Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling

I’ve received some recurring questions via email and Twitter about Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling, my new 1-week online class which starts today, so let me address those here in one post:

What Coen brothers movies will you be analyzing in the class?

Here is the list in chronological order:

Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn’t There, No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, True Grit.

Will I have to have seen all of the Coen brothers movies to participate in the class?

No.

First off, I will provide a summary of each movie’s plot.

Second, I will make available scripts for all 13 movies so participants have the option of reading some during the class with all of them available for later reference [scripts provided for educational purposes only.]

Third, themes and dynamics extracted from their movies are concepts we will discuss at length both in relation to the Coens as well as generally in terms of storytelling.

Finally every participant has the option to workshop one of their own stories using any of those themes which is in a way independent of whether they have seen all or most of the Coen brothers moves or not.

Some may lump the Coen brothers into the category of “post-modern” filmmakers, but I prefer to think of them as “non-traditional traditionalists.” That is they work within the boundaries of traditional screenplay structure and narrative patterns, but in that context they make non-traditional choices.

In Hollywood where industry insiders decry formulaic writing, I can think of no better way for writers to embrace a radical spirit of ‘similar but different’ than by studying the Coen brothers, and bringing some of their sensibilities to bear on our own writing.

You may sign up for the class here.