Coen Brothers of the Month: cinematic perfection? Oh yah

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Coen Brothers of the Month: cinematic perfection? Oh yah.

Paul Gallagher, GFT Programme Manager

I’ve been Programme Manager at GFT since late 2018, and as I’ve become more established in the role, and more familiar with the ebbs and flows of the cinema year, I’ve become increasingly interested in the potential of long-term programming. Much of what I programme is necessarily short-term, based on a release schedule that is updated and adjusted each week. Programming new releases more than 6 weeks ahead of their release date is a dangerous game; film distributors are easily blown by the winds of circumstance, and can (and do) shift their planned release dates based on often unfathomable whims. So outside of that shifting context, I am keen to build a more reliable structure in GFT’s programme – something that continually reminds audiences that GFT is here for the long haul and can be depended on.

That was part of my motivation for starting our Scorsese of the Month series back in June 2022, and when we concluded it in December of last year, after 31 monthly screenings, it felt like the end of a really meaningful journey. Partly because seeing all those amazing films on the big screen was so rewarding and entertaining, but it was also about having that regular monthly gathering that was special to GFT and those audiences who came along; once you had been along to a few, it became a really fun thing to be part of. So of course once it finished – or in truth, several months before it finished – I began to think ‘what are we going to do next?’ It had to be a filmmaker with a big enough body of work to make it feel like a project you could get your teeth into over many months. And it had to be a filmmaker, like Scorsese, where there weren’t too many barriers to entry for the average cinemagoer – there had to be at least a couple of really well-known films within their filmography. And perhaps most importantly, it had to be a filmmaker where I could imagine that even someone who had seen all of their films before, probably multiple times, would be excited about the prospect of getting to revisit them on the big screen. It didn’t take me too long to zero in on the Coen Brothers.

With a seemingly symbiotic creative partnership that has so far produced 18 feature films, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have demonstrated an unfailing mastery of cinematic craft coupled with an uncanny ability to create indelible characters. Their visual and linguistic wit is matched by the seeming ease with which they take generic conventions and make them their own. Their choice of actors is impeccable, and their behind-the-camera collaborators, from cinematographer Roger Deakins to composer Carter Burwell, are the finest in the business. In preparation for this season I’ve been dipping into various books on the Coens, and the more I read analyses and discussion of their films, the more excited I get about having the chance to watch them all again on the big screen. There is so much going on in every frame of a Coens movie, and such a sense of precision in every piece of action or line of dialogue, that a second or third viewing is probably still not enough to appreciate it all. That’s also why their films can sometimes be slow burners, in terms of impact – the most notable example being their now beloved cult comedy noir The Big Lebowski (1998), which had an initially mixed critical response and lukewarm box-office, but has gone on to develop a following that takes in annual festivals, meet-ups, publications and a cultural resonance that seems destined to endure for many decades to come.

I find each rewatch of a Coens’ film brings new revelations of just how far ahead of most other filmmakers they are. From appreciating the brilliantly-observed characterisation of the title character in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), to marvelling at the enigmatic tonal balancing act of Miller’s Crossing (1990), to realising that every single moment in Fargo (1996) is cinematic perfection; there is so much more to find. I can’t wait to get started.

Coen Brothers of the Month will launch at Glasgow Film Festival 2025 with a special screening of O Brother, Where Art Thou? on Monday 3 March and will continue on Monday 24 March with Blood Simple (Directors' Cut) in 4K.

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