BackThe Coen Brothers in Delhi
A three-day festival of six movies by the Coen Brothers starts at the American Centre on Thursday
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Almost every time there’s a shot of food—and there are many such shots—in Fargo by the Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel, the auteurs follow it up with something gross. Like when actor Frances McDormand—playing lead investigator Marge Gunderson in the 1996 film based on a true story—hands her taxidermist husband “nightcrawlers", a bag of worms, just as he brings her lunch at the office. The images of blood, gore, creepy-crawlies, are pointers to how all is not well in the state of Minnesota, US.
Set in 1987, Fargo is about a kidnapping and five subsequent murders. The Coen brothers, known for capturing the cultural and regional ethos of different parts of the US, bring in local eating outlets like Hardee’s into the film. The restaurants and the food are like bricks—marking a place and time—in the remarkably detailed architecture of the story.
Cinedarbaar, a New Delhi-headquartered cultural organization, hopes to unpack some of these references for audiences at the Coen Brothers Film Festival in the Capital from 11-13 December. The festival line-up has six films, including Fargo, which won Oscars for best picture, best writing and best actors in a lead and supporting role. The programme includes the cerebral Inside Llewyn Davis, the hilarious Raising Arizona and the trippy The Big Lebowski. Each screening at The American Center will be followed by interactive sessions that will focus on characterization, humour, cultural and literary references, and explore how the Coen brothers play around with genres. Festival director Supriya Suri says that understanding all the references is not essential to the enjoyment of the period pictures, but it obviously enhances the pleasure of watching. “Make notes; that would be my advice to serious film viewers," she says.
This year, the non-profit has curated screenings in the Capital around themes like movies by and about women, noir films, Westerns, and biographies such as Ed Wood and The Insider. “Each year, we focus on one auteur. Last year, we chose Wes Anderson. This year, we are showing the movies of the Coen brothers," says Suri.
In terms of the range of movies being shown at the festival, the organizers have selected Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski to showcase the brothers’ peculiar sense of humour, and films like Fargo and Inside Llewyn Davis as a starting point for a conversation around their characterization.
The Big Lebowski, set in Los Angeles, again has a kidnapping at its heart. There are many misunderstandings. In the end, the titular protagonist (played by Jeff Bridges) emerges from the confusions short of one car, one rug and one bowling partner (who dies of a heart attack). The movie is a laugh riot, and Julianne Moore’s characterization as a feminist, an artist and an heiress is not to be missed.
While the Coen brothers’ films are peppered with memorable characters, one who will likely stick in your mind long after you’re done watching the film is Jerry Lundegaard (William Macy) in Fargo. A suave “executive sales manager" at a car dealership in the US, Lundegaard seems to have embezzled money from an auto finance company. Macy brings to screen all the anguish of a man desperate enough to organize his own wife’s kidnapping, so that his rich father-in-law will cough up some cash and he can save his skin. Lundegaard is a charmer. Through all his misadventures, he repeats three words over and over again. They might be a colloquialism, but they stand out because of their sheer inconsonance with what is really going on. Lundegaard says them often in response to how he is doing, and to suggest he will do what is expected of him. These words—“real good now"—too might hover in your brain long after the 98 minutes of the movie are over.
The Coen Brothers Film Festival will be held from 11-13 December at The American Center, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi. Timings vary. For details, visit www.facebook.com/americancenternewdelhi
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