I have been trying to formulate this into an article myself but I only go as far as making some notes. Vanity Fair has done a much better job than I would have done with a fun article about the chronology of the Coen brothers’ movie output to date and observes that, while they love to trip through time and period, they are yet to make a movie set in the 1970’s. To wit;

1920’s – Miller’s Crossing

1930’s – O Brother, Where Art Thou?

1940’s – Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn’t There

1950’s – The Hudsucker Proxy

1960’s – A Serious Man

1970’s -

1980’s – Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, No Country For Old Men

1990’s – Fargo, The Big Lebowski

2000’s – Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers (even though it feels older), Burn After Reading

Now, obviously some of these movies aren’t period movies at all but contemporary movies set during the time they were made. Interesting none the less.

What historic theme do you think they could tackle to fill this 1970’s-shaped void in their oevre? Watergate? The Beatles breaking up? The founding of Microsoft?

WCCO.com has a brief report on the first day of shooting on the Coen’s next movie, A Serious Man. The piece is about the transformation of the local Key’s Cafe to fit with the movie’s setting of the late 60’s. The extras are all in period dress and there’s a lot of 60’s cars too. You can watch the video segment here and see 12 on-set photos below. Ethan seems to be busy but no sign of Joel…