Recipe

ICELANDIC PANCAKES

1 cup flour

1 tbsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. baking powder

Pinch salt

1 egg beaten

1 tbsp. butter, melted

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup milk

Confectioner's sugar

Strawberry Preserves

Whipped cream

1.  Sift the dry ingredients together.  Add the egg and mix well.  Add in the butter, vanilla and milk, beat well.

2.  Heat a griddle to medium hot, pour a little batter onto the griddle, spread out the batter quickly (if griddle it to large to pick up, spread with a butter knife).  Cook on both sides until brown.  Cover each with confectioner's sugar when they come off the griddle, place some preserves in the middle of each and roll.  When done cooking and rolling, serve with whipped cream (add a little sugar).  Extra preserves can be served on the side of the plate, if liked.  Of course, other preserves can be used.

Okay, Icelanders have a thing about elves.  When the main road that circles the island nation was built, parts were re-routed due to "elf preserves,"--special habitat reserved for ELVES!  Many Icelanders claim to have personally shared pancakes and coffee or tea with the creatures....

The Coen Brothers: The Big Lebowski

If Fargo isn't really based on a true story of any sort, it turns out The Big Lebowski is.  Well sorta.  The character of The Dude (Jeff Bridges is arguably his most famous role to date), is based on independent film promoter Jeff "The Dude" Dowd, helped the Coen's get distribution for Blood Simple.  Actually, a lot characteristics of Walter (John Goodman) are taken from Dowd as well.  They sort of divided him between the two characters.  Whether they got The Dude's tendency to repeat as his own words, phrases he hears other people utter (like "This will not stand, man") from Dowd or not is not clear, but certainly most of the central character of The Dude is taken from Dowd and some of the exploits he tends to wind up in.

Like Fargo though, it is a kidnap plot.  Well, again, sorta.  The essential confusion between the two Jeffery Lebowski's, with David Huddleston occupying the "old man role" as The Big Lebowski, by the two idiots that work for pornographer Jackie Treehorn (played with silly but smooth style by Ben Gazzarra), sets in motion yet another plot to extort some money from a wealthy family fund, in much the same fashion of Jerry Lundegaard--with one big twist!  This time is the old man constructing a kidnap plot to get some family money that the audience would think he has free and unfettered access to.  But, it turns out, is only part of the plot.  There is at least another group of people who also want access to the Lebowski cash coffers:  The Nihilists (led by Stormare as Uli Kunkel AKA Karl Hungus).

The film littered (in a good way) with Coen favorites.  John Goodman, John Turturro, John Polito and Peter Stormare all appear.  And then there is Steve Buscemi, who has managed to die in some pretty horrific ways in quite a few Coen films.  Inspired choices for other roles as first timers make this my favorite Coen film.  Not just Jeff Bridges and Huddleston, but also the use Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore and Tara Reid are all inspired choices for roles they occupy.  Even small parts, such as Jesus Quintana (Turturro) are unforgettable.  Priceless is the quick exchange between P.I. Da Fino (Polito) and The Dude because Da Fino thinks The Dude is a private investigator like he is.

Da Fino:  I'm a brother Seamus

The Dude:  Brother Seamus?  Like an Irish Monk?

Da Fino:  What the fuck are you talking about?  I'm a dick man.

Trivia:

The tagline from Israel translates into English as "Lebowski:  Not a man, a way of life.

The Dude repeatedly refers to his favorite drink The White Russian and "the Caucasian,"

beers are "cold sodas"

Quick Recipe:  White Russian

Ice

1 1/2 oz. good Vodka

1/2 oz. Kahlua

Cream

Fill rocks glass with ice, measure in the booze, top with cream and serve with a swizzle stick for stirring (The Dude stirs his)

The vast majority of the clothes the Dude wears (including the Jelly sandals) were Jeff Bridges own stuff. 

Bridges would very often ask the Coen's if "The dude had burned one on the way over?"  If they said yes, he would rub the heck out of his eyes to redden them.

Jackie Treehorn's house was designed by architect John Lautner.

Uli's band Autobahn is based on the German techno group Kraftwerk.  

John Goodman actually did a commercial for the In And Out Burger chain.

