Oscar Winners Joel and Ethan Coen
The Coen Brothers Win Best Picture Oscar for No Country For Old Men
Joel and Ethan Coen win Academy Awards for directing and adapting Cormac's McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men". The facts behind the quirky Oscar winning movie makers.
The writing, directing, and producing team know as the Coen Brothers scored big at the 80th annual Academy Awards with Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay wins for the Rio Grande film noir "No Country for Old Men". The duo is known for overt comedies like "O'Brother Where Art Thou?"(2000) and sardonic thrillers that twist the genre such the Academy Award winning "Fargo"(1996).
Joel's acceptance speech for achievement in directing was a glimpse into the childhood that would render geniuses of cinematography. Missed it? Here's the transcript courtesy of Oscars.org:
"Ethan and I have been making stories with movie cameras since we were kids. In the late '60s when Ethan was 11 or 12, he got a suit and a briefcase and we went to the Minneapolis International Airport with a Super 8 camera and made a movie about shuttle diplomacy called "Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go." And honestly, what we do now doesn't feel that much different from what we were doing then. There are too many people to thank for this. We're really thrilled to have received it, and we're very thankful to all of you out there for letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox, so thank you very much."
Intrigued? From coenbrothers.net , here are 8 facts about the Joel and Ethan Coen and the films they breathe to life.
1. Joel has been married to Frances McDormand since 1984. McDormand took home a Best Actress Academy Award for the Coen's "Fargo"(1996)
2. "O Brother, Where art Thou?" is loosely based on Homer's epic poem The Odyssey. Joel referenced this in his acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay.
3. Ethan Coen studied philosophy at Princeton University in New Jersey.
4.Roderick Jaynes is the nomeclature credited for editing work in their first film, "Blood Simple"(1984).
5.George Clooney starred in another Coen Brother movie named "Intolerable Cruelty"(2000). "Burn After Reading" scheduled for November 2008 release also will include Clooney in it's cast.
6. The Coens were born in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Joel in 1954, and Ethan in 1957.
7. Gates of Eden is a collection of short stories by Ethan. Published in 1999 by Delta publishing company everyone from Publisher's Weekly to the Washington Post showered it with rave reviews .
Renee Graham of the Boston Globe says," Coen employs a variety of styles for his collection, from linear narrative to wordy soliloquies and confessional, fever-dream monologues, even mini-plays complete with stage directions. At their best, the stories are so vivid the stench of stale smoke and sweat seems to waft from the pages."
8. The soundtrack to "O Brother, Where art Thou?" won three Grammys, Album of the Year, Best Country Collaboration, and Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
