![]() ![]() The Coens are after something else here and not just a postmodern story: secret societies and the deception of the American Dream. He procrastinates not out of strain but out of distraction: particularly the discoveries of the “real” side of Hollywood and the American underground altogether (as if he were a Cold War agent trying to dig up dirt). However, Barton Fink is more than just a film where a playwright cannot get his act together. Remember the Spongebob Squarepants episode (“Procrastination”) where the titular cleaning device has to write an essay on what not to do at a stoplight, where his stalling results in nightmarish scenarios that are extremely hyperbolic? That’s Barton Fink, down to a literal fire that smokes us out (I can almost hear a ghostly voice asking Fink why he didn’t just finish his script). Not to get too juvenile, but I have to bring up this comparison. The Coens have always been interested in going where other American filmmakers haven’t gone before, and enough of Barton Fink feels like their own story and Fellini’s surrealist ideas combined. Barton Fink actually came about during the production of Miller’s Crossing, and it was an excursion away from the writing process of the latter, so technically there was some writer’s block at play here, but I think this being a writing exercise to help the Coens get back on track (instead of them being completely strapped of thought) helps my earlier claims stay at least partially true. They wanted to try anything and everything, and didn’t want to wait to need to make their 8 1/2. ![]() Then again, were the Coens actually strapped for ideas, or were they just wanting to be a part of this exclusive club for auteurs bereft of inspiration? I’d argue the latter, because Barton Fink is actually a highly artistic dark comedy: not due to the drying of the cranial well, but the exploration of what lay ahead for the sibling auteurs. It was really early when Joel and Ethan Coen threw their arms up in the air and admitted imaginative defeat with only their fourth feature film (other directors lasted longer), Barton Fink. Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2set a precedent for what a filmmaker’s struggles with creativity can look like, and many directors have responded. Have you ever had writer’s block? So have many of the greats. ![]()
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