Ethan Coen
16 titles · american independent
The other half of the Coen sensibility, and the one who takes the credit for writing. Across three catalogue films directed with his brother, the through-line is dialogue: idiom heard exactly, characters undone by their own explanations, and jokes that only land once the violence has already happened.
Signature
- Screenplays that carry the comedy in cadence rather than incident.
- Minor characters given a full register of speech and no plot function.
- Crime as a series of conversations that go badly.
- Directs jointly and is credited jointly — see Joel Coen.
The Big Lebowski
Fargo
True Grit
Burn After Reading
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Hail, Caesar!
Inside Llewyn Davis
A Serious Man
Barton Fink
The Man Who Wasn't There
The Ladykillers
The Hudsucker Proxy
Paris Je T'aime
Drive-Away Dolls
Honey Don't!
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