Friday, Jul 18, 2014

How's this for an interesting piece of trivia? -- The award winning film auteurs Ethan & Joel Coen have a genuine affinity for author William Faulkner and enjoy slipping references to him in their films. In 1987's RAISING ARIZONA, the convicts played by John Goodman & William Forsythe are named Gale & Evelle Snoats, the Snopes brothers from Faulkner's novels & stories. In O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? the character Vernon Waldrip is the name of the character in Faulkner's story, IF I FORGET THEE, JERUSALEM. And in BARTON FINK the character of W.P. Mayhew (played by John Mahoney) is based on Faulkner himself: a gifted alcoholic Southern novelist who has an affair with a studio employee.

Oh, Faulkner, Where Art Thou?