fargo
Joel And Ethan Coen : Fargo : Love Minus Zero | Book Reviews | SpikeMagazine.com
/* Begin Contact Form ][ CSS */
.contactform {
position: static;
overflow: hidden;
}
.contactleft {
width: 25%;
text-align: right;
clear: both;
float: left;
display: inline;
padding: 4px;
margin: 5px 0;
font-weight: bold;
}
.contactright {
width: 70%;
text-align: left;
float: right;
display: inline;
padding: 4px;
margin: 5px 0;
}
.contacterror {
border: 2px solid #ff0000;
}
/* End Contact Form ][ CSS */
SpikeMagazine.com Books, Music, Art, Ideas
Book Reviews :: Interviews :: Features :: Music Reviews :: New Writing :: Splinters [Blog] :: Travel :: About / Contact
Joel And Ethan Coen : Fargo : Love Minus Zero
Filed under: Chris Mitchell, Features, Film & TV
Fargo
Joel And Ethan Coen
Chris Mitchell
Snow most often appears in the movies as the signifier of Christmas cheer. It may be cold outside, but it looks beautiful and everyone has a rosy glow on their faces and in their hearts. Fargo is different. From the blizzard which rages in the opening scenes through to the blood-soaked slush of the conclusion, snow hides and hinders all those enmeshed within the film’s dark story.
Moving between the semi-Arctic wastes of North Dakota and the relative civilisation of Minneapolis, Fargo portrays the attempt of debt-ridden car salesman Jerry Lundegaard to have his own wife kidnapped in order to extract a million dollar ransom from his overbearing father-in-law. Lundegaard hires the two ne’er do wells Carl Showalter and Gaear Grimsrud to take on the job. On their return from Minneapolis with Lundegaard’s wife, a cop and two tourists notice something amiss and subsequently end up dead on the roadside. It is left to heavily pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson to unravel the mystery while Lundegaard desperately tries to ensure the safe return of his wife and the delivery of the ransom…
From the outset of Fargo, the Coen Brothers are already playing tricks with the audience. A caption announces that this is a true story with only the names changed. But the American press have been unable to find anything remotely similar to the film’s events in their archives. Stylistically, the film projects coldness throughout, every character wrapped in layers and shivering about their business, whether normal or nefarious. Yet this is the warmest movie the Coens have made since Raising Arizona, largely due to the presence of police chief Gunderson (Frances McDormand).
As she follows the trail of Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Grimsrud (Peter Stromare), the very normality of Gunderson’s life is understatedly seen as the source of her stability and contentment. Gunderson’s endearing Scandinavian inflected accent, which is likely to be imitated for weeks after by filmgoers, is one example of the comedic elements which are juxtaposed with the macabre events that she tries to understand. And it is not just a deductive understanding that Gunderson seeks, but an emotional explanation as to why these events could have happened at all.
This focus on the “ordinary” perspective is an effective counterpoint to the actions of Showalter and Grimsrud. Buscemi and Stromare’s superb performances as archetypal American lowlife (Showalter all raw nerves and embittered underdog, Grimsrud utterly enigmatic and psychotic) gives a wry form of absurdity amidst the kidnapping and killing. The behaviour of the hapless car salesman Jerry Lundesgaard (William H. Macy) takes this absurdity to the extreme; utterly unsuited to dealings with the likes of Showalter and Grimsrud, his frantic attempts to regain control over the spiralling chain of events are simultaneously pathetic, comic and tender.
Fargo is a superb return to form after the vacuity of the Coen Brothers’ last outing, The Hudsucker Proxy. Its plot presents both the obvious and unexpected, while the characters’ idiosyncrasies are deftly drawn out over the course of the film. The final, perfect paradox is that Marge Gunderson’s incomprehension of Showalter and Grimsrud’s actions is exactly what provides the audience with the insight into both her life and theirs. Fargo is a movie with cold hands and a warm heart.
