Book Description
"Why do you want to write a biography of us ? ... we're boring" was Joel Coen's initial response to Ronald Bergan. He has a point. Choking on his kir in disbelief that they have never heard of Kieslowski, this former chronicler of the lives of Jean Renoir and Sergei Eisenstein might not seem ideally suited to writing about two fans of Doris Day musicals and the comedies of Cheech and Chong. That the book remains so readable is due to Bergan's style, highly critical but, like the films covered, irreverent bordering on rudeness. Never over-cerebral, Bergan has clearly done his research as he covers their output from the earliest remakes ("Lassie Come Home" as "Ed ... A Dog") to "O Brother Where Art Thou?" The brothers themselves, chain smokers who pepper their dialogue with "heh-heh"s, come across as Smart and Smarter. Joey Ramone lookalike Joel loves dog movies whereas Ethan is an outrageous sentimentalist. The Coen Brothers is not the ideal introduction for newcomers, nor for particularly sensitive fans, but for those who enjoyed, or were bemused by, Cheshire and Ashbrook's quirkier guide to the weird and wonderful Coen Brothers, this is a good follow up

The first in-depth biography of the most imaginative, original and successful writer-director filmmakers to have emerged in the last twenty years. The first in-depth biography of the most imaginative, original and successful writer-director filmmakers to People either love the Coen brothers' films, or hate them. Those that love them believe that they have made some of the most innovative, entertaining and idiosyncratic films of the last 25 years. This is both a biography of the brothers and a discussion of their films.