Coen Brothers
The Coen Brothers have been a highly successful directing, writing and producing team that has producing a string of commercially and critically successful movies over their twenty year career.
A Serious Man is the pair's second film since their success with No Country For Old Men back in 2008.
To celebrate the release of the movie we took a look at some of the essential Coen brothers movies you should have in your collection.
Fargo
Jerry Lundegaard (William H.Macy) is an oldsmobile car salesman who is facing major financial difficulties.
In a bid to earn some cash he enlists the help of Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) and Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) to kidnap his wife and hold her to an $80,000 ransom.But Jerry intends to tell his wife's rich father that the ransom is $1,000,000 which he will use to pay off all his debts.However the kidnapping leads to a string of murders when Carl botches a bride attempt leads to the killing of a state trooper and two witnesses to the crime.
The deaths are investigated by the local police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand, who is seven months pregnant.
Fargo was a critical and commercial success and was nominated for a string of Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture. It went on to win Best Actress for Frances McDormand and Best Screenplay for Joel and Ethan Coen.
Barton Fink
Set in the 1940s, and starring John Turturro, Barton Fink is loosely based on playwright Clifford Odets.
Fink leaves his native New York City, after the success of Bare Ruined Choirs his Broadway debut, to live in Los Angeles.
In L.A he begins work at Capitol Pictures as a contracted writer but soon finds himself suffering from writer's block as he tries to pen a script about professional wrestling.
In an attempt to overcome his writer's block it's suggested he talks to another screenwriter for advice.
Fink runs into W.P Mayhew, who is a critically acclaimed novelist. But Fink discovers that he is an alcoholic, abuses Audrey, his mistress, and uses her as a ghost writer.
One evening Fink calls Audrey for help she comes to his apartment and they end up sleeping together. But when Fink wakes up he finds Audrey dead next to him.
Barton Fink won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival as well as Best Actor for Turturro and Best Director, it's still the only film in history to win the top three awards at the festival.
Miller's Crossing
In 1990 Joel and Ethan Coen wrote Miller's Crossing, a gangster movie starring Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney and Marcia Gay Harden.
The film is set around two warring gangs, Irishman Leo O'Bannon (Finney) controls the town, but his power is being challenged by head of the rival gang Giovanni Gaspero aka Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito).
Caught in the middle of the two gangs is protagonist Tom Reagon (Gabriel Bryne) who may or may not be plotting against his boss.
But Reagon plays a hand in the bloody war that follows.
The film once again showed the brother' trademarks including dark humour and plot twists.
The film went on to be included in Time magazine's 100 greatest movies ever made.
The Big Lebowski
In 1998 the brothers tried their hand at a comedy movie, a new genre of film for them, with The Big Lebowski.
The film follows a few days in the life of 'The Dude' (Jeff bridges), a burnt out and unemployed slacker who is mistaken for the millionaire who goes by the same name when two thugs break into 'The Dude's' home to collect a debt owed by Lebowski's supposed wife.
The Dude attempts to seek compensation from the other Jeffery Lebowski, after the thugs urinated on his rug but the millionaire refuses.
After stealing one of the Big Lebowski's rugs The Dude meets his trophy wife on the way out.
Days later The Dude is contacted by Lebowski who claims that his wife has been kidnapped and asks him to courier the million dollar ransom.
The film received mediocre reviews on release but like Raising Arizona it has gone on to become a cult classic.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Brother, Where Art Thou? was released in 2000 and starred George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake nelson and John Goodman and is set in Mississippi during the great Depression.
The movie follows three escaped convicts Ulysses Everett McGill (Clooney), Pete Hoywallop (Turturro) and Delmar O'Donnell (Nelson) who have set off to discover a $1.2 million fortune that Everett stole and buried.
it was another critical and commercial hit for the brothers and highlighted George Clooney's comic abilities.
The music, most of which was mostly folk, became even more popular than the movie itself. The American roots soundtrack won a Grammy for Best Album in 2001.
No Country For Old Men
More success came the way of Joel and Ethan Coen in 2008 with the release of No Country For Old Men, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy.
The movie brought together an impressive cast of Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Kelly Macdonald as well as introducing audiences to Javier Bardem.
