Inside Coen brothers

Upon 史蒂夫 Jobs』 death, Apple released a one-hour interview from 1994 with Jobs and a computer company called NeXT in memory of its creative father. As a very organized and self-aspired speaker, Jobs always gave the best composed yet inspiring interviews. However, unlike his powerful Stanford Commencement Speech which was about the pride of making history, the back-then already-succeeded 史蒂夫 Jobs showed his rare humility. On his legacy, Jobs elaborated how Apple and Mackintosh were not Renaissance paintings that would last two centuries for people to admire, they would become obsolete and forgotten very quickly. He repeated the word 『obsolete』 over and over, emphasizing how what he had done was just one thin layer of sediment in a mountain. People who are enjoying the scenery on top of the mountain would not know or remember the past or the buried. Only some rare geologists may come along and have an appreciative smile about the little obsolete layer he contributed.
This humbling remark showcased how much of a visionary and perfectionist 史蒂夫 Jobs was. It is the ultimate confession of a true artist. Jobs spent his entire life advocating his puristic idealism about the art of technology. Lucky for him, he did not have to make compromises. He made the exceptions into rules. As a survivor and a winner, he was grateful for being remembered by even an appreciative few.
Not everyone is as lucky as Jobs.
Certainly not the fictional folk singer Llewyn Davis in Coen brothers』 new film 「Inside Llewyn Davis」.
Llewyn Davis is not Dave Van Ronk even though the script is loosely based on Von Ronk's memoir. He is certainly not Bob Dylan despite of being in Greenwich Village in the 60s. Llewyn Davis is simply not real; or even if he is real, we will not ever have heard of him because he represents the musicians who struggle to make a living out of their dreams, who do not lack the talent but the luck. He is too stubborn in his pursuit of music, too unrealistic in his isolated existence and too lonely even for the cat (who, as it turned out ironically, is called Ulysses).
I quite disagree with 紐約er’s interpretation on Coen brothers』 intention with the gloomy weather and constant snow. I don』t think the Coens are trying to make the audience feel sorry Llewyn (he alienates himself almost perfectly), they merely show that Llewyn Davis is a choice, a consciously desperate yet uncompromised choice. The movie itself is written and directed out of that choice. It’s exquisitely comic yet carefully angry. Every now and then, the audience see hints of Coens』 applause to the folk singer with a cat. Even in John Goodman’s mocking comments on Llewyn’s music partner (who killed himself upon pressure of life): 「George 華盛頓 Bridge? You threw yourself off the 布魯克林 Bridge, traditionally! George 華盛頓 Bridge? Who does that?」
For the Best Director speech for 「No Country for Old Man」, Joel Coen thanked people for 「allowing [him and Ethan] to continue to play in their corner of the sandbox」. They are, at heart, just two peculiar film makers who got lucky. Llewyn Davis is the Bob Dylan who never succeeded, and the Coen brothers who didn』t make it. Inside Llewyn Davis lie the genuine, artistic endeavors that insist on its untainted vision; Inside Coen brothers, there is gratitude to luck and salute to persistence. A movie about folk music, 「Inside Llewyn Davis」 is Coens』 beautiful love letter to the tried, the failed and the uncompromised.