Joel Coen Biography

Drawing on sources as diverse as Homer and 1930s rom-coms, they have applied their unique vision to the gangster genre, in 'Miller's Crossing', the detective story, with 'Fargo', and even the stoner buddy road-trip, as seen in 'The Big Lebowski'. But it's their re-imagining of the Western that has brought them their biggest commercial and critical success to date, with 'No Country For Old Men'.

The brothers were raised in the American Midwest and Joel and Ethan Coen went to the same school. Only rarely separated after this, they developed a strong, almost telepathic bond, and are now quite happy to share and swap job titles.

Their first shared screenplay credit was the film that established them, the 1984 Texas-based noir 'Blood Simple'. This was the first of what would be many films dedicated to a filmmaking style that is notably eccentric, ironic, darkly comic and often brutally violent. The brothers had arrived.

In 1987, the pair released a film featuring a young Nicolas Cage, the comedy 'Raising Arizona'. At almost polar opposites from their previous film, this light-hearted indie made serious money at the box office.

The early 90s saw one of their most prolific periods, producing 'Miller's Crossing' (1990), 'Barton Fink' (1991) and 'Hudsucker Proxy' (1994). This last film was like the later 'The Man Who Wasn’t There' (2001), in that it was an accomplished piece of film making that showed all the fraternal hallmarks but it failed to resonate with audiences.

Their next film, the deeply dark comedy 'Fargo' (1996), re-ignited interest in their unique take on storytelling and the brothers went onto win the Best Original Screenplay Oscar. A nice piece of cinema trivia is that the lead actress in that film, Frances McDormand, who had been married to Joel since 1984, also won the Best Actress Oscar. As of 2009, Joel was the only person to have directed their wife to an Oscar.

In 1998, they put out the sublime 'The Big Lebowski', which won a Golden Bear nomination for Joel at the Berlin Film Festival. They released 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' in 2000, which was loosely based on Homer's Odyssey and starred George Clooney (in his best ever not really singing role) and John Turturro. In summer 2003, the brothers teamed with Tom Hanks and Marlon Wayans for the remake of the 1955 British bandit comedy 'Ladykillers'.

For their next effort, Joel and Ethan Coen contributed a segment called "Tuileries" for the 2006 film 'Paris, je t'aime', which explored the City of Light through individual stories set in different neighbourhoods.

In a completely different vein, the Coen brothers put a modern spin on the traditional western with 'No Country for Old Men' (2007), which starred Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas sheriff in pursuit of a ruthless hit-man played by Javier Bardem. Josh Brolin appeared as a local man who discovered money at the scene of a drug deal gone bad and ended up being pursued by Bardem.

The film has brought the pair a lot of critical acclaim and several award nominations. In February 2008, those nominations became three Academy Awards for the Coen brothers. They took home the awards for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay. In addition to these awards, Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for his work in the critically acclaimed film.

In the same year, the brothers wrote and directed 'Burn after Reading', which starred Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand and George Clooney. The film tells the story of a CIA disk ending up in the hands of two gym employees who attempt to sell it.

It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Baftas and for Best Film at the Golden Globes.

This was also the sixth film in which Coen's wife appeared. They adopted a son from Paraguay called Pedro as Frances and all her siblings were adopted.

In November 2009, they released a more auto-biographical film, 'A Serious Man', dealing with the extreme pressures placed upon a Jewish academic in the Sixties who lives and works in the American Midwest.

The brothers enjoyed more success with the release of 'True Grit' in 2010, which was based on the novel by Charles Portis. The western starred Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Hailee Steinfield. It was nominated for ten academy awards but did not win any.

In 2012, 'Gambit' for which the brothers wrote the screenplay will be released. It stars Alan Rickman as an art collector who enlists the services of a Texas steel roper to con a wealthy collector into buying a fake Monet.

This will be followed by 'Inside Llewyn Davis' in 2013 for which the brothers have written the screenplay.