Ethan Talks Oscar

With his new one-acts currently on Broadway, it’s interview time for Ethan Coen who had this to say to the Canadian Press (“hosted by Google”):

But ask him what his clutch of Oscars means to him, and he bursts into an asthmatic, snorting, “Revenge-of-the-Nerds” laugh and says: “That was weird. That was a strange evening. It should happen to everyone – once. … It wears off quickly. … It gets you high for a couple days.”

He kids about needing “a bigger jolt” already.

“I’ll have to win the prix de Rome next year or something. Oscars just ain’t gonna do it for me anymore. I need the Nobel Peace Prize. The Oscars have worn off, man.”

After a moment, he says: “What is the prix de Rome? Is there one? There is one, right?”

Who knows? Who cares? There used to be such a prize – in France from 1663 to 1968. The point is the absurdist sensibility often on display in such Coen brothers movies as “Fargo,” “Barton Fink,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “The Big Lebowski.”

Source