By Lizzie Francke
Translator: Qin Tian
Proofreading: Easy two three
Source: Sight & Sound (May 1996)
The word "cold" is often associated with the Coen brothers' work: it is often used to describe the exaggeration and irony in their films, as well as their precise grasp of the story.
The Coen brothers' 1983 debut film, Blood Labyrinth, is set in an arid land in Texas, where the heat of the climate and the sound of fans and flies buzz in the background, yet Blood Labyrinth is a cold rebellion against traditional killer stories. The lost characters in the film are grumpy and short-armed, but it doesn't take long for the living life to become a pale corpse swallowed by maggots.
Labyrinth of Blood (1983)
The Coen brothers' 1990 work Miller's Crossroads is a homage and revival of gangster genre films of the 1930s (whether it's Warner Pictures' series of black-and-white gangster films, or James Miller's Crossroads). Film noir written by M. Kane and Dahir Hammit). The film's plot is ingenious, and it is happy to tease the audience with clever but inexplicable abstract allusions: this is certainly a sign that the Coen brothers' erudition and calm emotions remain in the film.
Miller's Crossroads (1990)
1991's "Barton Fink" is set in Hollywood in the 1940s and revolves around the writer's nightmare—the difficulties he encountered in preventing writing. The film seems to be a glimpse into a wet, cold hell that won't really freeze, but at least a thick layer of mold.
Barton Fink (1991)
And in their most recent film, Ice Storm, the icy breath swept through the entire frame. Born in Minnesota, the Coen brothers returned to the cold wilderness of the Scandinavian culture-influenced, in the middle-northwest of the United States to shoot the film. The film, which is full of blizzards, tells a fictional but botched kidnapping story, but it's clearly fact-based.
Ice Storm (1996)
As the subtitles at the beginning of the film show: "This is a true story, and the story told in the film is based on Minnesota in 1987." At the request of the survivors, the characters in the story are pseudonyms. As a sign of respect for the deceased, the rest of the story is faithfully restored." And, of course, there's the familiar phrase, "If there is a similarity, it's purely coincidental."
So, the audience either traps themselves in this paradox or leaves it alone. Because the Coen brothers are preparing to tell us a challenging moral story. Car Manager Shelley (William M.) H. Massey, best known as Dr. Morganstein in The Emergency Room Story, is a car salesman in a suit whose dangerous and incompetent ideas about improving his finances led to a series of deaths rather than the accumulation of wealth. Subsequently, he also hires Kao and Kea (the "two fools" team played by Steve Busimimi and Peter Sternman) to kidnap his wife Jane (Kristen Rudrid).
But while the sense of irony and humor that the Coen brothers often use in Ice Storm can still be clearly felt, people will unusually see signs of their melting in the snow of the film. The Coen brothers showed a twisted, teasing affection for the community in which they grew up. Ice Storm's depiction of this Small American Town with a Siberian temperament is almost warm, and it has a strange, unlikely name: Brainard.
The film no longer features gags, but with a melancholy solemn atmosphere, carter Bewell's gushing music adds a little lightness, giving Bernard Hermanian mournful music a Scandinavian brisk note.
Racially, it's special: so much so that middle-class American audiences accustomed to enjoying popcorn movies may find the rather characters in Ice Storm a little exotic, they even speak with a Scandinavian accent, and all sentences are paused with one or two "yahs" (a real, utterly unintelligible dialect).
But it's clear that the people who live in the town in the film don't just seem eccentric, they also need to be scrutinized by the audience: the Coen brothers give these characters intricate characters. This is reflected in the portrayal of the character of the pregnant police chief Maggie (Francis McDormand, a frequent guest in the Coen Brothers films and later married to Joel Cohen), who is in charge of the case, who gives the film a solid and sensible core.
Maggie's husband, Noam (John Carlo Lynch), an obese wildlife painter who recently made a living by drawing bird motifs on stamps, is the center of calm amid the impending storm.
1. Pregnant cop Maggie
Joel Cohen: Everyone in the film is very strong, moving in a special way, as if to bounce off the people around them. This sense of plasticity is part of the local flair. Maggie's pregnancy meant her body shape became fuller. She's from the area, but she's very capable, a trait that no other character has. She wears a comical hat and walks funny, but not a laughable clown. We want her to be as far away from the image of the mediocre cop as possible.
