#Barton fink director series

Kaufman as inspiration for Fink, with his high wall of hair and circular glasses.

Physically, though, the Coens used the humorist, Marx Brothers writer, and director George S. The Coens wrote the part of Fink specifically for Turturro, and the character evoked the story of Clifford Odets, the Group Theatre playwright who, after initial success in the 1930s with plays such as Waiting for Lefty and Awake and Sing!, left New York for Hollywood. Don’t let this get around.” The story of the principled New York writer being broken down by the temptations of Hollywood is nearly as old as the movies themselves, and while Hecht took the opportunity and became the quintessential Hollywood screenwriter, Barton Fink (John Turturro), a social realist whose successful play Bare Ruined Choirs has drawn attention from the studios, finds the transition to Los Angeles more complicated. Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots.

All expenses paid,” wrote future CITIZEN KANE scribe Herman Mankiewicz to New York journalist and playwright Ben Hecht in 1925. “Will you accept $300 per week to work for Paramount Pictures. With BARTON FINK, they took on Hollywood itself, specifically the golden age of the studio system, when New York writers made their way west, enticed by the lure of easy money and steady work.

#Barton fink director series

Independent filmmakers, critical darlings, and eventually even box office heavyweights, the Coens began their career with a series of takes on classic Hollywood genres: the film noir (BLOOD SIMPLE, 1984), the screwball comedy (RAISING ARIZONA, 1987), and the gangster film (MILLER’S CROSSING, 1990). “I’ll show you the life of the mind!” The fourth feature film by Joel and Ethan Coen, BARTON FINK offers a searing, strange, and darkly funny look into the life of a New York playwright in the 1940s who moves to Hollywood, fights writer’s block, and struggles to maintain his allegiance to the common man in a world of demanding studio executives, jaded producers, and strange neighbors. Humanities Quadrangle, Room L01 (320 York)