Burn After Reading
Short description
Burn After Reading centres on Osborne Cox, a CIA analyst who is taken off his assignment and begins writing a memoir that includes material he should not be putting on paper. When the disc holding the manuscript ends up lost in a Washington-area gym, two employees there, Linda Litzke and Chad Feldheimer, find it and decide it is worth money. Linda wants to pay for cosmetic surgery she cannot afford, so the pair try to turn the disc into cash, an amateur scheme that pulls in a federal marshal named Harry Pfarrer, Cox's wife Katie, and the gym's manager Ted, who carries his own quiet feelings for Linda. The CIA takes an interest, and the situation slips steadily away from everyone involved.
The film was released in 2008 and runs 96 minutes. Joel and Ethan Coen wrote, produced and directed it, working with a large credited cast and crew; among the leads are George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Richard Jenkins. It is the fifteenth film in each brother's directing chronology, arriving between To Each His Own Cinema and A Serious Man.
Made for a modest 37 million dollars, it took in about 164 million worldwide, a strong return. On IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from roughly 375,000 voters, and on TMDB 6.7 out of 10 from a much smaller base. A critics' rating of 7.1 out of 10, from 241 reviews, sits close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The difference between this film and previous Coen pictures is that there isn't a single positive, sympathetic character among the main ones. This led some critics to accuse the Coens of arrogant indifference to people, a kind of Swiftian misanthropy. “There are no good guys in this film. Some are too emotional, others are crazy,” John Malkovich noted on this subject. Brad Pitt's reaction was characteristic: “When I was told the role was written specifically for me, I didn't know whether to feel flattered or offended.”
- When Chad and Linda chase after Cox, Chad claims that a standard Bic ballpoint pen can open a bicycle lock. This refers to the widely publicized scandal in the American media with Kensington and Kryptonite, which were long considered the standard for bicycle locks but, as it turned out, could be opened with a cheap Bic ballpoint pen.
- Filming began in August 2007 and ended in early November 2007.
- In the opening scene, when Osborne Cox enters Palmer's office, he stops in front of the chair. In the next shot, when the camera films from the doorway, he is already standing behind the chair. When the camera films from Palmer's side again, he is standing in front of the chair again.
- The film "Meeting Daisy," starring Claire Danes and Dermot Mulroney, which Linda watches in the cinema first with Alan and then with Harry, does not exist. It was invented specifically for the film.
- The film is set in 2008. The film states that Harry's wife, Sandy Farrier, hires the firm "Tacman Marsh". The same firm is hired by Judith Gopnik in the Coen brothers' next film, "A Serious Man," which takes place in 1967.
- This is the first film by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, since “Miller’s Crossing” (1990), in which Roger Deakins is not the cinematographer. He is replaced by Emmanuel Lubezki.
- The film contains a continuity error. In the scene in the Russian embassy, the portrait of Russian President B.N. Yeltsin on the wall of the office changes to a portrait of President V.V. Putin.
- Although the CIA agent's house is located in Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), filming for the movie scenes took place in Brooklyn Heights, as Ethan Coen and Joel Coen wanted to stay in New York to be with their families.
- In fact, the building used as the Russian embassy in Washington is Meister Hall – one of the buildings of the Bronx Community College campus in New York, built in 1964 to the design of architect Marcel Breuer.
- The word “Fuck” is used 60 times in the film.
- When Brad Pitt's character first meets John Malkovich's character, he asks to be called "Mr. Black." This is a deliberate nod to the film "Meet Joe Black" (1998), whose slickness Pitt parodies here.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
