The Coen brothers don’t care about industry criticism: “Jean-Luc Godard really hates our movies”
When you’re as influential in the film world as the Coen brothers, it’s hard to imagine being impacted by any sort of criticism, even from other well-respected names.
More than that, even if it’s from other major players, directors and filmmakers included, brushing it off with ease becomes more commonplace when you’ve already got a hefty legacy behind you, primarily because the praise is so loud that it almost always drowns out the bad.
Many have spoken about their appreciation for the brothers’ work, with praise ranging from the specific details of their style to how they operate on set. For some, like Angelina Jolie, it’s the type of content that’s on offer, and the fact that there’s something for everybody.
As she once said, “One can be so full of humour, and the next can be so frightening, but you always know going into a Coen brothers movie that it’ll be something special”, and this echoes across the board, but as with most visionaries, they’re not everybody’s cup of tea. In fact, some of the harsher critics, like author Geoff Dyer, find them particularly jarring, especially when they attempt humour.
“When I’m in a Coen brothers film, in a cinema, I’m surrounded by all of these people laughing their heads off, and I’m sitting there stone-faced,” he said.
There’s a growing list of people who, like Dyer, aren’t that impressed by their work, and when they found out that Jean-Luc Godard was one of them, they didn’t really seem to mind, at least, not too much, proving that when it comes to bad press, their core approach is to shake it off with a shrug and a humorous quip that reflects their broader reputation in the industry.
“We just found out that Jean-Luc Godard really hates our movies!” Ethan Coen said during an interview with The Times, adding, “Too bad Luis Buñuel didn’t live longer. It would be interesting to hear that Buñuel hates our movies too. Or what about [Pier Paolo] Pasolini?”
He also recalled hearing about Jim Jarmusch once calling their movies ‘Spielbergian’, to which Joel Coen proved how, between them, there’s a fine line when it comes to brushing things off and getting caught up in it all. “It’s interesting because, since you heard about the Godard thing, you’ve been obsessed with all the people who’ve dissed you,” he told his brother, adding, “And Jim probably didn’t even mean it! Well, yes, he meant it as a little bit of slap, but he probably regrets it.”
While it’s easy for them to look the other way, it’s also understandable why they would listen to some of it and get their backs up from time to time, especially when it comes from names as big as Godard or Jarmusch, as well as when the feedback is as ambiguous as comparing them to another, like Steven Spielberg, not knowing whether that’s a compliment or a jab about them imitating others’ styles.
However, that’s natural for any filmmaker on their level, and even some of the more scathing reviews aren’t all that scathing when you peer beneath the surface, usually boiling down to simple tastes and subjective views when it comes to how storytelling should be done.
