SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2010
KLMNO MOVIES Fans big on ‘Lebowski.’ ‘Fargo?’ You betcha.
Admirers of Coen brothers films say they’re scary, coldblooded, demented and very human — even ‘brilliantly about nothing’ Some folks are “Big Lebowski”
types; some folks are “Barton Fink.”We asked fans to pick their favorite Coen brothers film.
Newt Gingrich, former House
speaker, potential 2012 Repub- lican presidential candidate: “My favorite Coen brothers mov- ie is ‘Fargo’ because it combines a mystery, black humor and the finest imitation of northernMin- nesota dialect ever put on the screen.”
Peggy Parsons, head of film
programs at the National Gal- lery of Art: “In a sense, my favorite Coen brothers film is their next one, the one to come— anticipation is everything with these two. But ‘No Country for Old Men’ best sums up what I most enjoy about them: the wit, the nonstop intelligent flashes and canny details. With ‘No Country,’ however, the whole is definitely greater thanthe sumof the parts.”
Michael Jaworek, promoter
for Alexandria’s Birchmeremu- sic hall: “ ‘Miller’s Crossing’ is a great example of a different sort of gangster picture. They circle around to the subject, sort of coloring in from the edges, and then all of the sudden you go, ‘Holy cow, now I get it!’ I felt as though I was in the frame with the action, and I should have been wearing a white shirt and a black tie.”
Jeff Krulik, Washington doc-
umentary filmmaker (“Heavy Metal Parking Lot,” “Hitler’s Hat,” “Ernest Borgnine on the Bus” ): “Raising Arizona.” “Itwas broad comedy, it was smart com- edy, it was almost, like, other- worldly. My roommates and I used to quote the line about pajamas all the time: ‘They had Yodas ’n’ [expletive] on ’em!’ It’s just such an incredible descrip- tion of kids’ pajamas. ”
Steve Davies, columnist for
TakomaPark.Patch.com: “The Big Lebowski.” “At the end, after Donny’s ashes blow back in Dude’s face, Dude is understand- ably upset but has to forgive Walter, who keeps saying, ‘Dude, I’m sorry.’ We’ve all known peo- ple like that, who never seem to get anything right or have good intentions that backfire. But we have to cut them some slack. Which seems pretty basic to any vision of a benevolent and loving society—forgiveness.”
Dana Tai Soon Burgess, cho-
reographer and artistic direc- tor of Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Company: “Raising Arizona.” “What’s great about thatmovie is its disparate journey on the edge of hysteria, surrounding the is- sue of caring for a child. They take this universal theme and put it on a roller-coaster ride. I love how the characters are con- stantly forgetting the baby, near- ly running over the baby — all in the name of love. . . . The way [the filmmakers] play with mo- tion is great, and then there’s the baby’s inability to feel danger, while the rest of them are nearly always in trauma.”
June Jeffries, retired federal
homicide prosecutor in the Dis- trict: “ ‘Fargo!’ The guy in the wood chipper! Steve Buscemi! The other day, these guys came downmy street, a tree was down or something, and they had a wood chipper. I looked at it, and I said, ‘Whoa!’ ” She says that in her two decades of experience, no one ever got put into a wood chipper, but she did encounter several people as dumb as the guy who wound up in one.
John “Spud” McConnell, New
Orleans-based radio host and character actor, who has had small parts in “Miller’s Cross- ing,” “The Ladykillers” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” He is best known to Coen fans as the irate shop owner in “O Brother” who yells at George Clooney’s character, “And stay out of theWoolworth’s!”: “ ‘Rais- ing Arizona.’ They take the most outrageous [expletive] andmake it plausible. There’s that scene with Nicolas Cage and John Goodman fighting in the trailer, and Cage’s knuckles scrape on the texture of the ceiling. Just that tiny bit of reality. Cage robs the convenience store, and the kid with the braces and the pimples pulls out this humon- gous .44-caliber gun on him. Sometimes you have to wonder what they dreamaboutwhen you see the stuff that gets out on film.”
VIRGINIA BALLETCOMPANY BVHE
WICKEDWEALTH: Josh Brolin in the Coen brothers’ “No Country for OldMen,” which won four Oscars, including Best Picture.
Tim Gordon, president,
Washington D.C. Area FilmCrit- ics Association; founder, Black Reel Awards: “ ‘Fargo.’ I loved that at its core, it’s a basic whodunit. But what makes it so good are the nuances and the performances he gets from ac- tors like William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi. Basically, it’s kind of this offbeat kooky story with these strange dialects, and all these people with these funny little quirks. It’s right in the Coen brothers’ wheelhouse. “I love ‘A Serious Man’ — that
one at its core is a movie about misplaced faith and devotion. You have oneman in 1967 inNew York who is going through hell on Earth and searching for an- swers and running up against a wall.He is searching for a greater meaning and keeps going to see several rabbis, and none can really help him. It’s almost like a modern-day Job story.”
Bud Konheim, New York-
based chief executive of the fashion brand Nicole Miller: “Burn After Reading.” “Frances McDormand plays the part of this gym secretary and she’s try- ing to sell this secret disk, and I just diedwhen the guy says, ‘This is drivel!’ and she says, ‘This is dribble?What do youmean drib- ble?’ It’s not slapstick, but it’s hysterical. . . . It’s really high-lev- el humor. It’s absolutely cynical, tongue-in-cheek.”
