Broadcast this evening on Arte, notably featuring a George Clooney revealing real comic potential, “O’Brother” by the Coen brothers slips a pretty, very sharp cinephile tribute.
In deep Mississippi, during the Great Depression. Three chained prisoners escape from the penal colony: Ulysse Everett McGill, mastermind of the project, convinced his two friends in misfortune, the nice and simple Delmar and the eternal complainer Pete, to follow him by making them dangle a treasure buried in his garden, following a bank robbery.
And we have to act quickly, because in three days, his house will be swallowed up by the waters of a dam. An adventure that will not be without pitfalls, especially as they are pursued by the formidable and mysterious Sheriff Cooley…
Very freely inspired by Homer’s Odyssey that the Coen brothers claimed not to have read, O’Brother is certainly one of the funniest films of the filmmaker brothers, in which George Clooney shows a real comic potential that was hitherto rather unsuspected. That said, the star of the film remains the fabulous soundtrack, cheerfully mixing Bluegrass, Country and Gospels. It will also be a huge success internationally.
For the 15th anniversary of the film in 2015, the Coen brothers, accompanied by the trio George Clooney, John Turturro and Tom Blake Nelson, as well as the cinematographer, the legendary Roger Deakins, were reunited at the new york film festival, during a screening. A rather rare event, the Coens seeing very little of their past films. The opportunity also to exchange with the audience after the screening, and to deliver some tasty anecdotes.
Beyond the fact that the filmmakers wanted their film to share the same philosophy as The Wizard of Oz, encapsulated in Dorothy’s final line, “there’s no place like home!”they slipped a pretty, very cinephile tribute into the very title of their film.
A tribute paid to a great filmmaker, Preston Sturges (1898-1959). He was notably the author of an absolute classic released in 1941, Les Voyages de Sullivan. Here is the trailer…
The story ? Tired of Hollywood escapades, John L. Sullivan (played by Joel McCrea), hitherto a comedy director, decides to shoot a film that he wants to be much more dramatic and rooted in reality. Dressed like a vagrant, he began his “travels” by criss-crossing the United States, to better understand the aspirations of underprivileged backgrounds.
And, ultimately, to learn the lesson that instead of making a John Steinbeck drama, the world will be better off if you make it laugh. The name of the film he wants to direct? O’Brother, where Art thou ?