So, if you have to choose, my answer is, the Coen brothers.
"No Country for Old Men" was the first Coen Brothers film I personally watched, and although it was already well-known, it took me a long, long time to decide to open it. Because just from the title, it seems to be a genre film such as "bucket list" and "classic car". I don't mean to slander, but it's hard to avoid sadness after watching this kind of movie about the old age of a strong man. Sometimes, I feel that my already powerless life cannot digest any more sadness, and I prefer to use one part inspiration, two parts fear, three parts violence and four parts humor to dispel the feeling of powerlessness. So, this movie was suppressed for a long time.
Obviously, I was wrong. "No Country for Old Men" has almost nothing to do with warmth, but is full of violence, blood, speculation, and absurdity. The story came to an abrupt end at 122 minutes, but my thoughts continued like a torrent of water. The Coen brothers like to take the words out of the way. On the surface, the story is unclear, but every now and then a small note is thrown out, and you have to turn a little bit to dig out the whole iceberg through that inadvertent corner. The audience should always exert their subjective initiative, participate in solving puzzles, and wait until the truth is finally revealed to the world.
The Coen brothers have always been able to control the rhythm of the film well, neither too loose nor too dense, just at their own pace. Some movies will go high and low, such as "Law Abiding Citizen", which climaxes in three minutes and then goes downhill. This is like turning up the music when singing. If there is no tougher plot behind it, it will inevitably give people a strong contrast to the movie. The Coen brothers do not. They are used to cold narratives, and they often pull out a distant view to create an atmosphere of alienation. Maybe after watching the movie, you don't feel where the climax is, but every step is solid and can withstand scrutiny. Moreover, they are not only intended to be beyond words, but also like to be unexpected, to escape the habitual thinking of the audience, and to be unfathomable. More importantly, the films of the Coen brothers are decisive and energetic, and those who can do it will never talk nonsense.
Speaking of which, let me remind you, you read it right, this is a text about "Fargo".
The storytelling ability of the Coen brothers will not be repeated. If you are interested, you can read their debut work "Blood Labyrinth". Everyone is walking around in the labyrinth. More than 20 years later, Zhang Yimou adapted "Blood Labyrinth" into a more down-to-earth "Three Guns Shooting the Table Surprise". Haven't seen it, can't comment.
Now, let's talk seriously about "Frozen" and the female character construction of the movie.
There is no doubt that "Frozen" is a male movie, except for police officer Margie, the main characters are all male. In addition, I have never seen the heroine of a play appear only one-third of the way through the movie, and "Frozen" did it.
In the character setting, the Coen brothers made a strong gender contrast. In movies, almost all male characters are bad. The male protagonist is cowardly and incompetent, his father-in-law is arrogant and authoritarian, and the kidnappers are brutal and vicious. Shep, the middleman, has a criminal record and is accustomed to solving problems with his fists. An old classmate who has a crush on Margie for many years suffers from mental illness. Police officer Olson listened to the town residents crackling a bunch of clues that seemed useless but actually important, ignored it, and passed the murderer. And Margie can easily restore the case after a simple investigation at the highway crime scene, just like Detective Conan's upper body, and the male colleagues on the side can only play the role of vassals delivering coffee.
What interests me in particular is how the Coen brothers have created a distinctively feminine image with an irresistible masculine perspective. Having seen too many film and television works, if you want to build an outstanding woman, you must be resolute and resolute. Continue to suppress the female character traits, and let the masculine side stand out. In other words, women are still being shaped from the perspective of male power, thinking that only in this way can they be called excellent. In fact, from the root, this is already sexist. It is believed that women's softness and delicacy are the stumbling block to their success, so delete and replace men's fortitude. So I often hear that the highest evaluation of women in the workplace is probably: she is not like a woman.
On the other hand, the Coen brothers took a different approach and constructed the role of Margie completely on the opposite side of men. Although she is a police officer and a mother who is pregnant, she walks in the snow with clumsy steps, and if she is not careful, she will fall down. There is no half of the flexibility of a police officer. During the investigation, whether facing Jerry or Shep, Margie was gentle and calm, smiling and speaking well. This move is like Jin Yong's star-sucking Dafa, which uses other people's internal strength for one's own use, and just makes the opponent lose his temper. When the perpetrator was arrested at the scene and confronted the suspect who committed several murders, Margie's performance can be described as clumsy, somewhat cute, and very real. The paradox is that the cold-faced killer, who has always been headshot at a disagreement, chose to run away in the face of Margie, who had only five combat strengths. Finally, in the police car, Margie did not forget to incarnate as the aunt of the neighborhood committee to educate Gaear hard-heartedly. The killer who once regarded human life as a must-have could only sit down in the back seat, like a child who did something wrong, wishing to shed tears of repentance.
It is not difficult to see that the Coen brothers have completely subverted the traditional image of elite women, neither fierce nor capable, refusing to grab people with power. They are not men in women's clothes, but they know how to respect and appreciate their femininity, and they don't have to pretend to be men to cater to society.
Of course, my personal preference for "Frozen" is the handling of the ending. A movie full of bloody violence and absurdity finally chooses to end with the little happiness of ordinary life. On the surface, the two seem to be having trivial and meaningless daily conversations, but they are actually full of love and hope. With warmth and excessive bloodshed, all violence will eventually die of softness.
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