Sheriff Bell (Jones) has ruled the land for years without the use of a gun, but a new brand of reckless lawlessness has taken over his town. Llewelyn Moss (Brolin) is an innocent Everyman with a devoted wife, Carla Jean (Macdonald), but when he stumbles across a drug deal gone deadly and finds two million dollars, he's determined to keep it for himself.
There's only one problem. He's being pursued by one of the most amoral, evil psychopaths that the big screen has ever seen.
Wearing an absurd haircut and brandishing a pressurized weapon that's used to murder cattle, Anton Chigurh (Bardem) creeps forward on his mission to track Moss down and return the money to its rightful owners to save his own skin.
As the tension mounts, the body count begins to rise, confirming Sheriff Bell's inability to battle this new wave of modern brutality.
The movie was an immediate critical hit and dominated the awards season going on to pick up Best Director, Best Film and best Supporting Actor for Bardem at the Oscars.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
The Coen Brothers have been a highly successful directing, writing and producing team that has producing a string of commercially and critically successful movies over their twenty year career.
A Serious Man is the pair's second film since their success with No Country For Old Men back in 2008.
To celebrate the release of the movie we took a look at some of the essential Coen brothers movies you should have in your collection.
Fargo
Jerry Lundegaard (William H.Macy) is an oldsmobile car salesman who is facing major financial difficulties.
In a bid to earn some cash he enlists the help of Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) and Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) to kidnap his wife and hold her to an $80,000 ransom.But Jerry intends to tell his wife's rich father that the ransom is $1,000,000 which he will use to pay off all his debts.However the kidnapping leads to a string of murders when Carl botches a bride attempt leads to the killing of a state trooper and two witnesses to the crime.
The deaths are investigated by the local police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand, who is seven months pregnant.
Fargo was a critical and commercial success and was nominated for a string of Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture. It went on to win Best Actress for Frances McDormand and Best Screenplay for Joel and Ethan Coen.
Barton Fink
Set in the 1940s, and starring John Turturro, Barton Fink is loosely based on playwright Clifford Odets.
Fink leaves his native New York City, after the success of Bare Ruined Choirs his Broadway debut, to live in Los Angeles.
In L.A he begins work at Capitol Pictures as a contracted writer but soon finds himself suffering from writer's block as he tries to pen a script about professional wrestling.
In an attempt to overcome his writer's block it's suggested he talks to another screenwriter for advice.
Fink runs into W.P Mayhew, who is a critically acclaimed novelist. But Fink discovers that he is an alcoholic, abuses Audrey, his mistress, and uses her as a ghost writer.
One evening Fink calls Audrey for help she comes to his apartment and they end up sleeping together. But when Fink wakes up he finds Audrey dead next to him.
Barton Fink won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival as well as Best Actor for Turturro and Best Director, it's still the only film in history to win the top three awards at the festival.
Miller's Crossing
In 1990 Joel and Ethan Coen wrote Miller's Crossing, a gangster movie starring Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney and Marcia Gay Harden.
The film is set around two warring gangs, Irishman Leo O'Bannon (Finney) controls the town, but his power is being challenged by head of the rival gang Giovanni Gaspero aka Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito).
Caught in the middle of the two gangs is protagonist Tom Reagon (Gabriel Bryne) who may or may not be plotting against his boss.
But Reagon plays a hand in the bloody war that follows.
The film once again showed the brother' trademarks including dark humour and plot twists.
The film went on to be included in Time magazine's 100 greatest movies ever made.
The Big Lebowski
In 1998 the brothers tried their hand at a comedy movie, a new genre of film for them, with The Big Lebowski.
The film follows a few days in the life of 'The Dude' (Jeff bridges), a burnt out and unemployed slacker who is mistaken for the millionaire who goes by the same name when two thugs break into 'The Dude's' home to collect a debt owed by Lebowski's supposed wife.
The Dude attempts to seek compensation from the other Jeffery Lebowski, after the thugs urinated on his rug but the millionaire refuses.
After stealing one of the Big Lebowski's rugs The Dude meets his trophy wife on the way out.
Days later The Dude is contacted by Lebowski who claims that his wife has been kidnapped and asks him to courier the million dollar ransom.
Tagged in Joel Coen