Coens Receive Lumière Award as Bardem Recalls 'No Country' Casting — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Joel and Ethan Coen received the Lumière Award at Lyon's Lumière Film Festival on Friday, becoming only the second filmmaking duo honored after the Dardenne brothers in 2020, and joining past recipients including Scorsese, Tarantino, Eastwood and Coppola.
- Ethan Coen opened with the quip "Thank you to the Lumières for inventing the movie camera, or we'd have been fucked," as the Coens entered to the Gipsy Kings' Spanish-language "Hotel California" — a nod to John Turturro's bowler Jesus Quintana in "The Big Lebowski."
- Javier Bardem recalled nearly turning down Anton Chigurh in "No Country for Old Men," telling the Coens at their New York office, "I hate violence, I don't drive, and I can barely speak English. What the hell am I doing here?" — but signed on after their laughter convinced him "it's not going to be stressful."
- Ethan Coen recounted that Bardem, determined to keep his character pale during the largely outdoor shoot, had a young production assistant hold a light blue parasol over him between setups — and "he wonders why we laughed at him."
- Musical tributes featured French singer-songwriter Bénabar performing Charles Aznavour's "Parce que tu crois" — Joel Coen's favorite song — and five-time Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo delivering Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas," one of Bardem's favorites.
- Festival director Thierry Frémaux tasked the Coens with shooting their own version of the Lumière brothers' first film, "Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory," by Saturday, after projecting side-by-side photos of the Lumière and Coen brothers striking "remarkably similar poses."
- Bardem connected a screened short about a Jewish boy fleeing persecution to find refuge in a cinema to contemporary geopolitics, declaring from the stage: "Never again is never again for everybody, from Congo to Sudan to Palestine."
Why it matters: The Lumière Award slots the Coens into a roster dominated by living legends (Scorsese, Eastwood, Coppola, Tarantino) and marks only the second time a duo has been honored — extending a rare Coens joint tribute four decades after their feature debut with "Blood Simple." Bardem's onstage pivot from comedy to a "Congo to Sudan to Palestine" solidarity line turned a celebratory industry gala into a political moment, a thread most ceremony coverage tends to skip.
Ask SkimNews