Last 5 posts in Chris MitchellAbby Lee: Girl With A One Track Mind - September 1st, 2006Suhayl Saadi: Psychoraag - April 1st, 2006David Nobakht: Suicide: No Compromise - April 1st, 2006Trainspotting The Play: Harry Gibson: 10 Years On - December 1st, 2005Joshua Davis: The Underdog: How I Survived The World's Most Outlandish Competitions - December 1st, 2005
Posted on June 1st, 1996.
Other SpikeMagazine.com posts of interest:
Ethan Coen: Gates Of Eden
Peter Körte, Georg Seesslen: Joel And Ethan Coen
Quentin Crisp: Resident Alien: The New York Diaries
Alberto Sciamma : The Killer Tongue : Suck It And See
J.G. Ballard : David Cronenberg’s Crash : Future Shock
Google Search:
Latest articles on SpikeMagazine.com:
Michael Palin - Himalaya interview
At Last! The Mark E. Smith Autobiog
An indiscreet Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin - A Question of Blood interview
Tony Parsons - Stories We Could Tell interview
Kellman, London, Minotaurs
Chris Patten - Not Quite the Diplomat interview
Jonathan Raban - Surveillance
The Ginseng Hunter
Pentagon?s Black Ops Revealed Through Jacket Patches
You Are Still Being Lied To
What Would You Ask Will Self?
Christopher Brookmyre - All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye
Tarja - My Winter Storm
Will Self Blogs Book Tour
Browse More On SpikeMagazine.com
About Spike (2)
Amy Prior (1)
Andrew Goodman (1)
Andrew Vachss (1)
Anne Rice (1)
Art (8)
Asia (1)
Authors (1)
Autobiography & Memoir (4)
Barry Miles (1)
Beat Generation (2)
Biography (37)
Body Piercing (2)
Book Reviews (262)
Bruce Chatwin (1)
Cartoons + Illustrations (1)
Cedric Mims (1)
Chris Patten (1)
Clark Blaise (1)
Crime / Noir (2)
Current Affairs (0)
Daily Book News (0)
David Blatner (1)
David Markson (1)
Death (20)
Design (8)
Douglas Coupland (5)
Drugs (43)
Economics (0)
Edinburgh (1)
Essays (0)
Factory Records (3)
Features (55)
Fiction (1)
Film & TV (29)
Gabriel Josipovici (1)
Gay (27)
Gilles Deleuze (1)
Globalisation (1)
Half Man Half Biscuit (2)
Horror (1)
Hunter S. Thompson (10)
Huston Smith (1)
Ian Rankin (1)
Interviews (81)
Irvine Welsh (8)
J.G. Ballard (12)
James Ellroy (1)
James Gleick (2)
Jean-Yves Tadie (1)
Jeff Noon (6)
Jennifer Niven (1)
Joanne Harris (1)
John Clay (1)
John King (1)
Jorge Luis Borges (1)
Joy Hancox (1)
Joyce Maynard (1)
Julie Burchill (3)
Kevin Kelly (1)
Kodwo Eshun (0)
Laurence O'Toole (1)
Leo Marks (1)
Lionel Rolfe (1)
Literature (3)
London (1)
Mark Danielewski (1)
Martin Amis (8)
Maths + Numbers (1)
Maurice Blanchot (8)
Michael Chabon (1)
Michael Gira (1)
Michael Marshall Smith (1)
Michael Palin (1)
Miranda Seymour (1)
Morrissey (6)
Music Books (14)
Music Reviews (168)
New Writing (9)
Non-fiction (1)
Novels (180)
Online Bookshop (0)
Paisley Rekdal (1)
Paris (1)
Paul Auster (3)
Paul Celan (2)
Paul Stump (1)
Peter Ackroyd (1)
Philosophy (2)
Politics (0)
Porn (9)
Publishing (0)
Punk (40)
Rap (7)
Religion + Beliefs (1)
Richard Holland (1)
Richard Witts (1)
Rock 'n' Roll (46)
Samuel Beckett (7)
Saul Bellow (1)
Science (13)
Scotland (1)
Self Publishing (2)
Sex (24)
Short Stories / Anthologies (1)
Simon Mawer (1)
Subjects (0)
Tania Glyde (1)
Techno (11)
Technology (30)
The Fall (3)
Theatre (9)
Thom Jones (1)
Thomas Bernhard (5)
Tim Parks (1)
Tom Baker (1)
Toni Davidson (1)
Tony Parsons (0)
Travel (22)
Tupac (2)
USA (0)
W.G. Sebald (2)
Will Self (8)
William Burroughs (13)
William Gibson (1)
Related Stories:
Ethan Coen: Gates Of Eden
Peter Körte, Georg Seesslen: Joel And Ethan Coen
Quentin Crisp: Resident Alien: The New York Diaries
Alberto Sciamma : The Killer Tongue : Suck It And See
J.G. Ballard : David Cronenberg’s Crash : Future Shock
Buy Books Online
Search now!
