worked on four of the Coen brothers movies in the capacity of choreographer. Sadly she has died of cancer almost two weeks ago aged 64 and is survived by her husband.  She worked on Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Man Who Wasn’t There. RIP.

From Variety. Thanks to Bunnie for notifying me.

Hi, just a quick note to remind you that the poll is still running. If you are yet to cast a vote please do (the poll is also a persistent part of the sidebar on the right). As you can see The Big Lebowski is now clearly in the lead over Miller’s Crossing and Barton Fink, which isn’t much of a surprise. The real surprise is that three (3, count ‘em) people have voted The Ladykillers as their favourite Coen brothers movie. It takes all sorts…

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What with all the news of The Dark Knight being the bestest movie in the world since time began (according to it’s IMDB user rating) and in conjunction with YKFK’s currently running poll to find out which was the best (or more accurately- most favourite) Coen brothers movie, I thought it might be interesting to see what the IMDB users thought in comparison. In terms of ratings here’s IMDB’s rundown of Coen awesomeness first by rating and, where there’s a tie, I’ve given preference to the one with the most votes…

1. No Country For Old Men (8.4, 118,396 votes)
2. Fargo (8.3, 122,902)
3. The Big Lebowski (8.2, 122,119)
4. Miller’s Crossing (8.0, 31,861)
5. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (7.8, 71,292)
6. Blood Simple (7.8, 19,584)
7. The Man Who Wasn’t There (7.7, 30,891)
8. Barton Fink (7.7, 22,073)
9. Raising Arizona (7.5, 35,918)
10. The Hudsucker Proxy (7.4, 23,968)
11. Intolerable Cruelty (6.4, 26, 521)
12. The Ladykillers (6.2, 27,747)

Now, obviously, this is a live list so it will change over time. I just thought it might be interesting to compare what general movie fans think as opposed to specific Coen brothers fans who visit YKFK. At the moment the YKFK poll has Miller’s Crossing and The Big Lebowski tied at the top with 19% of the votes a piece. Next up is Fargo with 16% followed by Barton Fink with 13%. The bottom two in the YKFK poll unsurprisingly mirror the bottom two in the IMDB rankings, each taking up zero percent of the votes thus far- come on- SOMEONE must like them .

I was very surprised to see No Country For Old Men top the IMDB list whilst it is sixth on ours, but these type of things are always coloured by short memory. Will the IMDB voters still consider No Country superior to Fargo and The Big Lebowski in 10 years time?

Come the end of the YKFK poll (I ain’t decided how long to run it really- perhaps it should never end- your thoughts welcome) we need to decide which of the two polls is more important to us here at YKFK- the one voted for by dedicated Coen nuts or the one voted for by a more general movie fan…

Incidentally, I’m seeing The Dark Knight tomorrow afternoon and am looking forward to it immensely. I am expecting great things but the best movie of all time… nope.

Got to share this with you all- go here, they sell t-shirts based on the fictional places and companies from movies. They have a fine selection and three of them are from Coen movies. There’s a Hudsucker Industries one, a Little Lebowski Urban Achievers one and a Hotel Earle one! Check ‘em out.

lastexittonowhere.com

Got to share this with you all- go here, they sell t-shirts based on the fictional places and companies from movies. They have a fine selection and three of them are from Coen movies. There’s a Hudsucker Industries one, a Little Lebowski Urban Achievers one and a Hotel Earle one! Check ‘em out.

lastexittonowhere.com

Coen conspirator, Carter Burwell, is feeling generous. Nip on over to his site and you can download, for free, MP3s of his fine scores for many a movie. Of particular interest to us Coen obsessives are previously unreleased cuts from The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty. For those who don’t have the CDs there are also many tracks from Barton Fink, Fargo and The Big Lebwoski. Also, there are one or two clips from Theater of the New Ear, but you can download the entire Coen brother’s part, Sawbones, right here at You Know, For Kids! Thanks to Stephen for pointing this recent site update out.