A tale of murder, crime and punishment set in the summer of 1949. Ed Crane, a barber in a small California town, is dissatisfied with his life, but his wife Doris' infidelity and a mysterious opportunity presents him with a chance to change it.
Billy Bob Thornton Frances McDormand Michael Badalucco James Gandolfini Katherine Borowitz Jon Polito Scarlett Johansson Richard Jenkins Tony Shalhoub Christopher Kriesa Brian Haley Jack McGee Gregg Binkley Alan Fudge Lilyan Chauvin Adam Alexi-Malle Ted Rooney Abraham Benrubi Christian Ferratti Rhoda Gemignani E.J. Callahan Brooke Smith Ron Ross Hallie Singleton Jon Donnelly Dan Martin Nicholas Lanier Tom Dahlgren Booth Colman Show All…
Der unauffällige Mr. Crane, The Barber L'homme Qui N'était Pas Là - Version Noire et Blanc, The Barber L'homme Qui N'était Pas Là - Version Couleur, O Barbeiro, El hombre que nunca estuvo allí, L'uomo che non c'era, Човекът, който не беше там, Muž, který nebyl, Ο Άνθρωπος που δεν Ήταν Εκεί, El hombre que nunca estuvo, Mees, keda polnud, Mies joka ei ollut siellä, L'homme qui n'était pas là, The Barber : L'Homme qui n'était pas là, האיש שלא היה שם, Čovjek kojeg nije bilo, Az ember, aki ott se volt, バーバー, ადამიანი,რომელიც არ არსებობდა, 그 남자는 거기 없었다, Žmogus, kurio nebuvo, Człowiek, którego nie było, O Homem que Não Estava Lá, Confesiunea unui anonim, Человек, которого не было, Mož, ki ga ni bilo, Čovek koji nije bio tamo, Orada Olmayan Adam, Людина, якої не було, 缺席的人, 缺席的男人
"He told them to look not at the facts, but at the meaning of the facts. And then he said the facts had no meaning. It was a pretty good speech."
Entirely possible I’m pulling a Theme That Wasn’t There from this (or even that I am seeing something that is extremely obvious to everybody else who knows!!) but, I think this is an ironic tragedy about a depressed queer man desperately aching for meaning. Whether that’s meaning through companionship or through success or through patronage of someone else’s talents (in exchange for companionship) and if so, that makes it the saddest and most tender film in the Coen canon as far as I’m concerned! Shocked to see this from a duo who is often criticized for being cruel and cold (though I can see people seeing this movie as both.) Thornton’s reserved performance is really good. And you know I love me some Tony Shalhoub! Not really close to my favorite of their works, but certainly under-discussed IMO!
The use of classic film noir elements can come off as gimicky in modern films. Shoot one in black and white after 2000 and it is going to look like a freaking novelty item! The Man Who Wasn't There is an extremely thoughtful film, one that has so much depth and such a bizarre tone that it's almost dishonest to only talk about it in terms of any one genre. This might not be my favorite Coen brothers film in terms of sheer enjoyment, but it is by far the most impressed I've been by one of their collaborations. The contrast of the black and white images filled with shadows and billows of cigarette smoke is the only way they…
I’m quite surprised that The Man Who Wasn’t there rarely shows up in the top 5 of everyone's Coen ranked lists. I had been meaning to re-watch for years, as I hadn’t seen it since its original release. The final prompt came in the form of watching not a Coen film, but seeing James Gandolfini in Enough Said.
This re-watch was a marvel. I was immediately struck with Roger Deakins’ exquisitely simple and elegant monochromatic photography. I find it hard to believe that he shot it on colour stock, and that the decision to go Black and White was only made later. The brilliant contrasts are as much a part of the story as the contrasts and gradients in the…
I'm on my third watch of The Man Who Wasn't There and it gets better each time. A brilliant homage to film noir genre from the Coen brothers. It's one of their best movies, yet least known of their filmography. Just like classic noirs this is a moody and stylish exercise in existentialism with hints of Coens' own absurdity, quirk and surrealism. Also Billy Bob Thornton gives one of his greatest performances.
The b&w cinematography is work of art, it's the one of the best looking noir movies and rightfully it's Roger Deakins' favorite Coen brothers movie he shot.
And then it was the Coen brothers' turn.
"Ladies and gentlemen, members of the audience, citizens of Letterboxd, we've just heard from the critics a rather lurid description of a truly despicable movie..."
I gotta hand it to him, he tossed a lot of sand in their eyes. He talked about how I'd lost my place in the universe, how I was too creative to be the dreary crime drama the critics made me out to be, how there was some greater scheme at work that the viewers had yet to unravel. And he threw in some of the old truth stuff he hadn't had the chance to trot out for O Brother.
"...may at first look at these shots…
THE underrated Coen brothers movie. Written off at the time as some kind of half-assed Miller's Crossing, this movie features the Coens at their most empathetic and contemplative. The film noir trappings aren't simply another slick genre goof. The Man Who Wasn't There is an examination of the alienating forces at work in post-war America that made film noir possible, and one man's struggle to define himself in the face of them. Considering the Coen's penchant for deliberately obscure endings, the graceful, elegiac finale of Man is even more impressive.
Maybe the Coens' most inscrutable movie, and as an author pastiche it isn't quite as uncanny as Miller's Crossing (maybe Billy Wilder was on to something when he said James M. Cain's prose doesn't work on film), but the overall effect is as haunting as anything else they've done. Billy Bob Thornton, who I'm beginning to think will go down in history as a wasted genius, is absolutely incredible here, in a performance courageous enough to be totally flat (Robert Bresson had to hire nonprofessional actors to get stuff like this, and Thornton does it better). And even when the camera is focused on obscure symbols and motifs, it's always graceful and thrilling to watch - I loved the slow pan up the side of a building as Thornton ascends inside on an elevator.
Gonna just stop now, unfortunately I'm not being paid by the word.
Once Ed takes a bite of the apple, sins beget sins beget sins, like the infinitely spinning stripes of a barber's pole or his clients' hair, which "just keeps coming."
I could watch Billy Bob Thornton smoke and think and not say anything for hours. Which is good, because that's pretty much 90 percent of this movie.
...it's like pulling away from the maze. While you're in the maze you go through willy-nilly, turning where you think you have to turn, banging into dead ends, one thing after another... but get some distance on it, and all those twists and turns, why, they're the shape of your life.
Leave it to those canny Coens to make the ultimate post-modern noir. This reflection of reluctant barber Ed's encapsulates their ethos in many ways - the absurd web spun from life's random transactions; a chaotic abstraction in close-up that requires the viewer to step back for before the frenetic brush strokes cohere into a semi-meaningful pattern. It's a meditation on chaos theory they've been honing since Blood Simple, here…
”I was a ghost. I didn't see anyone. No one saw me. I was the barber.”
I’m fully aware that I like this more than the average person. I can’t justify it, I can only acknowledge it.
The music, the characters, the story, and OH MY GOD Roger Deakins' cinematography. Billy Bob’s dry narrative is spot on and Tony Shalhoub kills it with one of his best performances ever.
I love films like The Postman Always Rings Twice, and so the somber tone and nihilistic ending feels like it was tailor made just for me.
”She’d most likely tell you that our reward is on this earth and bingo is probably the extent of it.”