Search now!
Last 5 posts in Chris MitchellAbby Lee: Girl With A One Track Mind - September 1st, 2006Suhayl Saadi: Psychoraag - April 1st, 2006David Nobakht: Suicide: No Compromise - April 1st, 2006Trainspotting The Play: Harry Gibson: 10 Years On - December 1st, 2005Joshua Davis: The Underdog: How I Survived The World's Most Outlandish Competitions - December 1st, 2005
Ethan Coen and Joel Coen: Collected Screenplays 1: Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Finkby: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen,
The Coen Brothers: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series),
The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Filmby: William Preston Robertson, Tricia Cooke, John Todd Anderson, Rafael Sanudo,
The Big Lebowskiby: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen,
The Brothers Grim: The Films of Ethan and Joel Coenby: Erica Rowell,
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Faber and Faber Screenplays)by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen,
Joel and Ethan Coen (Contemporary Film Directors)by: R. Barton Palmer,
Fargo (Faber Reel Classics S.)by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen,
The Director's Vision: A Concise Guide to the Art of 250 Great Filmmakersby: Geoff Andrew,
Barton Fink & Miller's Crossingby: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen,
Next results
Google Search
About SpikeMagazine.com
SpikeMagazine.com is a long running online magazine about books, people and ideas.[more info]
buy uk sex toys online
RSS
Spike RSS Feed
Get Spike
by email
Each new Spike article sent to you by email. Easy unsubscribe.
No spam.
Enter your
email address:
Delivered by FeedBurner
Make A Comment: ( None so far )
Your Comment
Name (required)
Mail (required) (hidden)
Website
blockquote and a tags work here.
Powered by WordPress and The Fadtastic Theme. Created by Andrew Faulkner, mangled by Chris Mitchell
разделы
бензопила dolmar
архитектурный визуализация
лад
холодный обзвон
пленка пэ
рассылка адрес
облицовка панель
крановый тележка
меховой холодильник
заказать флаг
инженерный геодезия
ppg краска
dhl
сборный доставка
решетка окон
поставщик вина
восстановление бухучета
аденома
применение доломита
нужный билет
облицовка электрокамин
дренаж
кулер
электросчетчик гамма
аэробика мячом
трубогиб дорном
багетный мастерский
sky link
купить конденсатоотвод
эфирный антенна funke
холодильник neff
ротационный rvg
зубной камень
купить k800i
ванна моечный
шелкография
штукатурка фасадный
серверные корпус консольный переключатель
компания сент-лючии
хлеборезка ахм
набор гинекологический
эфирный антенна locus
доставка кулеров
вспучивающийся краска
скрипт рассылка объвлений
fag
шумок дмитрий владимирович
безоперационное прерывание беременность
кулер комп
анимация 3d график
апгрейд обезьяна
крот dr
электрокамин dimplex model magic (sp8)
электрокамин dimplex model plasma (sp9)
флюрисцентная краска
кбе
медикаментозный прерывание беременность
регестрация пбоюл
катетер
купить раструб
дмитрий шумок
оркестр креольский танго
эдас-934 аденома предст.ж-зы
флагшток внутренний использование
прайс эфирный антенна
ваза 2112
fargo