Trivialized by its television series, almost relegated to second place in the Coen brothers’ cinephile pantheon due to the profusion of more recent outstanding works (“No Country for Old Men”, “A Serious Man”), we could have the weakness to think that “Fargo” is just another good movie. Reviewing it already has the merit of putting the dots back on the “i”: it is an absolute masterpiece, and undoubtedly the best Coen to raise the delicate art of absurd terror to such a degree of perfection. Let’s remember the story, true-false kidnapping of the wife of Jerry Lundegaard, a car salesman crumbling under debt, mounted by two zozos as idiotic as they are disturbing in the white calm of a snowy Minnesota.
Against Hollywood clichés
The brothers said that they had shot “Fargo” in a spirit of opposition to Hollywood clichés: violence takes place in a rural and padded no man’s land, the police are embodied by a pleasant woman pregnant to the teeth, and it is mediocre amateurs and not super-criminal professionals who operate. To give life to this small vivarium of damned souls and good-natured vigilantes, the pair of filmmakers have shaped a casting with small onions. The cornered husband has the droopiesque features of William H. Macy (who, thanks to his performance, will impose himself as a safe bet in American cinema); the kidnappers, those of Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare, two earthy faces of the nineties. As for Frances McDormand, Joel’s companion in the city, she won the Oscar for best actress for her role as a debonair cop.
The other genius of “Fargo” is the way in which the Coens manage to synchronize two antagonistic poles, pure comedy and sordid B series, in a constant mastery. Whether pure anthology (the bloody car chase) or simple details (the degenerate commercial reflexes of Lundegaard who asks his wife’s kidnappers if they are happy with their car), the film maintains this infernal balance until the end: the more horrible it is, the funnier it is. And reciprocally.
Monday January 2 at 9 p.m. on OCS Choc. American detective comedy by Joel and Ethan Coen (1996). With William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi. 1h35. (Multicast and On Demand).
