O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The project for this film has been under study for all of 3 000 years, ever since Homer began talking about it", says director and script writer Joel Cohen. The film is an amusing version of "The Odyssey", Homer?s epic poem. The setting today is rural Mississipi in the thirties, in the twentieth century. Everett Ulysses McGill is a mean criminal, with a certain amount of difficulty in adjusting to life as a prisoner and in serving a sentence of forced labor. In alliance with two types that could well be described as awkward and as losers, Pete and Delmar, he embarks on the greatest adventure of his life in search of liberty and in the hope of sharing out a missing treasure. With the words of a blind prophet echoing in their ears ("You will find a fortune, but not that which you seek"), the threesome, in chains, travels a road fraught with danger and the unforeseen. On one winding stretch, they come upon weird characters such as Big Ban Teague, an unscrupulous seller of Bibles, one-eyed, who dupes them; Babyface Nelson, the famous gangster who befriends them in the midst of a hold-up; and Tommy Johnson, a musician on his way to the city of Jackson to sing on the radio. In spite of all the difficulties, the fugitives make it to Ithaca where Pete and Delmar expect to be rewarded for their perseverance, and Everett, to meet with more than his part of the promised gold.

Joel Coen was born in Minneapolis, 1957, three years before his brother Ethan, scriptwriter and producer. With Joel directing and Ethan writing the screenplay, they made Blood Simple (1984), first shown in Brazil at the 9th Mostra and then screened again at the 28th Mostra. The brothers also wrote and directed Miller’s Crossing (1990, 14th Mostra); Barton Fink (1991), winner of the Golden Palm in Cannes; Fargo (1996), The Great Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000, 24th Mostra), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001); No Country for Old Men (2007, Closing Night of the 31st Mostra); Burn After Reading (2008, 32nd Mostra), A Serious Man (2009) and True Grit (2010). Inside Llewyn Davis, their 16th feature film, won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival.

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA