O Brother, Where Art Thou?, opening nationwide on Friday, is the eighth feature written, produced, directed and (usually) edited by Ethan and Joel Coen.

        Since their astounding 1984 debut feature Blood Simple, the Minneapolis-born brothers have won equally rabid fans among critics and audiences with a unique blend of surrealism, deadpan humor and hair-raising violence.

        In O Brother, they have come up with another never-seen combination that indulges their fondness for classic movie styles — in this case, screwball comedy — and authentic American roots music, all drenched with references to The Odyssey by Homer.

Coen brothers Ethan (right) and Joel arrive at the premiere of their film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, at the American Film Institute's Fest 2000. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        Their movies list Joel, 46, as director and Ethan 43, as producer; they share credit for screenplays. Editor “Roderick Jaynes” also is code for the brothers.

        Joel Coen describes their partnership as “really a completely sort of collaborative thing where we're both really responsible for everything,” not an arrangement easily translated into guild-approved credits.

        “It kind of started as a way of staking out territory . . . when we were starting out in our first movie, so we wouldn't get anyone foisted on us in any of those positions,” said Joel. “Now it's just become — obviously it's meaningless. It was probably silly even at the time.”
       

Finishing sentences

FILMOGRAPHY

The Barber Project (2001)     O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)     The Big Lebowski (1998)     Fargo (1996)     The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)     Barton Fink (1991)     Miller's Crossing (1990)     Raising Arizona (1987)     Blood Simple (1984)

TRISTATE TIES

Though set in the Mississippi Delta, O Brother, Where Art Thou? boasts an odd, and completely coincidental, confluence of links to the Ohio River Valley:     • The soundtrack showcases classic songs by the bluegrass great Ralph Stanley, who recorded some of his best early work at Cincinnati's King Records studio.     • George Clooney, the pride of Northern Kentucky, stars as Everett Ulysses McGill, the leader of an inept trio of chain-gang escapees who wander in and out of trouble.     • Veteran character actor Daniel Von Bargen, a graduate of Reading High School, plays the sheriff who hunts down the fugitives.     • The movie's storyboards were drawn by Dayton artist and filmmaker J. Todd Anderson, who has worked on all the Coens' movies since Raising Arizona.

        Not only do they work as one, sometimes they talk as one. People often are not sure which is which, Joel confesses. “We're used to it. Our mother can't tell us apart on the phone.”

        They both laugh at that, as they often do during a phone conversation when they trade off answers easily and often.

        For example, here they are talking about confusion over real musicians depicted in the film, one of whom is the late Texas Gov. Pappy O'Daniel, played on screen by Charles Durning.

        Joel: Pappy O'Daniel, we kind of took him out of Texas and put him in Mississippi, but yeah, he was a real guy.

        Ethan: He was a real guy who actually (Texas swing music pioneer) Bob Wills barnstormed for.

        Joel: Yeah, they did have these sort of traveling bands on the campaigns . . .

        Ethan: . . . To sort of bring the crowds in to listen to the speeches.

        Joel: Yeah, he was a real character and the governor of Texas.

        Ethan: Actually, Gov. Jimmie Davis, the governor of Louisiana, is the guy who wrote “You Are My Sunshine,” which was sort of his theme song.

        Ethan: Yeah.

        Joel: Yeah.

        Ethan: Well, it's sort of an amalgam.

        Joel: Jimmie Davis just died.

        Ethan: Yeah, Jimmie Davis died about . . .

        Joel: . . . at about the age of 100.

        Ethan: He was still performing.
       

Little self-analysis
       

        They are comfortable enough with their all-for-one style of working that they won't even bother to talk about one another.

        “As you probably can tell, we don't engage in a lot of self-analysis in terms of what we do together,” Joel said. How they differ is a question that “to be honest with you, over the past 15, 20 years we've become pretty adept at ducking.”

        They would much rather talk about the movie's inspirations, including the authentic blues and country tunes that saturate the soundtrack.

        Both are devoted fans of early music; in fact, they said, music shaped the movie more than The Odyssey did.

        “The music was a big thing for us from the beginning, even the script-writing stage,” Ethan said. “Just in terms of the feeling of the whole thing, it was, yeah, part of our thinking early.”
       

Clooney forced to lip sync
       

        Part of the film involves the central characters making a record of Ralph Stanley's “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow.” It requires star George Clooney to lip-sync two performances; the actor has described his effort to sing the part himself as a serious failure.

        The filmmakers disagree.

        Ethan: “It wasn't bad. He's actually kind of a good singer. It's more the idiom (that) you either get or you don't get. You can sing it like a show tune if you've got a good voice. You can belt it out and sell it. But this kind of mountain music and bluegrass music, it needs a real practitioner, somebody who's sort of . . .

        Joel: Born and bredded?

        Ethan: (laughs) Yeah, there's no substitute for the real thing, really. Which George recognized as soon as he tried it.
       Margaret A. McGurk is Enquirer film critic. Contact her by mail, 312 Elm St. Cincinnati 45202; fax, (513) 768-8330; or e-mail, mmcgurk@enquirer.com.
       

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