Dorothea Lange

I am also looking at the work of Dorothea Lange in relation to her depression era photography, she also worked for the FSA.

Photographers

I have been looking at depression era photographers that I could use as inspiration for this project and I am really loving Russel Lee's work for the FSA during the Depression.

 

Sullivan's Travels

I have ordered Sullivan's Travels to watch as it was partly the inspiration behind O Brother, will let you know how it goes!!!!

Ideas!

I have definitely decided to work on O Brother, Where art Thou?, it is the film i enjoyed the most and i really like the visual aesthetic of de-saturated colours and the yellowy tint to the film.  I also loved the soundtrack and the story!

So time to get the creative juices flowing.......
Beards!!!!  inspired from the Soggy Bottom Boys dodgy disguises, a possible idea for my set making patterns with lots of fake beards?

Bluegrass music...to create an image reflecting lyrics from some bluegrass music ie..Bill Munroe's Girl in the blue velvet band, Put my little shoes away, and Travellin soldier by the Dixie Chicks


Images definitely need to be sepia toned and/or de-saturated.


Landscapes with a fashion shoot style portrait.


Straw, for the colour and the reference to the barn dance aesthetic.

Look at Homer's Odyssey, try and get the cartoon version lol and watch Sulivan's Travels.

O Brother, Where art Thou?

This film whilst drawing inspiration from Homer's The Odyssey did not srart out that way.. It was only as the character of Ulysses Evert McGill developed to trying to find his way home that it was drawn on, albeit loosely.  The Coen brothers admitted to only having read the comic book version of Homer's Odyssey which explains alot about the film!
The film was also influenced by the Preston Sturges movie Sullivan's Travels, this shows in the depression era setting and in the relevance to the time in Sullivan's Travels that the main character spends on a prison farm.  The influence also shows in the title.
The film was shot on location in Mississippi where the foliage was green and lush, in contrast to the feel that the brothers wanted for the film.  So they experimented with bleaching techniques and diluting colour neg with black and white print to try and achieve the look they wanted.  But this did not work.  The film Pleasantville proved to be a great turning point  in the making of O Brother.  It was made and the film was digitally re-worked to give some of the film black and white sections.  The suggestion was put to the brothers to try digitally reworking O Brother and they really like the results.  The manipulation was kept to a minimum though with just the green's and the overall saturation being played with.


British journalist Peter Bradshaw wrote in The Guardian....." O brother has brio, wit and style and the whole pictureis air-cushioned with appealing comedy and its own unassuming nature.......it is made with marvellous clarity and fluency and Joel and Ethan Coen attain a comic simplicity that other film-makers can only dream of" (The Guardian 15/9/2000)

Fargo

Minneapolis car salesman Jerry Lundegaard is in money trouble and hires a couple of criminals to kidnap his wife, in the hope that his father-in-law Wade will put up the ransom money and he can pocket half of it.  It decends into a frace when the two criminals are stopped by a policeman and they kill him and two other witnesses.
When the local police cheif Marge Gunderson follows the trail of the murders back to the car showroom Jerry's friend, who put him in touch with the two criminals, gets angry and beats up Carl one of the two kidnappers.
Carl then shoots Wade when he turns up with the raqnsom money for his daughter.  But Carl's plan to escape with the bulk of the ransom money backfires and he ends up being fed into a wood chipper by his associate.  The film concludes with Gaear (the other kidnapper) being arrested and Jerry is also arrested while on the run in North Dakota.


The film has obvious visual reference to Psycho with Jean (Jerry's wife) being found in a bathroom and the shower curtain  The popping off the rings echoes the murder of Janet Leigh.  It also references A Clockwork Orange with the dialogue......"Just in town on business.  Just in and out.  Just a little of the old in and out."  The old in and out was a euphemism ofr sex in A Clockwork Orange.


All of Fargo was shot on  location with the exception of the two small bathroom sets, and as the film is supposed to have an aesthetic of a true story it was mostly shoit where the events allegedly took place.


I really enjoyed this film.  I found the narrative both funny and chilling.  The musical score  reflected the action well.  While i felt the snow added the feeling of film noir.  The vioence was justified and added to the story rather than being gratuitous.  The characters were believeable and it was easy to become emotionally entrenched in this movie, with my allegiance changing throughout the film from Jean to Marge to Jerry who despite being the intial protagonist ends up as the victim.

Raising Arizona

Armed robber Hi McDonnaugh is repeatedly caught, imprisoned and released, every time he is caught his mugshot is taken by the same policewoman Edwinna, who he subsequently marries.
Having been turned down for adoption because of Hi's criminal record, they kidnap a local entrepeneurs son.  From here events decend into chaos with Hi punching his boss for suggesting wife swapping, steraling napppies and his marriage on the rocks.
 A biker Leonard Smalls sees the reward for the baby but Hi's friends Gale and Evelle kidnap the baby first with view to collecting the reward but then decide to keep him.
Hi and Ed eventually get the baby back and are forgiven by the baby's father when they give him back.

I found that I did not connect with the characters in this film, I had no emotional investment in the film and found that the story did not connect with the issues surrounding it.
I did find that the opening montage set the scene really well thoough and gave me an initial insight into the two main characters.

This film was the brothers second offering and contrasted starkly with BLOOD SIMPLE.  It is lighter and funnier in contrast to the darkness in BLood Simple.  This shows the pattern throughout the brothers films that each one is completely different to the last.