The Coen brothers write, produce and direct all their own films so the amount of control they have over them is extensive.
They came onto the film scene in 1984 with their debut film BLOOD SIMPLE which premiered at the New York Film Festival.
One critic said of it "Boy do the Coen brothers have style. Amplified chunks of face are shoved up close to our dumbstruck gaze, prosiac household objects are given the fisheye and magically attain ominous connotations that mean anything in particular......" Elliot Stein in Film Comment 1984.
(50 Contemporary Film Makers - Edited by Yvonne Tasker 2002 Routledge London pg 110)
He said this despite observing that the audience "cheered themselves hoarse".
Their films often show a farcical look at the violence present in everyday US culture and show original social commentary that is evident despite irony and the cheekiness within the films.
The Coen brothers especially satirize people like themselves. For example the characters in Fargo are stupid simply they come from the Upper Mid-west. In Barton Fink there are caustic Jewish stereotypes.
There are many themes running through the brothers films as well as the stupidness of people, they use voice-over extensively and dream sequences figure prominently as well.
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