Barton Fink (linked with French New Wave Theory and Coen Brothers)

Barton Fink (linked with French New Wave and Coen Brothers)

The Coen brothers- Joel David Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957) known together professionally as the Coen brothers are American filmmakers. Their films include Blood Simple, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, and Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men, and True Grit. The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, although until recently Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing. They often alternate top billing for their screenplays while sharing film credits for editor under the alias Roderick Jaynes. My summary-This is a Coen brother’s film. They have produced a film that tells the thriller through motifs and metaphors. At the end of the movie the hotel is on fire and this is a metaphor for Charlie’s heat. He is a very heated character, whom is angry at this point in the film. They have included little soundtrack as its around 128 seconds in half an hour, but sound effects and sound bridges have been added into the film to meet with the codes and conventions of a thriller. We aim to add a sound bridge into our thriller as we think it makes the continuity of the film flow better and it adds in a professional finish. They are setting the film up as a trap as they don’t follow it through and the ending doesn’t really resolve anything. I personally didn’t like this a I like to know the ending of the film so the story makes sense as it seems to me thy Coen brothers couldn’t think of an ending so just finished the film. Overall I think it was a good film and I enjoyed watching the motifs as I found myself trying to work out the mystery and what events would follow, but when ending as it didn’t resolve I was disappointed that I never found out anything. I would have said this doesn’t keep to the French new wave movement as this means a liner storyline with a beginning middle and end and as the ending is not resolved I don’t think the Coen brothers have stuck to the French new wave movement. Within our thriller we hope to stick to the French new wave theory but will be unable to complete the whole movie as we have been set a task of a 5 minute clip. Over view of the film- Barton Fink is a 1991 American film, written, directed, and produced by the Coen brothers. Set in 1941, it stars John Turturro in the title role as a young New York City playwright who is hired to write scripts for a movie studio in Hollywood, and John Goodman as Charlie, the insurance salesman who lives next door at the run-down Hotel Earle. The Coens wrote the screenplay in three weeks while experiencing difficulty during the writing of another film, Miller's crossing. Soon after Miller's Crossing was finished, the Coens began filming Barton Fink, which had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1991. In a rare sweep, Barton Fink won the Palme d'Or prize, as well as awards for Best Director and Best Actor (Turturro). Although it was celebrated almost universally by critics and nominated for three Academy Awards, the movie grossed only $6,000,000 at the box office – two-thirds of its estimated budget. The process of writing and the culture of entertainment production are two prominent themes of Barton Fink. The world of Hollywood is contrasted with that of Broadway, and the film analyzes superficial distinctions between high culture and low culture. Other themes in the film include fascism and World War II; slavery and conditions of labor in creative industries; and how intellectuals relate to "the common man". Because of its diverse elements, Barton Fink has defied efforts at genre classification. It has been variously referred to as a film noir, a horror film, a Künstlerroman, and a 'buddy' film. The surrealistic, abandoned mood of the Hotel Earle was central to the development of the story, and careful deliberation went into its design. There is a sharp contrast between Fink's living quarters and the polished, pristine environs of Hollywood, especially the home of Fink's boss Jack Lipnick. On the wall of Fink's room there hangs a single picture of a woman at the beach; this captures Barton's attention, and the image reappears in the final scene of the film. Although the picture and other elements of the film (including a mysterious box given to Fink by Charlie) appear laden with symbolism, critics disagree over their possible meanings. The Coens have acknowledged some intentional symbolic elements while denying an attempt to communicate some holistic message. The film contains allusions to many real-life people and events, most notably the writers Clifford Odets and William Faulkner. The characters of Barton Fink and W.P. Mayhew are widely seen as fictional representations of these men, but the Coens stress important differences. They have also admitted to parodying film magnates like Louis B. Mayer, but they note that Fink's agonizing tribulations in Hollywood are not meant to reflect their own experiences. Barton Fink was influenced by several earlier works, including the films of Roman Polanski, particularly Repulsion (1965) and The Tenant (1976). Other movies that influenced Barton Fink are Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining and Sullivan's Travels (1941) by filmmaker Preston Sturges. The Coens' movie also contains a number of literary allusions, to works by William Shakespeare, John Keats and Flannery O'Connor. Several religious overtones also appear, including references to the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament, King Nebuchadnezzar and Bathsheba. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barton_Fink and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coen_brothers 


By Jordan Gale