And finally....Sam Elliott still has no earthly idea what he was doing in this film

Specs:

Runtime:  117 min

Rated:  R

Color (Technicolor) (Arriflex 525 cameras)

DTS

Langauge:  English, German, Hebrew and Spanish

Filmed in Los Angeles

Tagline:  They figured he was a lazy time wasting slacker.  They were right

Recipe

NORWEGIAN POTATO PANCAKES

1 cup flour + extra for kneading

1 quart mashed potatoes (homemade)

Salt to taste

Butter, room temperature

Brown Sugar

Mix the flour in with the mashed potatoes to make a soft dough.  Knead the dough on a floured board lightly.  Take out a meatball sized piece and roll is out very thin, using extra flour to make sure that they don't stick.  Bake on an ungreased griddle until light brown on both sides.  Spread the pancakes with butter and sugar as they cook.

This what they look like after sugaring

The Coen Brothers: Fargo

,

Other than Miller's Crossing, Fargo is the Coen's best known crime flick.  Several roles in the movie were written specifically for certain actors, such as the main role of Marge Gunderson was written specifically for Joel wife Frances, and the role of Carl Showalter was in turn written specifically for Steve Bescemi.  Despite that the states at the beginning that it based on a true story of deceit and tradegy--it's not.  It's like the Yiddish tale at the beginning of Serious Man, the Coen's did a lot of research to find a true crime story that they could adapt into a script, they didn't find anything they liked or  thought they could use without being disrespectful of victims--so they made one up.

The plot revolves around a man who dreams up a plot to get money from his wealthy but stingy father-in-law, by having his wife, the man's daughter, kidnapped and then pocketing most of the ransom money.  The husband Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), has a genuinely good idea for a solid investment, but his father-in-law, Wade Gufastason (harve Presnell), is balking on providing investment funds; so Jerry goes through a mechinc with a criminal records, who works at the Gufasfson owned car dealership that Jerry works for a salesman.  Through said mechanic, Shep Proudfoot (Steve Reevis), Jerry is put in touch with Gaeare Grimsrud (Peter Stormare), who brings a goofy looking companion along  to a meeting in Fargo N.D.  There he hands over a car from the dealership for them to drive in Minneapolis to kidnap Jean (Kristin Rudrüd), Jerry's wife.  Needless to say, things go criminally awry!

In the film approaching Bairnerd, a huge statue of Paul Bunyan is seen on the side of the road.  In reality, the town of Brainerd has no such statue

Willam H. Macy was eager to make a strong impression on the Coen's that he REALLY wanted the role Jerry Lundegaard, that following his audition in Los Angeles, he flew to New York, where the Coen's were and went up to them and blurted out, "I'm very, very worried that you are going to screw up this movie by giving this role to somebody else!  It's my role, and I will shoot your dogs if you don't give it to me!"  He was, of course, joking.

The ducks that Norm (John Carroll Lynch) supposedly painted for stamps were actually painted by 3 brothers from the Hautmann family who are friends of the Coen's and actually do paint for stamp competitions.

When Grimsrud (Stormare) chases down the car that witnessed him and Showalter drags the dead state trooper, he yells "Jävla fitta!" which translates into "fucking cunt."

In a Kubrick reference, Carl tells the "escort" (Kathy Griffin--who is uncredited in the film) that he is with, that he is in town for "just a little of the ol' in and out."--another reference to A Clockwork Orange.

Native American actor Steve Reevis is a member of the Blackfoot Confederated Nation of Montana and Alberta, Canada.

Specs:

Runtime:  98 min

Rated:  R

Color (Arriflex 535 BL4 with Ziess Lenses)

Language:  English

Filming Locations:  Minnesota and North Dakota 

Best Tagline:  A lot can happen in the middle of nowhere

The Coen Brothers: A Serious Man

The movie made just before their much larger, most recent film True Grit, this is little hand-crafted Coen effort, based loosely on the Book of Job from the Old Testament.  It is a deeply Jewish film, and at least some parts of the film, such as Hebrew school, are autobiographical.  The story has a Jewish physics  professor Lawrence "Larry" Gopnik standing in for the much beleaguered, hounded  and horrified character of Job.  Just about anything bad that shouldn't happen to a nice guy happens to Larry.

