Have the Coen Brothers Broken Up For Good?
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Have the Coen Brothers Broken Up For Good?
A few projects apart have made fans wonder if the Coen brothers have ended their filmmaking career as a duo.
When The Tragedy of Macbeth released last year, there was some cause for concern. After 18 films, including such classics as Raising Arizona, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski, Joel Coen, for the first time, offered audiences a movie that did not feature the involvement of his younger brother, Ethan Coen. However, Joel Coen’s sole directing credit wasn’t a first for the filmmaker.
From his debut, Blood Simple (1984), through Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Joel Coen was credited as director, but it was understood that the films were equal collaborations with his sibling, who had co-written, and produced all of the projects as well. Ethan Coen is also listed as the uncredited director on each film on IMDb. But 2021’s Shakespeare adaptation, which contained a tour de force performance from Denzel Washington as Lord Macbeth, was a solo Joel Coen production. Word went around that Ethan Coen was stepping back from their creative partnership of 34 years.
A Needed Break From Filmmaking?
Longtime Coen brothers composer Carter Burwell, whose career began with them on Blood Simple, told Score: The Podcast, "Ethan just didn’t want to make movies anymore." This makes it into a bigger deal than just that Ethan Coen wasn’t interested in his brother’s Shakespeare passion project. It also belies the fact that he actually made a movie instead of working on The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Related: A Serious Man: The Most Underrated Coen Brothers Movie, Explained
Ethan Coen’s first solo film effort, the 2022 documentary, Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind, screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May and is now quietly making the rounds in the indie film circuit, so perhaps Burwell meant he didn’t want to make scripted comedies or dramas anymore. But that doesn’t seem to be the case either, as he’s set to follow that doc up with a film (listed as Untitled Ethen Coen Project on IMDb), based on a screenplay he co-wrote with his wife, Tricia Cooke, starring Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan.
Meanwhile, there have been no upcoming projects reported by Joel Coen, so it seems more accurate that he’s the one taking a break from filmmaking at the moment. Ethan Coen has long held separate careers as a playwright with successful runs on Broadway and an author of a few critically acclaimed novels. In contrast, Joel Coen’s career has been completely dominated by the 19 films he’s made since 1984, with the 42 episodes of FX’s Fargo television series (2014-present) he’s co-produced with his brother on top of that.
Despite the separation and the lack of any possible project on the horizon anytime soon, the declaration that the brothers have broken up for good should not be made. Both Joel and Ethan have indicated in interviews that they just need a break which is incredibly understandable after over three decades. The 64-year-old Ethan Coen told Associated Press:
"Going our own separate ways sounds like it suggests it might be final. But none of this stuff happened definitively. None of the decisions are definitive. We might make another movie. I don’t know what my next movie is going to be after this. The pandemic happened. I turned into a big baby and got bored and quit, and then the pandemic happened. Then other stuff happens and who knows?"
The Brothers Working Together Again Can't Be Counted Out
Likewise, when talking about the split, the 67-year-old Joel Coen told the New York Times that there was "probably something healthy in taking a break." There’s also the tantalizing prospect that they have many projects stored up as they’ve written way more movies together than they’ve made. Burwell also relayed to Score: The Podcast that "a ton of scripts they’ve written together that are sitting on various shelves," and "I hope maybe they get back to some of those because I’ve read some, and they’re great."
Related: John Goodman: Every Role in a Coen Brothers Movie, Ranked
While promoting his Jerry Lee Lewis doc, Ethan confessed to the AP that when working on his own, he would hit snags that made him miss his brother:
"Many times, there are all these problems when you go, oh f***. You’re stuck, this doesn’t work. And I’d think, Joel would have an idea what to do here. So, where the f*** is he?"
On the same note, Joel Coen said in that aforementioned New York Times interview that trying to make a movie without Ethan was like "having one eye put out." The filmmaking collaboration between Joel and Ethan Coen is arguably one of the most influential, iconic, and acclaimed directing duos in the history of cinema. It would be a bitter pill to swallow if there were never going to be another production by the pair, but the odds are largely in their favor to re-unite sometime in the future for a project.
But as they both appear to need some time to stretch out on their own for a bit, fans will just have to be patient.
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