May 11th: THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2001)
NOTE: This film will be projected in the high-definition Blu-ray format.
A mild-mannered barber in a small town becomes embroiled in a blackmail plot that leads to murder.
A poster featuring various 1940s haircuts seen on one of their sets was the genesis of a story idea for the Coen Brothers. The pair had already explored various aspects of film noir with previous films Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, and The Big Lebowski, but here would make their most overt homage, with a post-WW2 setting and using black & white.
Drawing from the aesthetic of classic writers like James M. Cain (Double Indemnity), the Coens wrote about a non-criminal tempted and corrupted, getting in way over his head. Their novelty would be creating a passive leading character who doesn't talk much, whose off-screen narration would reveal hidden depths.
The film was set and shot on location primarily in Santa Rosa, California (also the setting of Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow Of A Doubt), with additional shooting in Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Orange. Returning for his ninth film with the Coens was cinematographer Roger Deakins, on his first black & white assignment. For contractual reasons, the photography was done on color film and later processed to be monochrome, allowing faster film with more grain.
Signing on due before even reading the script due to his respect for the Coens was Billy Bob Thornton, playing against type compared to previous roles. He's joined by previous Coens collaborators Frances McDormand (Fargo), Tony Shalhoub (Barton Fink, TV's Monk), Jon Polito (The Big Lebowski, Miller's Crossing), Michael Badalucco (O Brother Where Art Thou?), as well as other new additions to the stable in Scarlett Johansson, Richard Jenkins, and Sopranos star James Gandolfini.
Not content to simply do a straight-faced noir, the Coens mix in both slapstick and dry humor, courtroom drama, quantum mechanics theory via Heisenberg's "Uncertainty Principle", and a bizarre subplot with nods to classic science fiction films of the 1950s. The eclectic score navigating this erratic terrain is provided by Coens mainstay Carter Burwell (Carol). And as always, the brothers themselves edited the film under the pseudonym "Roderick Jaynes".
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and took away the prize for Best Director (tied with David Lynch for Mulholland Dr). It received mostly positive reviews upon general release, and saw Golden Globe nominations for Best Film, Screenplay, and Thornton's performance. Deakins won a number of critics awards for his work, as well as the American Society of Cinematographers award, and received one of his 13 Academy Award nominations.
Running time is approx. 2 hours.
A mild-mannered barber in a small town becomes embroiled in a blackmail plot that leads to murder.
A poster featuring various 1940s haircuts seen on one of their sets was the genesis of a story idea for the Coen Brothers. The pair had already explored various aspects of film noir with previous films Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, and The Big Lebowski, but here would make their most overt homage, with a post-WW2 setting and using black & white.
Drawing from the aesthetic of classic writers like James M. Cain (Double Indemnity), the Coens wrote about a non-criminal tempted and corrupted, getting in way over his head. Their novelty would be creating a passive leading character who doesn't talk much, whose off-screen narration would reveal hidden depths.
The film was set and shot on location primarily in Santa Rosa, California (also the setting of Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow Of A Doubt), with additional shooting in Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Orange. Returning for his ninth film with the Coens was cinematographer Roger Deakins, on his first black & white assignment. For contractual reasons, the photography was done on color film and later processed to be monochrome, allowing faster film with more grain.
Signing on due before even reading the script due to his respect for the Coens was Billy Bob Thornton, playing against type compared to previous roles. He's joined by previous Coens collaborators Frances McDormand (Fargo), Tony Shalhoub (Barton Fink, TV's Monk), Jon Polito (The Big Lebowski, Miller's Crossing), Michael Badalucco (O Brother Where Art Thou?), as well as other new additions to the stable in Scarlett Johansson, Richard Jenkins, and Sopranos star James Gandolfini.
Not content to simply do a straight-faced noir, the Coens mix in both slapstick and dry humor, courtroom drama, quantum mechanics theory via Heisenberg's "Uncertainty Principle", and a bizarre subplot with nods to classic science fiction films of the 1950s. The eclectic score navigating this erratic terrain is provided by Coens mainstay Carter Burwell (Carol). And as always, the brothers themselves edited the film under the pseudonym "Roderick Jaynes".
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and took away the prize for Best Director (tied with David Lynch for Mulholland Dr). It received mostly positive reviews upon general release, and saw Golden Globe nominations for Best Film, Screenplay, and Thornton's performance. Deakins won a number of critics awards for his work, as well as the American Society of Cinematographers award, and received one of his 13 Academy Award nominations.
Running time is approx. 2 hours.
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