There is basically no one single character in the entire movie that doesn't do bad to Larry.  Some hound him on purpose, such as his wife, Judith, suddenly and out of the blue telling Larry that she wants a divorce due to problems Larry isn't even aware exists.  She wants to marry Sy Abelman, who is just strange.  His kids a highly problematic, his brother is sleeping on his couch and he has a Korean student that is failing his psychics course, and wants bribe Larry for a better, even the student's father gets in on the act, to say nothing of the prejudiced white redneck neighbor, who is trying to steal part of Larry's lawn.  Then there are characters that are negative by either not being a help to Larry, such as the rabbi's (one of whom tells Larry "look at the parking lot"), or even his divorces lawyer who winds up charging Larry a crazy fee for services rendered (crazy by today's standards, and the film is set in 1967). Even Larry's chain smoking doctor ends up being the bearer of very bad health news--delivered to a very clean living Lawrence.  Finally there are some mysterious letters being sent to the tenure committee denigrating Larry and accusing him of "moral turpitude".  It's just a case of a lot of little things adding up to one very big Heaven sent mess.

Trivia:

The opening scene is in Yiddish.  The Coens wanted to start the film out with an old Yiddish folk tale, but couldn't find one that suited them, so they make one up.  It features Fyvush Finkel, a legendary Yiddish stage actor as the Dybbuk, a kind of Jewish zombie.

The law firm that Judith hires, Tuckman Marsh, is the same law firm that Sandy Pfarrer (Elizabeth Marvel) hires to divorce Harry (George Clooney) in Burn After Reading.

The record that Larry is rejecting from the Columbia Record Club is Santana Abraxas.  The word "Abraxas" is Hebraic, is Gnostic in nature and refers to God.  Not just God, but an all being entity that encompasses everything from the Creator of the universe to the devil.  It is the base word from which "abracadabra."

The voice of Dick Dutton from the Columbia Record Club is that of actor Warren Keith.  Keith also supplied the voice on the phone in Fargo talking to Jerry Lundegaard from the GMAC.

Specs:

Runtime:  106 min

Rated:  R

Color (Arriflex Camera 535 with Zeiss Prime Master Lenses)

DTS

Language:  English/Yiddish/Hebrew

It was primarily filmed in Bloomington Minn.

Pancakes House

Fargo is known primarily for it's snow and bloody brutaility, but there are numerous references to  Scandanavian food of various sorts (such as the food on the buffet that Marg is heaping on her plate and the now famous fricassee).  Possibly the most famous reference to food in the movie is to pancakes.  And Scandanavian LOVE their pancakes!

Geare Grimsrud:  Where's Pancakes House?

Carl Showalter:  What?

GG:  Where's Pancakes House?

CS:  ...what are you nuts?  We had pancakes for breakfast. Gotta go to a place where I can get a shot and a beer, a steak maybe, not more fuckin' pancakes.

GG:  [gives a stony stare at Carl]

CS:  Oh, come on man!  Okay, here's an idea, we can stop at a place outside Brainerd; I know a place we can get laid.  Whaddya think?

GG:  But I'm fuckin' hungry now! You know!

CS:  Yeah, Jesus, I'm sayin' we can... stop, get pancakes and then we'll get laid.

Since both Grimsrud and the actor playing him, Peter Stormare, are Swedish I posting a recipes for 

SWEDISH PANCAKES

Just for the hell of it, I thought I would post regional variations throughout the day.

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup 1/2 and 1/2 cream

1 cup flour (it mixes better if it is sifted)

4 to 5 tbsp. butter, melted

Pinch sea salt (if you want to be authentic buy some Scandinavian sea salt)

1 heaping tbsp. sugar (any more and the cakes will burn to easily)

Extra butter for frying

For topping:  fresh whipped cream (sweet or not), fresh fruit of choice (common fruits used are strawberries, raspberries, peaches, ligonberries and blackberries)

Beat the eggs well with 1/2 cup of the milk and 1/2 cup cream.  Add the flour and beat well until completely smooth.  Gradually stir in the remaining milk and cream, adding the melted butter, the salt and sugar.  Stir well.

Heat a non-stick frying pan well, but not to smoking.  Melt some butter, or brush with melted butter.  Drop in the pancakes, keeping them small, no more than 3 inches.  Cook until bubbles form in the cakes and flip and cook briefly on the other side.  Remove to a warm place and finish cooking the pancakes batter until used up.  

One popular way to serve them is with Ligonberry jam and cream, but you can serve them plain.  These are traditionally served on Thursdays after a dinner of pea soup make with lots of pork.

