VOTD: 40-Minute Coen Brothers Documentary Attempts To Explain Their Filmmaking Chops

This BBC doc on Joel and Ethan Coen is hardly new — it was created in 2000, during the production of O Brother, Where Art Thou?. But seeing the brothers in action is rare enough that even a 13-year old behind the scenes look is going to count as new for many people. There's even some interview footage with cinematographer Roger Deakins, who almost as reclusive as the Coens.

The films of Joel and Ethan Coen are so fully formed, and so specific to a recognizable point of view, that viewers seem to want an explanation for the origin of that sensibility. It's a fool's errand to some extent; explaining anyone's artistic work tends to be, and the Coens are more reluctant than most to discuss "reasons." The ready affability of the brothers in this interview even mocks any attempt to paint them as weird, aloof geniuses. And given that the doc opens with some explicitly outlandish myth-making, it's worth keeping in mind that there could well be some low-level mythologizing going on throughout. But the Coens' work is so good that such legend-building is pretty natural.

There's great stuff here, notably the contradiction between what seems to be a very easygoing shoot, and the rigorously structured production that allows it to be that way. Then, of course, there's the communication between the brothers, which is so ingrained that it barely even looks like communication at all. And the idea that Fargo was shot just because it was the cheapest script they happened to have laying around at the time is the sort of thing that will make some other filmmakers bang their heads on a table in frustration.

Check out the doc below.

(While this clip claims to be complete, there are at least two spots where material is clearly missing. It's a bummer that one takes place right as they brothers are about to talk about a camera move that seems inspired by Sam Raimi.)

[via The Playlist]