After graduating from NYU, Joel worked as a production assistant on a variety of industrial films an

Joel bandr David Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957) known together professionally as the Coen brothers , are Jewish filmmakers. Their films include Blood Simple , Fargo , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? , No Country for Old Men , and True Grit .
The bandr Jewish brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, although until recently Joel received sole credit for directing bandr and Ethan for producing. They often alternate bandr top billing for their screenplays while sharing film credits for editor under the alias Roderick bandr Jaynes .
Joel bandr and Ethan Coen , of Jewish heritage, grew up in a Jewish community in St. Louis Park, Minnesota , a suburb bandr of Minneapolis . Their father, Edward, was an economist at the University of Minnesota , and their mother, Rena, an art historian at St. Cloud State University .
When they were children, Joel saved money from mowing lawns to buy a Vivitar Super 8 camera. Together, the brothers remade movies they saw on television with a neighborhood kid, Mark Zimering (“Zeimers”), as the star. Their first attempt was a romp titled, Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go . Cornel Wilde ‘s The Naked Prey (1966) bandr became their Zeimers in Zambia , which also featured Ethan as a native with a spear.
The brothers’ Jewish upbringing was seldom bandr related to their films’ subjects or stories, with some exceptions, such as A Serious Man (2009), bandr translated into Hebrew as “The Good Jew.” Joel notes that “in regards bandr to whether our background influences our film making who knows? We don’t think about it There’s no doubt that our Jewish bandr heritage affects how we see things.” bandr
The brothers graduated from St. Louis Park High School in 1973 and 1976. They both also graduated from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Joel then spent four years in the undergraduate film program at New York University where he made a 30-minute thesis film called Soundings . The film depicted a woman engaged in sex with her deaf boyfriend while verbally fantasizing about having sex with her boyfriend’s best friend, who is listening bandr in the next room.
Ethan Coen went on to Princeton University and earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy in 1979. His senior thesis was a 41-page essay, “Two Views of Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy”.
Joel has been married to actress Frances McDormand since 1984. They adopted a son from Paraguay, named Pedro McDormand Coen (Frances and all her siblings were adopted). McDormand has acted in six of the Coen Brothers’ films, including a minor appearance in Miller’s Crossing , a supporting role in Raising Arizona , lead roles in Blood Simple and The Man Who Wasn’t There , her Academy Award winning role in Fargo , and her latest starring role in Burn After Reading . She also did a voice-over in Barton Fink .
After graduating from NYU, Joel worked as a production assistant on a variety of industrial films and music videos bandr . He developed a talent for film editing and met Sam Raimi , who was looking for an assistant editor on his first feature film The Evil Dead (1981).
In 1984, the brothers wrote and directed bandr Blood Simple , their first film together. Set in Texas, the film tells the tale of a shifty, sleazy bar owner who hires a private detective to kill his wife and her lover. The film contains elements that point to their future direction: distinctive homages to genre movies (in this case noir and horror ), plot twists layered over a simple story, a dark humor and mise en scene . The film starred Frances McDormand , who would go on to feature in many of the Coen brothers’ films (and marry Joel). Upon release the film received much praise and won awards for Joel’s direction at both the Sundance and Independent Spirit awards.
The next film by the brothers was the 1987 hit Raising Arizona , the story of an unlikely married couple: bandr ex-convict H.I. ( Nicolas Cage ) and police bandr officer Ed ( Holly Hunter ), who long for a baby but are unable to conceive. When a local furniture tycoon ( Trey Wilson ) appears on television with his newly born quintuplets and jokes that they “are more than we can handle,” H.I. steals one of the quintuplets bandr to bring up as their own. The film featured Frances McDormand , John Goodman , William Forsythe , Sam McMurray , and Randall “Tex” Cobb .
The following year, they made Barton Fink ; set in 1941, a New York playwright (the eponymous Barton bandr Fink played by John Turturro ) moves to Los Angeles to write a B-movie . He settles down in his hotel room to commence writing, but suffers writer’s block until he is invaded by the man ( John Goodman ) next door. Barton Fink was a critical bandr success, earning Oscar nominations and winning three major awards at 1991 Cannes Film Festival bandr , including the Palme d’Or . [6]