Richard Corliss wrote in Time that their film was “A debut as scarifyingly original as anything since Orson Welles.” But neither Blood Simple, nor their subsequent two films, as brilliant as they are, achieved box-office success. Their debut Blood Simple was released in 1984 to impressive reviews. Their widespread popularity did not come about until 1996 with their seminal work Fargo, followed by cult favorite The Big Lebowski (1998) and the universally celebrated O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2001). The household names that they are now, Joel and Ethan Coen did not always enjoy the equal measure of artistic and commercial success that they have today. Arcane and symbolic, the film journeys into the life of the mind and finds all manner of humorous, mysterious, and even disturbing moments, yet resolves that the life of the mind alone is no place to live. Often bleakly funny and bittersweet, the fourth film by the offbeat brothers defies genre as many of their pictures do it remains dreamlike, though it depicts the relatively straightforward subject of Hollywood’s long history of using up and alienating great writers. The snobbish Fink-whose name is another word for a chatterbox-can do little more than stare at a hotel painting of a bathing beauty looking out at the ocean. But once he moves to Hollywood to write for the pictures, he’s holed-up inside an empty, quiet hotel room, subject to the occasional sounds of neighbors distracting him to an all-consuming degree. ![]() New York dramatist Barton Fink believes he has unique insight into the “life of the mind” because he’s a self-proclaimed creator whose latest deep-dish stage piece has earned some accolades. The moment horrifies the viewer in what until recently has been a darkly funny parody of Hollywood in the 1940s and a telling observation of the writer’s role in cinema. The man who bellows this declaration runs down a fiery hotel hallway with a shotgun in hand. ![]() Please click here for tickets and/or more information about the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of Merrily We Roll Along, which runs September 8 – October 15, 2017.“Look upon me! I’ll show you the life of the mind!” proclaims John Goodman’s character in Barton Fink, Joel and Ethan Coen’s masterful hermetic comedy from 1991 about a playwright and would-be screenwriter with writer’s block. His neighbor (John Goodman) tries to help, but he continues to struggle as a bizarre sequence of events distracts him.Īfter the screening of Barton Fink, guests from the Huntington's new production of Merrily We Roll Along will join in a conversation about these two iconic depictions of the high price of success in show business. The Coen Brothers set their sights on 1940s Hollywood in this acclaimed satire, which won the Palme d'Or as well as the Best Actor (John Turturro) and Director (Joel Coen) prizes at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.īarton Fink (Turturro) is an intellectual New York playwright who accepts an offer to write movie scripts in Tinseltown, but finds himself with writer's block when required to do a B-movie script. Featuring a post-screening conversation with Playwriting Fellows and Screeenwriters John and Miranda Adekoje, from the Huntington Theatre Company's stunning new production of Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Maria Friedman and featuring music by Stephen Sondheim.
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