Ethan Coen

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.