The Coen Brothers: The Ladykillers (2004)

The is the Coen's "remake" of a British crime comedy of 1955 starring Alec Guinness.  I have remake in quotation marks because this is fully a Coen product, with only the very basic premise of the older lady being duped by a gang of thieves--the rest is pure Joel and Ethan.  They can't resist, for example, making a reference to Ryan Hurst's turn in the football film Remember the Titans (2000).  Or to make fun a things that would ordinarily be so sacrosanct that no one would dare attempt to make something humorous out of them; yet, in this film, they give us Garth Pancake, a bumbling "explosives expert" with IBS and pig-tailed girl friend name "Mountain Girl" who was a member of the Freedom Riders.  Or having the film filled with hip-hop references and the music itself, juxtaposed with memories of the civil rights movement.  When Marva Munson asked the sheriff "is that where we at now?" and he looks at her incredulously and nods "yes," it is meant to poke at the fact that civil right movement and full insistence on freedom of speech in the African American community gave rise to a musical form that using all types of swear words....and it's funny.  The contradictions continue.  They are really too numerous to list, but somehow they all fit together.

Then there is the character of Gouthwait Higgins Dorr, Ph.D. portrayed by Tom Hanks (with some great fake teeth) who is obsessed with horror/mystery author Edgar Allan Poe.  Even Mrs. Munson recognizes the name when he drops it:  "I know who he was, kinda spooky."  Dorr, of course, is the leader of the band of thieves who only takes a room in Mrs. Munson's house because her root cellar is close to a floating casino that the group plans to tunnel into.  Yet "Professor" Dorr decides to hide the group's identity by telling Marva that his group is engaged in playing music of Renaissance period on original instruments, which they carry around in hearse.

Trivia:

The Coen brothers have a bit of a reputation around Hollywood for their use of fake teeth.  When Hanks agreed to portray the charming professor thief, he stated that he spent days excitedly awaiting the arrival of his teeth.  When they finally received them, he stated that "loved them."

There is a reference to Psycho (1960) in a least two instances, first is when Lump comes running out of the root cellar after Mr. Pancake blows his finger off, he screams "Blood Professor Blood!"  The second is when The General falls backwards down the stairs, like Arborgast, after failing to kill Mr. Munson.

Just before The General's fall, there is a cinematic reference to Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, when The General drinks a glass of water containing Mrs. Munson's false teeth; this is what sends him careening down the stairs "Hitchcock style."

The reference to Mrs. Munson religiously donating to Bob Jones University, which she calls a "Bible College" (which it "is"), was something that actress Irma P. Hall was pleased with, because she is a teacher my trade, and really despises the University.  She seemed to like that the character that she portrayed was basically a hypocrite.  The fact is the Bob Jones University banned the enrolled of black students until 1970's and did not allow any form of interracial dating until the year 2000.  It's pretty much the last place that an African American Christian would send money.

In another Coen joke, the character name Marva Munson makes an appearance in Intolerable Cruelty, as the judge in the divorce proceedings of Rex Rexroth.

The song that Mrs. Munson hates, "I Left My Wallet In El Segundo" was released in 1990 by A Tribe Called Quest.

All the period instruments used in the filming were made by Danny Ferrington. Instruments from the actual period were too valuable and fragile to use in such a fashion.

Finally, this is first movie that Joel and Ethan shared directing credit.  They had alsways been co-directors, but the Director's Guide would not allow them to share credit.  They had always been known as "the two headed director."

Specs:

Runtime:  104 min.
Rated:  R
Color (Camera Ariflex 535)
DTS
Language:  English/Vietnamese
Best Tagline:  The greatest criminal minds of all time have finally met their match.
The filming location of the floating casino is in Natchez Mississippi

The Coen Brothers: Blood Simple

The Coen brothers hand crafted neo noir is now considered a classic in the sub-genre.  At the time of it's making, the film's future was far from clear.  After personally raising around $750,000 from many, many small "investors" (some of which they got by going door to door with the trailer that featured Bruce Campbell in the role of "Marty"), the film's production started.  Upon completion, the film was shown to every major studio in Hollywood and they all passed on it.  The Coen's then managed to get the film into the New York Film Festival and it was then accepted into the Toronto Film Festival, and like that Danny Boyle flick years later, it was picked it for distribution from the festival.  The rest, as has been said so many times before, is history.

