History Creator / TheCoenBrothers

Joel has been married to actress Creator/FrancesMcDormand -- whom he met on the set of their first film ''Film/BloodSimple'' -- since 1984. She's appeared in seven of their films, including ''Film/{{Fargo}}'', for which she won the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestActressInALeadingRole for Best Actress]]. She said of the event, "After all these years sleeping with the director, it's finally paid off." Ethan has been married to Tricia Cooke since 1990, who worked as an editor on several of the brothers' films.

Vote for your favourite Coen brothers film [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/Sandbox/BestFilmCoenBrothers here!]]

Joel David Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957) have been making films and thumbing their noses at traditional genre boundaries since 1984. Bouncing from FilmNoir to screwball comedy, from quirky indies to big-budget studio pieces, they function as a two-man writer-director-producer-editor SiblingTeam.

Joel has been married to actress Creator/FrancesMcDormand -- whom he met on the set of their first film ''Film/BloodSimple'' -- since 1984. She's appeared in seven of their films, including ''Film/{{Fargo}}'', for which she won the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Actress. She said of the event, "After all these years sleeping with the director, it's finally paid off." Ethan has been married to Tricia Cooke since 1990, who worked as an editor on several of the brothers' films.

* ''Literature/NoCountryForOldMen'' (2007)

* TheVerse: Several of their films seem to take place in the same universe. The hotel fire from ''Film/BartonFink'' is referenced in a newspaper article in ''Film/MillersCrossing'' (''Crossing'' was produced first, but the films were written simultaneously) and the law firm "Whitehall and Marsh" is mentioned in both ''Film/BurnAfterReading'' and ''Film/ASeriousMan''. The mysterious blue Volkswagen from ''Film/BloodSimple'' reappears in ''Film/TheBigLebowski''. ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' eventually made it explicit it takes place in the same universe as ''Film/{{Fargo}}'', too.

Joel has been married to actress Creator/FrancesMcDormand - whom he met on the set of their first film ''Film/BloodSimple'' - since 1984. She's appeared in seven of their films, including ''Film/{{Fargo}}'' for which she won the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Actress. She said of the event "After all these years sleeping with the director, it's finally paid off." Ethan has been married to Tricia Cooke since 1990, who worked as an editor on several of the brothers' films.

All of their films are scored by Music/CarterBurwell. All of their films are edited by Roderick Jaynes. He doesn't exist. He is a pseudonym for the brothers themselves. Yeah, they like to have creative control on their films.

[[quoteright:318:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coen_brothers.jpg ]]

* UncreditedRole: They were uncredited script doctors for ''Film/FunWithDickAndJane'' and ''Film/BadSanta'', the latter of which they were also credited producers for.

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: They're notorious for never letting characters get away with transgressions, no matter how minor or how sympathetic they otherwise might be.

* SceneryPorn

* AdaptationDistillation: ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'', and widely regarded as superior because of it

* ThePerfectionist: They're known for wanting to keep Their visions intact, especially in relation to dialogue. It doesn't make Them any less pleasant to work with though.

* {{Troll}}: Nathan Rabin once joked that they'd heckle their own funerals if they could.

* YouHaveToHaveJews: The Coens, who are of Jewish heritage, tend to include Jewish characters and Jewish cultural aspects in their films, though ''A Serious Man'' is the only one in which Judaism is central to the story.

* ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'' (2021)[[note]]The first movie directed solely by Joel[[/note]]

* ImplacableMan: Most of the criminal characters in their stories are [[StupidCrooks foolish and incompent morons]], so by contrast, there's often one more dangerous and relentless antagonist in their stories. These vary from killers with [[BlueAndOrangeMorality an almost incomprehensible worldview]] through [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane ambiguously supernatural or uncanny]] characters all the way up to [[SatanicArchetypes Satanic archetypes]]. [[Film/NoCountryForOldMen Anton Chigurh]], [[Film/{{Fargo}} Gaear Grimsurd]], [[Film/RaisingArizona Leonard Smalls]], [[Film/BloodSimple Loren Visser]], [[Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou the Warden]], [[spoiler: [[Film/BartonFink Charlie Mundt]]]] all count. [[Film/TheBalladOfBusterScruggs Buster Scruggs]] is an interesting variant who's an [[AffablyEvil affable Singing Cowboy]] and remorseless killer, and the final segment, "The Mortal Remains", features two ambiguously supernatural bounty hunters.

* ImplacableMan: Most of the criminal characters in their stories are [[StupidCrooks foolish and incompent morons]], so by contrast, the ''real'' (and most genuinely threatening) villains in their stories are relentless sociopaths who often operate on [[BlueAndOrangeMorality an almost incomprehensible worldview]], like [[Film/NoCountryForOldMen Anton Chigurh]], [[Film/{{Fargo}} Gaear Grimsurd]], [[Film/RaisingArizona Leonard Smalls]], [[Film/BloodSimple Lorren Visser]], [[Film/TheBalladOfBusterScruggs Buster Scruggs]], and, to a lesser extent, [[spoiler: [[Film/BartonFink Charlie Mundt.]]]]

* BittersweetEnding: The best-case scenario for the protagonists of their films is that they do triumph over the bad guys but at a heavy cost.

** TheNarrator in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' seems to believe that he's in a {{Western}}.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: All of their films are extremely cynical, with the jarring exceptions of ''Film/RaisingArizona'' and ''Film/TheHudsuckerProxy''. There's something to be said for the strong underlying sense of morality that permeates their films, though.

* TypeCasting: They're known for typecasting some of their favourite actors - but in [[PlayingAgainstType roles completely unlike the way they're typically typecast.]] Creator/JohnGoodman typically plays loud, violent and/or completely psychotic characters in Coen brothers films, in contrast to his other roles. (They do, however, make good use of his ability to also be very [[FauxAffablyEvil genial]] in both ''Barton Fink'' and ''O Brother Where Art Thou?'' -- then he finds a middle ground as a man who is affable and crude in ''Inside Llewyn Davis''.) Creator/GeorgeClooney also plays [[BrainlessBeauty handsome, All-American idiots]] across four Coen films.

* IdiotBall: Their "selfish and unrealistic" characters are ''notoriously'' known for carrying this, to the extent of pushing things to an IdiotPlot. This is however a prime example of Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, though, because their work is actually ''better'' for it.

All of their films are scored by Music/CarterBurwell. All of their films are edited by Roderick Jaynes. He doesn't exist. He is a pseudonym for the brothers themselves. They like to have creative control on their films. Yeah.

* FilmNoir: ''Blood Simple'', ''Miller's Crossing'', ''The Big Lebowski'', and ''The Man Who Wasn't There'' are based on the classic potboilers of Creator/DashiellHammett, Creator/RaymondChandler, and Creator/JamesMCain. Respectively, with Hammett getting the first two.

* IdiotBall: Their "selfish and unrealistic" characters are ''notoriously'' known for carrying this, to the extent of pushing things to an IdiotPlot. This is however a prime example of TropesAreNotBad, though, because their work is actually ''better'' for it.