1996: Fargo (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Roger Deakins began his collaboration with the Coen brothers in 1991 on their film Barton Fink. The two directors and the cameraman have since proven that they have one of the most vital, important, and powerful artistic relationships of anyone in film.
All of their work together has great, visual interest, but of everything they have ever done, this remains my favorite of their aesthetic accomplishments. I'm a sucker, as I've mentioned a couple of times now, for snow-covered imagery. And this film is about as white as any ever made. It's a gorgeously controlled work, in terms of its color palette, camerawork, and production design. Everything seems considered, and everything feels unusually cohesive.
The Coen brothers just so happen to have one other special collaboration and that's with their composer, Carter Burwell. His work is always top shelf, but this particular score haunts me as much as any he's ever done.
Wonderful writing per usual by the brothers. Also two of their most memorable characters for William H Macy and Frances McDormand. I usually don't champion "ironic noir", but other aspects of this one far outweigh any typical difficulties I might have.
Other contenders for 1996: From this year, I still have some things to see. These include: Peter Greenaway's Pillow Book, Edward Yang's Mahjong, and Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. At some point, I need to revisit Catherine Breillat's Parfait Amour! and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's La Promesse as it's been too long since I've seen either of them to know where they'd place on this list. I really like Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild, Wes Craven's Scream, and Claire Denis' Nenette et Boni. And I love Hou Hsiao-hsien's Goodbye South, Goodbye, Eric Rohmer's A Summer's Tale, Arnaud Desplechin's How I Got Into an Argument... (My Sex Life), Andre Techine's Thieves, Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return, and Abel Ferrara's The Funeral. And my closest runner-up is Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible.
9/5/10 I watched Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight. It's an extremely confident debut, and I was particularly impressed by his work with Samuel L Jackson and Philip Baker Hall. A little more mannered, perhaps, than my ideal kind of noir. But I enjoyed it all the same.
1/12/14 I watched Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne's La Promesse. All of the tight elements that have come to describe the Belgian filmmakers' style of filmmaking are already in order here - the fluid, handheld camerawork, the natural, unforced performances, and the very lived-in wardrobe and locations. It is a flawless film in many ways, but it is neither as emotional as some of the great Neorealist work nor as transcendent.
7/21/15 I watched Bobby and Peter Farrelly's Kingpin. A crass but lovable comedy. It helps that Harrelson is unusally likable and keeps things grounded even when the brothers push things too far beyond plausibility or funny gross.
2/22/16 I rewatched Arnaud Desplechin's How I Got Into an Argument...(My Sex Life). Desplechin's second feature comes with a certain looseness that could belie a unique cinematic intelligence and a nearly unprecedented capturing of uninhibited femaleness. It feels more akin to a novel in its shape and its courage to let time unfold within its own disheveled set of rules. "Tenderness is the fear of adulthood", Desplechin quotes Kundera, and this film might be as spot-on as any in the medium's history for capturing that very strange road from freedom to responsibility.
7/3/17 I watched Adam McKay's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Not my thing but had a few funny moments when one is in the mood to completely shut it off and just be entertained a bit.
Roger Deakins began his collaboration with the Coen brothers in 1991 on their film Barton Fink. The two directors and the cameraman have since proven that they have one of the most vital, important, and powerful artistic relationships of anyone in film.
All of their work together has great, visual interest, but of everything they have ever done, this remains my favorite of their aesthetic accomplishments. I'm a sucker, as I've mentioned a couple of times now, for snow-covered imagery. And this film is about as white as any ever made. It's a gorgeously controlled work, in terms of its color palette, camerawork, and production design. Everything seems considered, and everything feels unusually cohesive.
The Coen brothers just so happen to have one other special collaboration and that's with their composer, Carter Burwell. His work is always top shelf, but this particular score haunts me as much as any he's ever done.
Wonderful writing per usual by the brothers. Also two of their most memorable characters for William H Macy and Frances McDormand. I usually don't champion "ironic noir", but other aspects of this one far outweigh any typical difficulties I might have.
Other contenders for 1996: From this year, I still have some things to see. These include: Peter Greenaway's Pillow Book, Edward Yang's Mahjong, and Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. At some point, I need to revisit Catherine Breillat's Parfait Amour! and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's La Promesse as it's been too long since I've seen either of them to know where they'd place on this list. I really like Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild, Wes Craven's Scream, and Claire Denis' Nenette et Boni. And I love Hou Hsiao-hsien's Goodbye South, Goodbye, Eric Rohmer's A Summer's Tale, Arnaud Desplechin's How I Got Into an Argument... (My Sex Life), Andre Techine's Thieves, Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return, and Abel Ferrara's The Funeral. And my closest runner-up is Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible.
9/5/10 I watched Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight. It's an extremely confident debut, and I was particularly impressed by his work with Samuel L Jackson and Philip Baker Hall. A little more mannered, perhaps, than my ideal kind of noir. But I enjoyed it all the same.
1/12/14 I watched Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne's La Promesse. All of the tight elements that have come to describe the Belgian filmmakers' style of filmmaking are already in order here - the fluid, handheld camerawork, the natural, unforced performances, and the very lived-in wardrobe and locations. It is a flawless film in many ways, but it is neither as emotional as some of the great Neorealist work nor as transcendent.
7/21/15 I watched Bobby and Peter Farrelly's Kingpin. A crass but lovable comedy. It helps that Harrelson is unusally likable and keeps things grounded even when the brothers push things too far beyond plausibility or funny gross.
2/22/16 I rewatched Arnaud Desplechin's How I Got Into an Argument...(My Sex Life). Desplechin's second feature comes with a certain looseness that could belie a unique cinematic intelligence and a nearly unprecedented capturing of uninhibited femaleness. It feels more akin to a novel in its shape and its courage to let time unfold within its own disheveled set of rules. "Tenderness is the fear of adulthood", Desplechin quotes Kundera, and this film might be as spot-on as any in the medium's history for capturing that very strange road from freedom to responsibility.
7/3/17 I watched Adam McKay's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Not my thing but had a few funny moments when one is in the mood to completely shut it off and just be entertained a bit.