This was also the first major film for cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, and the beginning of a relationship that would last a decade with the Coen's.  Carter Burwell their film composer started on this project with them as well; he is still with them.  

The plot is relatively simple, as all good neo noirs are; a jealous husband with a rather twisted mind hires a pretty unsavory private detective to first track down his cheating wife, and then pays him to kill them. The detective then shows the husband a doctored photograph of the couple supposedly dead from gun shot wounds in bed together--only problem is that they are very much alive.  Things get weird from there on.

Specs:

Runtime:  99 min.

Release Date:  18 Jan. 1985 (theater distribution date)

Language:  English

Color

Original Sound Mix:  Ultra Stereo

Filming Location:  Texas

Best Tagline:  Dead in the heart of Texas

Trivia:

The director's cut released in 2000 is actually 3 minutes shorter than the original 1984 film.

It was Sam Raimi's idea for the Coen's to go door to door seeking investments with the "trailer" they had put together with actor Bruce Campbell.

The Coen brothers are known for writing roles for specific actors, and despite that they had never produced on major picture before, that didn't stop them for writing the part of the creepy private detective especially for M. Emmet Walsh

As a joke actor Jim Piddock provided the voice of a fictional film historian "Kenneth Loring" in the audio commentary track of the DVD, it was scripted for him by the Coen's

The title of the movie comes, appropriately enough, from a Dassell Hammett novel "Red Harvest."

In another spoof, actor George Ives portrays "Mortimer Young," the supposed head of "Forever Young Films" a fake film restoration company in the theatrical re-release in 2000.

The most famous piece of trivia from this film is that Holly Hunter was to play the role of Abby (she auditioned for it), but had to turn it down because a chance to star in a play in NYC came along, so she encouraged her roommate that the time, Frances McDormand, to audition for it.  She got the part, starred in the film and then married Joel Coen.

The Coen Brothers: Burn After Reading

Love it or Hate it...

It's a silly spoof on espionage.  

The Coen Brothers: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Just when I read in the news that the KKK is trying to "revamp" their public image because of Westboro "Baptist" Church today, I'm reminded that the Coen's can make fun of anything and it will be funny....even the Ku Klux Klan.

George Clooney says that this movie is part of his "idiot" trilogy with the Coens (the other two being Intolerable Cruelty (2003) and Burn After Reading (2008)).  Though the Coens stated that they wanted to make the mother of all "Hay-seed movies," the story is actually based on Homer's "The Odyssey."  It sounds like the most unlikely of marriage of genres, but this is the Coen brothers, and it works (it had been done once before in Novella style by Howard Waldrop, there is a character in the film by the name of Waldrip.  In addition to Clooney, it stars Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar and Coen favorite John Turturro as Pete.  Charles Durning returns as Pappy O'Daniel in the "old man role," (and this time he survives the film).  It also features Holly Hunter as the estranged wife of Evert McGill (Clooney) and talented blues musician Chris Thomas King and Tommy Johnson (a barely disguised homage to to real Tommy Johnson and to  (not related) musician Robert Johnson, the real blues guitarist is was reputed to have sold his soul at a crossroads, and then died destitute).

Trivia:

The character of Pappy O'Daniel is based on a former governor of Texas (not Mississippi) W. Lee (Pappy) O'Daniel.

The gangster Lest Giles AKA George "Baby Face" Nelson was killed 3 years before the action in this film takes place.  He was not executed.  However, like the character in the film, he did not like being called "Baby Face."

The film official soundtrack website ran a trivia game on the site to promote the film and gave canisters of Dapper Dan pomade away as prizes.

The opening song being "sung" by the chain gang at the beginning of the film is an actual recording of a real chain gang of the period.

The character of Sheriff Cooley (Daniel von Bargen) fits Tommy's description of the Devil exactly, right down to the hound.

Specs:

Runtime:  106 min
Rated:  PG-13
Color (Arriflex camera with Cooke lenses)
Aspect Ratio:  2.35:1 (anamorphic widescreen)
Filming Locations:  various spots in Mississippi
Language:  English
Sound Mix:  DTS
Taglines:  Sometimes you have to loose you way to get back home

"My name is George Nelson, NOT Baby Face!"