Both Maggie and car manager Shelley were monotonous and boring, like the interior décor and the view from the window. But Maggie's monotony manifests itself in a good way, she's a good person and Shelley is a demon. We wanted to give these characters some sense of everyday life. Pregnancy is no more routine. You may not see the image behind these characters in the movie, but there are all kinds of pregnant cops in life.
2. The psychology of car manager Shelley
Joel Cohen: Shelley is a car sales manager, and the actor's excellent portrayal makes the role seem very real, which comes from Ethan's car purchase experience 5 years ago.
Ethan Cohen: The scene revolves around Shelley trying to sell TruCoat. It's almost a verbatim record of my experience. We are both interested in the psychology of a man who constructs those pyramidal financial plans but cannot project himself into the next minute or imagine the consequences of the future.
Joel Cohen: Part of his role as a car salesman was his indifference, sitting in cubicles all day yelling at his men. He seemed very organized, not as we had envisioned. We imagined him as a slacker, often unwell and a little overweight. When William M. When H. Messi came to play Shelley, we got a whole new direction. He combines all of the above qualities, but he is also very restrained and depressed.
Ethan Cohen: William H. Messi insisted on putting a stupid pin on his suit to prove that he had been in the automotive business for 5 years.
3. Swedish buffet, Midwest life
Ethan Cohen: Food is very important to Maggie, and in the film, she has many scenes where she eats with Noam.
Joel Cohen: In Minnesota, there are a lot of Nordic cafeterias that come out of the film. For the most part, these Swedish-style "eat as much as possible" restaurants were part of our childhood. Maggie is pregnant, so there's a reason she eats, but it's also unique to the American middle class, who always eat a lot. Maggie tried to catch the killer, but nothing could prevent her from having lunch.
Noam is from Minnesota, and all the people who come from small places are like him, all with their own accents. The actor who plays Nome, John Carlo Lynch, comes from the Guthrie Theater, a Minneapolis-based theater that has produced many talented actors.
4. Kidnapping scenes
Joel Cohen: In retrospect, this is the second film we've made about kidnapping — we have another one centered around another kidnapping. Kidnapping is full of dramatic possibilities: conflict, high risk, all the dramatic, melodramatic stories are good film fodder.
One of my favorite movies all along is Akira Kurosawa's Kingdom of Heaven and Hell. Probably the best film ever about kidnapping, it tells the story of the son of a shoe merchant in Osaka who was supposed to be kidnapped, but the kidnappers kidnapped the driver's son. I don't know why kidnappings are so fascinating, but they are really appealing.
Kingdom of Heaven and Hell (1963)
5. Talkative Karl
Joel Cohen: We wrote the character of Karl specifically for Steve Bussimi (just as we wrote Maggie for Francis McDormand and Kea for Peter Steman) because in a way, it's appropriate to have a real Scandinavian among all these second-generation Scandinavians. This is our fourth film with Steve – unfortunately, we've always had him play only minor roles in the past.
We were aware of his (psychopathic)-like character traits in other films and wanted to push his performance in a particular direction. We wanted to write something substantive because he was so brilliant. The first time we asked him to star in Miller's Crossroads was because we wanted to find someone who spoke incredibly fast. Carl is one of the most outspoken characters in Ice Storm — and maybe it has to do with the fact that he's an eloquent person.
6. Between the sky and the snow
Joel Cohen: It's very important to note about the location that we don't see the line between the sky and the snow. The angle of looking up is very similar to the angle of looking down: we want to have this empty, dazed, bland exterior, in which we combine the seemingly bland scenery with some of the details on the picture.
Ethan Cohen: In this scene, Steve plays Karl who is buried in the snow and the ransom is never recovered. Again, this detail comes from the fact that it is based on real life. And in real-life events, the object of dramatic attention is set aside. Interestingly, instead of having to make a story that is very unified in structure and pleasant narrative, things can be told as we please, the way we want.
Joel Cohen: It's one of the few jokes in the movie. There are many scenes in the movie that cause the audience to laugh, but this scene is a joke. The truth is that, at this moment, he is constantly looking around this desolate, featureless, empty land to see if anyone is watching him.