Preston Sturges and the Coen Brothers Story Relationship
Preston Sturges and the Coen Brothers Story Relationship
Aaron C. Matti
Cleveland State University
Outline
Introduction
Preston Sturges Background
Brief Career and Film Background
Comedy pioneer in Hollywood
Coen Brothers Background
Brief Career and Film Background
Influence and Style
Sturges and Coen Brothers Evaluation
Comparing ?Sullivan?s Travels? to ?O Brother, Where Art Thou??
Signs and Relationships ? Odyssey
Comparable Scenes
Reference to Laughter
Review
Conclusion
Preston Sturges and the Coen Brothers Story Relationship It is in the film Sullivan?s Travels directed and written by Preston Sturges that a popular Hollywood director chooses …show more content…
8). It is during this time in Hollywood after being frustrated with way directors were treating his dialogues that Sturges proposed the possibility to direct his screenplays on the big screen that would pave the way for more screenwriters directing their screenplays (Pirolini p. 8). Sturges would make his director debut at the age of 41 after Paramount Studios gave in and allowed him to direct his script, The Great McGinty (Kirkegaard). The film became a hit with audiences and ?prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to establish a new category ? Best Original Screenplay? (Kirkegaard). Before screenwriters were seen near the bottom of the pole in Hollywood and now were given a reward for their efforts. Sturges was nominated three times for Best Original Screenplay and won once with The Great McGinty. Within fifteen years, Sturges wrote forty screenplays, directed twelve movies, and made an impression on Hollywood (Pirolini p. 8). ?Today, Preston Sturges? fast-paced films, with their inimitable dialogue, are still first-rate comedy material,? says Jonas Varsted Kirkegaard in Issue 32 (July 2004) of Senses of Cinema. Kirkegaard goes on to say Sturges? films seem to be a ?series of tenacious …show more content…
(2014, June 17). Movie of the week: ?Sullivan?s Travels?. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/movie-of-the-week-sullivans-travels
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McFarland, D. (2012). Philosophies of comedy in o brother, where art thou?. M.T.Conrad (Ed.), The philosophy of the Coen brothers (pp. 41-54). Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.
Orr, C. (2014, September 17). 30 years of Coens: O brother, where art thou?: Homer meets Preston Sturges meets bluegrass. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/09/30-years-of-coens-o-brother-where-art-thou/380289/
Pirolini, A. (2010). The cinema of Preston Sturges: A critical study. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Sturges, P. (Producer), & Sturges, P. (Director). (1942). Sullivan?s Travels [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.
Filmography ? Films Viewed for this