I watched The Hudsucker Proxy again the other night - which to my mind is one of the best films ever. (Not that a lot of people agree with me but oh well.) It's one of the lesser-known films by Joel and Ethan Coen (a.k.a The Coen Brothers), who also made Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona and the soon to be released No Country for Old Men.
These guys sit comfortably in my top 3 film-makers of all time with their offbeat humour, brilliant storytelling and ability to take any genre and make it their own. They have an awe inspiring eye for visuals, write golden dialogue and bring out superb performances from the already talented actors they bring in.
The AV Club section of The Onion website put together an extensive primer on their body of work the other day which sums them up far better than I ever could, so if you have any love for film at all, do yourself a honkin big favour and check it out.
I wasn't such a fan of their last two outings - Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers - but everything else they have made is pure gold.
My personal top five:
1. The Hudsucker Proxy (not the trailer but a great sequence)
2. The Big Lebowski
3. Miller's Crossing
4. Fargo
5. Raising Arizona
(Picture CC Rita Molnar)
