‘Inside Llewyn Davis’By Fergus Baynes

Narrative and GenreThis film is the latest venture by seasoned directors the

Cohen Brothers whose back catalogue of previous films includes ‘Fargo’, ‘Blood Simple’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’. The new film, ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’, is set around the 1960’s folk music scene in New York City’s Greenwich Village and is loosely based on the life and troubles of musicians living in the village at this time predominately Dave Van Ronk and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. This therefore makes the Genre of this particular film a ‘sort of’ Biopic.

Funding and FinanceThe Film had a relatively low budget of $11 million

which for a film of this stature is unusual. However, this is not the first time that the Coen Brothers have used a low budget when creating a movie such as in ‘Fargo’ or ‘A Serious Man’. The film was financed mostly by StudioCanal despite it not having an American distributor in place. The Coen brothers have worked with StudioCanal on many previous occasions.

DevelopmentThe actual idea for ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ came about a

few years before production when the Coens had the idea of an image of Dave Van Ronk being beaten up outside a folk club in Greenwich Village. Over the next few years they developed a plot taking inspiration from the biography of Van Ronk called ‘The Mayor of MacDougal Street’ and the songs and life of another folk musician from this time named Ramblin’ Jack Elliott to eventually finish the script. Much of the ideas behind the script were also based on the music from the period particually that of Van Ronk’s and Elliott’s.

ProductionShooting was complicated by an early New York

spring, which interfered with the bleak winter atmosphere of the film. Difficulty was also created during filming due to having to use several cats in the film, who, unlike dogs, ignore the desires of filmmakers.

Producer Scott Rudin, who worked previously with the Coens on True Grit and No Country for Old Men, once again collaborated with them on this film.

DistributionStudioCanal owns the rights to international distribution

and foreign sales of the film. The film was also distributed in part by CBS films. It is due to be released on DVD around May/June of 2014.

Release Poster

ExhibitionInside Llewyn Davis premiered on the 19th of May 2013

at the Cannes Film Festival. The film also screened at other film festivals such as the New York Film Festival in September, the AFI Film Festival and Torino Film Festival in November 2013.

The film had a limited release within the United States on December 6, 2013, where it played only in Los Angeles and New York to begin with. It then opened in 133 other theatres on the 20th of December and then opened everywhere in the U.S. on the 10th of January 2014. It opened in the U.K. on the 24th of January.

AudiencesSince this is the Cohen Brothers 21st film and since

they are considered by both audiences and critics to be very skilled film makers they already have acquired a rather large fan base and so it could be almost guaranteed that they would have a considerable audience for this film no matter what. Also the fact that the film is loosely based on musical artists means that fans of those artists would have an obvious interest in the film.