Christopher Reiter, owner of
D.C.’s Muleh boutique: “No Country for Old Men.” “Javier Bardem kind of broke out then and it was nice to see a foreign actor in a very Americanmarket. You’ve got English actors, but a Spanish actor? That’s just really amazing.”
Septime Webre, artistic di-
rector of the Washington Bal- let:He has been a longtime fan of “Blood Simple,” which he saw as a college student in Texas. “The aesthetic was so arresting: the film noirishness, and the sheer absurdity and paradox of life that is present even in the most serious situations.” Since then, he’s seen just about all of the films. “Not to be too trite, but ‘Fargo’ is my fave,” he says. “In fact, I told a young dancer just the other day they would end up in thewood chipper if they didn’t do it right.”
Kerry Brougher, Hirshhorn
museumchief curator,who has an advanced degree in cinema: “Blood Simple.” “They took the basic murder mystery and film- noir genres, and combined them into something completely unique. On a shoestring budget, they created something that went way beyond conventional cinema.”
George Hemphill, one of
Washington’s most respected art dealers: “Miller’s Crossing.” “It’s Shakespearean. There are plots and subplots; there are people who work in their own best interests, with tragic out- comes. Heroes are clearly de- fined but not necessarily reward- ed. And then there’s this particu- lar scene in it, where they send the gangsters out to kill the mob boss played by Albert Finney — and there are almost no edits in the scene, frombeginning to end. It’s just a colossal moment in cinematic art.”
Frank Hallam Day, Washing-
ton photographer: “The Man Who Wasn’t There.” “It has the plot twists and turns of a film from a more conventional direc- tor, but the flattened emotional tone of the main character is distinctively off-key and interest- ing. He is imperturbable even as he is led to his execution — not because he strives for an ideal of Buddhist detachment but be- cause some element of his emo- tional makeup is simply not there. The black and white of the film is gorgeous to look at, and also seems to be a metaphor for the character’s limited span.”
Rollie Hudson, owner of
Washington’s Flipbook Produc- tions: “If I had to pick two, it would be ‘Raising Arizona’ and ‘Burn After Reading.’ “ ‘Raising Arizona’ was ex-
tremely funny but also socially conscious. They aremaking com- mentary in society about lost love, stupidity, hubris, politi- cians, and they do it in a layered, funny,nuancedwaywhich is very smart filmmaking. They satirize the mentality that so many peo- ple have in the world where they are trying to live the perfect life but actually are verymuch stum- bling through and just groping in the darkness. They are great in creating characters where you just see the absurdity of how so many of us act as we go through with our pretenses, arrogance and selfishness. “ ‘Burn After Reading’ — I
loved howitmade fun of not only aspects of the government and the kind of secrecy, military un- dercover spy world that is quite real inWashington,D.C., but also people’s class and positions in society and people attempting to be more than they actually are. The posing that people do, and not just in wealthy neighbor- hoods, as they satirized, but also people on the other side of the class tracks. And we’re all guilty of
it.Myself included.”
Russell Howard, National
Geographic Channels: “Many of the Coen brothers films are amongmy favorites, and I appre- ciate them more with every re-
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WORKSHOPS &CLASSES
B Marc Masters, music critic,
PitchforkMedia,Wire,Signal to Noise, author of “No Wave”: “ ‘Miller’s Crossing.’ Only the Coen brothers could turn a tight, stylized gangster-pic homage into an existential riddle about identity, loyalty and duplicity.”
Harold Fisher, WHUR Radio host of “The Daily Drum”: “ ‘Far-
peat viewing. If you held a gun to my head and made me pick a favorite I guess I would have to choose ‘Big Lebowski,’ which I never tire of watching for its brilliant absurdity, iconic color- ful characters and visual playful- ness.”
Jonathan Fischer, arts edi-
tor, Washington City Paper: “ ‘Barton Fink,’ because it is the only movie, ever, in which it made sense to place John Turtur- ro in the lead role.”
go’ is one of the great modern classics. The cinematography is fantastic. The movie is gray. You almost feel the cold. Not just the temperature, but the cold from the characters. The characters are cold. The acting is cold. The killings are cold, coldblooded. Themood of some of the actors is coldblooded. Sometimes, the way they look at you, you feel this incredible chill.”
E. Ethelbert Miller, Washing-
ton literary activist: “ ‘Miller’s Crossing’ with the hat blowing across the road is my favorite. But maybe it was ‘Blood Simple.’ Thatwas the one that openswith the voice-over: ‘This is Texas.’ That was one of the scariest movies. . . . If you are into film, these are the films you go to study. I would go to see their movies before I pick up a book.” Then Miller changes his mind to say his favorite Coen brothers
movie is “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” “I play the soundtrack at least
every month. There is a real indictment of political corrup- tion. There are so many themes in thatmovie.”
Tanya Hamilton, film direc-
tor: “ ‘Blood Simple.’ I think it is the most real. The most human. But the nice thing about ‘Fargo’ is it embodies all their stuff, the high intellectual stuff. It is very human and very demented. Iwill have to admit my super favorite is ‘The Big Lebowski.’ It is a movie so brilliantly about noth- ing.”
Staff writers DeNeen L. Brown, Robin Givhan, Blake Gopnik, Sarah Kaufman, Phillip Kennicott, Aaron Leitko, David Montgomery, Lonnae O’Neal Parker and Neely Tucker contributed to this report.
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