Dan Jolin – författare

Gangster movie, Western, film noir, rom com, screwball, musical, even the Biblical epic... There are few genres left untouched and untwisted by sibling visionaries Joel and Ethan Coen. Since 1984''s Blood Simple, the inscrutable brothers have effortlessly forged their own cinematic path, avoiding prevailing trends while crafting bold, stylish and witty movies that feel fresh and distinctive despite being deeply rooted in their creators'' filmic passion and knowledge.This is a definitive guide to that path, bringing the reader through Joel and Ethan''s 20 features (not counting the mezzanine) and exploring the themes, the tropes, the gags, the familiar faces - while also taking in all the Coen curios that litter this quirkily winding byway.From Texas to Minnesota, from Homer to Shakespeare, from Bluegrass to Busby Berkeley, from wrestling to bowling, from lost hats to severed toes, this book covers everything that one might reasonably consider (to use a word that would likely make Joel and Ethan wince) ''Coenesque''... And then some.

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most iconic and best loved movie directors of the last two decades. Whether he''s shooting up the Deep South, slicing through the Japanese underworld, blasting Nazi-occupied France or taking a flamethrower to ''60s Los Angeles, Tarantino is a director who combines a radical vision with a sense of history: making movies precisely the way he wants, to celebrate the movies he loves. Featuring insights into his inspirations - from martial-arts epics to Spaghetti Westerns - and dishing up fascinating details from his productions, this is an indispensable guide to Tarantino''s thrilling and sometimes controversial body of work.It takes in his searing debut Reservoir Dogs, the era-defining Pulp Fiction and the genre-subverting Django Unchained, among other modern classics, right up to his nostalgic masterpiece Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Above all, this is a celebration of a filmmaker who has arguably made a bigger impact on modern pop culture than any other.