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, Mies joka ei ollut siellä, The Barber : L'Homme qui n'était pas là, 缺席的人, Az ember, aki ott se volt, Человек, которого не было, Orada Olmayan Adam, Ο Άνθρωπος που δεν Ήταν Εκεί, האיש שלא היה שם, Muž, který nebyl, Людина, якої не було, 그 남자는 거기 없었다, Mož, ki ga ni bilo, Człowiek, którego nie było, O Homem que Não Estava Lá, Žmogus, kurio nebuvo, El hombre que nunca estuvo, Čovek koji nije bio tamo, Confesiunea unui anonim, バーバー, Čovjek kojeg nije bilo, Mees, keda polnud, L'homme qui n'était pas là, Човекът, който не беше там, ადამიანი,რომელიც არ არსებობდა, 缺席的男人, ปมฆ่า ปริศนาอำพราง
France
Belgium18
UK15
Greece16
Germany12
USAR
PortugalM/12
Netherlands12
Norway15
South Korea18
Lithuania
Czechia15+
Austria12
Switzerland12
Hungary16
Netherlands12
Netherlands12
Austria
Belgium
Czechia
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Lithuania
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
South Korea
Switzerland
UK
USA
"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…
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.
Watched this bc I listened to 3, count em, 3 episodes Roger and James Deakins’ podcast today
Yes, Roger Deakins’ wife is named James and yes, they have a podcast together! Stop yelling at me it’s not my fault!!!
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…
Jesus, that was dark. The soul crushing mundanity of life. Made me feel sick. But funny, gentle, human.
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…
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.
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.
