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].”

Wow! Not content with giving Clint Eastwood stick for apparently omitting African American soldiers from his Flags of Our Fathers movie but he also thinks the Coen’s are a little cavalier with their attitude to life and mortality. Said he, “I always treat life and death with respect, but most people don’t… Look, I love the Coen brothers; we all studied at NYU. But they treat life like a joke. Ha ha ha. A joke. It’s like, ‘Look how they killed that guy! Look how blood squirts out the side of his head!’ I see things different than that.”

Maybe if he stopped treating life so seriously he’d get back to making good movies?

Thanks to JD for mailing it in.