Coen Brothers Accept Lumière Award With a Profane Nod to Cinema's Inventors

Joel and Ethan Coen received the Lumière Award at Lyon's Lumière Film Festival on Friday evening, and Ethan thanked the inventors of cinema in characteristically profane fashion. "Thank you to the Lumières for inventing the movie camera, or we'd have been fucked," he said, drawing laughs from the audience inside Lyon's convention centre amphitheatre.

The brothers walked on stage to the Gipsy Kings' Spanish-language rendition of "Hotel California" — a nod to their cult comedy "The Big Lebowski," which features John Turturro's flamboyant bowler Jesus Quintana. Festival director Thierry Frémaux then projected photographs of the Lumière and Coen brothers in strikingly similar poses, to further laughs from the room.

Who was in the room?

The star-studded gathering included Javier Bardem, Frances McDormand, former Lumière prize winner Wim Wenders, Robert Eggers, Michel Hazanavicius and Bérénice Bejo, Benoît Magimel, Antoine de Caunes and Caleb Deschanel, the latter in town for a masterclass and the premiere of Laika's upcoming stop-motion feature "Wildwood." French singer-songwriter Bénabar performed Charles Aznavour's "Parce que tu crois," chosen by Joel Coen as his favorite song, and five-time Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo sang Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas," a favorite of Bardem's.

What did Bardem say?

Bardem, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Anton Chigurh in "No Country for Old Men," recalled how he initially tried to turn down the role despite long admiring the Coens. "I sat down with them in New York in their office and I was like, 'Listen, I admire you, I worship you, you are amazing, but I hate violence, I don't drive, and I can barely speak English. What the hell am I doing here?'" he said.

The directors gave him no reasons to take the part. "They were just laughing," Bardem said. "I thought, 'I don't know what this experience is going to be like, but I know it's not going to be stressful. So yes, let's fucking do it.'"

Ethan offered his own story about Bardem's commitment: the actor decided his character needed to be pale, so during the largely outdoor shoot a young production assistant accompanied him to set holding a light blue parasol over his head. "And he wonders why we laughed at him," Ethan joked.

Bardem's tribute turned heartfelt. "What they gave me was one masterpiece and the gift of a lifetime, personally and professionally," he said. "They made a dream come true. Ten years after me saying that would never happen, it happened. And it was even better than I would have ever imagined."

What does the award mean for the Coens' legacy?

Since their 1984 debut "Blood Simple," the brothers have built one of American cinema's most distinctive filmographies, spanning "Raising Arizona," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs." "No Country for Old Men" won four Oscars in 2008, while "Fargo" earned their first Oscar for original screenplay in 1997. At Cannes, their run began with "Barton Fink" sweeping the Palme d'Or in 1991, followed by directing prizes for "Fargo" (1996) and "The Man Who Wasn't There" (2001), the Grand Prix for "Inside Llewyn Davis" in 2013, and jury presidencies in 2015.

Friday's honor makes them the second filmmaking duo to receive the Lumière Award, after Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne in 2020. Previous recipients include Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Wong Kar-wai and Jane Campion.

Joel, accepting the award, reflected on four decades of collaboration. "We did it because we love cinema and we love storytelling," he said. "We've had, pretty much with certain exceptions, nothing but fun making these films over the decades."

The ceremony closed on a timely note with Ettore Scola's 1997 short "1943-1997," about a Jewish boy fleeing a Nazi roundup who finds refuge in a Roman movie theater; the film ends in 1997 with a young African boy fleeing persecution into the same theater. "Never again is never again for everybody, from Congo to Sudan to Palestine," Bardem said.

In keeping with festival tradition, Frémaux gave the brothers until Saturday to shoot their own version of the Lumières' first film, "Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory." Their take on it may offer the first glimpse of what the duo does next.