Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A Guide to the Coen Brothers: The Raimi Connection



Sam Raimi and the Coen Brothers owe a lot to each other when it comes to getting their respective film careers off the ground. For those who don't know, Sam Raimi is the exceptionally talented director of such films as the "Evil Dead" series, "Spiderman" series, "A SImple Plan", "The Gift" and most recently "Drag Me To Hell".

The Coen Brothers worked with Raimi on "The Evil Dead" in 1981 and are credited as assistant editors. The influence Raimi's style had on the Brothers is most noticeable in their comedy, "Raising Arizona". The frantically kinetic camera movements that Raimi established made their way into "Raising Arizona" and the Coen's openly give props to Raimi for inspiration.

But the collaboration didn't stop there. The Coen Brothers went on to write two sceenplays with Raimi, "Crivewave" and "The Hudsucker Proxy". "Crimewave" was directed by Sam Raimi and didn't turn into the best of the two co-written works. But "Hudsucker", directed by the Coens, is a great movie.

It's another fun activity to watch these movies and pick out the cross over themes and elements that would go on to become staples of both the Coen Brothers and Raimi. Another fun thing to watch for is the cameo appearance by Joel Coen in Raimi's "Crimewave" and the return cameo of Raimi in the Coen Brother's "Miller's Crossing".

Source: www.squidoo.com

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