When The Tragedy of Macbeth released last year, there was some cause for concern. After 18 films, including classics like Raising Arizona, fargoand The Big Lebowski, Joel Coenfirst offered the public a film that did not include the involvement of his younger brother, Ethan Coen. However, Joel Coen’s sole directing was not a first for the filmmaker.
From his debut Blood easy (1984), through Intolerable cruelty (2003), Joel Coen was credited as director, but it was clear that the films were an equal partnership with his sibling, who had co-written and produced all the projects as well. Ethan Coen is also listed as the uncredited director of every movie on IMDb. But the 2021 adaptation of Shakespeare, which featured a tour de force by Denzel Washington as Lord Macbeth, was a solo production by Joel Coen. The news went round that Ethan Coen was relinquishing their 34-year creative partnership.
A necessary break from filmmaking?
Carter Burwell, composer of the old Coen brothers, whose career began with them Blood easytold Score: The podcast“Ethan just didn’t want to make movies anymore.” This makes it a bigger problem than just that Ethan Coen wasn’t interested in his brother’s Shakespearean passion project. It also belies the fact that he actually made a movie rather than working on it The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Ethan Coen’s first solo film, the 2022 documentary, Jerry Lee Lewis: Problems in Mind, screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May and is now quietly making the rounds on the indie film circuit, so perhaps Burwell meant he didn’t want to make scripted comedies or dramas anymore. But that doesn’t seem to be the case either, as he plans to follow up that document with a film (listed as Untitled Ethen Coen Project on IMDb), based on a screenplay he co-wrote with his wife Tricia Cooke, starring Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan.
Meanwhile, no upcoming projects have been reported by Joel Coen, so it seems more accurate that he’s the one taking a break from filmmaking at the moment. Ethan Coen has long had a separate career as a playwright with successful runs on Broadway and as the author of some acclaimed novels. Joel Coen’s career, on the other hand, has been completely dominated by the 19 films he has made since 1984, which featured FX’s 42 episodes. fargo television series (2014-present) which he also co-produces with his brother.
Despite the divorce and the lack of a possible short-term project, the statement that the brothers have separated for good cannot be made. Both Joel and Ethan have stated in interviews that they just need a break, which is incredibly understandable after more than three decades. Ethan Coen, 64, told… Associated Press:
“Going our own way sounds like it suggests it might be final. But none of this happened definitively. None of the decisions are final. Maybe we’ll make another movie. I don’t know what my next movie will be after this. The pandemic has happened. I turned into a big baby and got bored and stopped, and then the pandemic happened. Then other things happen and who knows?”
The brothers working together again can’t be ruled out
Likewise, when talking about the split, 67-year-old Joel Coen told the New York Times that there was “probably something healthy about taking a break.” There’s also the tantalizing prospect that they’ve saved a lot of projects, as they’ve written far more movies together than they’ve made. Burwell has also passed on to Score: The podcast that “a lot of scripts they wrote together that are on different shelves,” and “I hope they might come back to some of them because I’ve read some of them and they’re great.”
While promoting his Jerry Lee Lewis paper, Ethan confessed to the AP that when he worked alone, he ran into problems that made him miss his brother:
“Often there are all these problems when you go, oh f***. You’re stuck, this isn’t working. And I would think Joel would have an idea of what to do here. So, where the hell is he?”
On the same note, Joel Coen said in that aforementioned New York Times interview that trying to make a movie without Ethan was like “going one eye out.” The filmmaking collaboration between Joel and Ethan Coen is arguably one of the most influential, iconic and acclaimed directorial duos in cinema history. It would be a bitter pill to swallow if the couple never made another production, but there’s a good chance they’ll get back together for a project in the future.
But since they both seem to need some time to stretch out a bit, fans will just have to be patient.