On the flip side of the coin as Robert Altman, a director who as said earlier I was not at all familiar with, I was very familiar with the Coen Brother's entering into this unit. Now I would not say I'm anywhere near a scholar on their films, or even well educated on them at all, but I had seen the majority of their collection including all three films that we watched in class, only missing out on a few of their first few which I should probably watch one of these days.
What strikes me above really anything else about the Coen Brother's is their capability to so easily move between genres of film to make any topic look like they've been making films relating to it for years. On one hand you have your directors like Michael Mann and Tim Burton who, while good, for the most part make movies with similar themes, both narrative and visual throughout them. On the other hand you have the Coen Brother's, who are able to effortlessly move from a Quirky Arizona family to a dry humor filled Minnesota cold, all the way to a Very serious game of Cat and Mouse played out in Texas. There movies in no way shape or form "tie in" to eachother and are each there own separate stories.
Although they don't tie into each other story wise, many of the cinematic elements can be traced throughout all of their movies. Things such as Long shots of nature/wilderness, minimal music, having characters that talk very little who have exaggerated character traits, and hidden cuts. All of these make the Coen Brother's particularly interesting, considering that they are able to do this so readily between all very different movies.
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