The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) on Netflix
Ed Crane, a barber in 1949 Santa Rosa, suspects his wife Doris is involved with her boss, Big Dave Brewster. A customer's dry cleaning proposal would cost him ten thousand dollars.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.5/10121,288 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1949 Santa Rosa, California, Ed Crane cuts hair in the barbershop his brother-in-law Frank owns. Ed's wife Doris, a bookkeeper, drinks heavily, and their marriage is strained; Ed suspects she is involved with her employer, Big Dave Brewster, who runs the department store where she works and has ten thousand dollars to put into a second one. A customer named Creighton Tolliver describes a promising new dry cleaning business and offers Ed a partnership in it for ten thousand dollars. Ed does not have that kind of money, and he keeps cutting hair and smoking, saying little to anyone.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- It was the first Coen brothers film released in black and white, after the directors had tried and failed to do so with Blood Simple (1984) and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994).
- The film was shot on color 35mm film and converted to black and white in post-production, partly because rolls of black-and-white film had become scarce; some countries got a color release for contractual and marketing reasons.
- Richard Jenkins initially turned down the casting call for the film because he had already been rejected from three earlier Coen brothers productions.
- The Coens had to persuade James Gandolfini to play Big Dave Brewster, since he had just finished filming The Mexican and was due back on The Sopranos; he agreed after reading the script and finding the part unlike anything he had done.
- Billy Bob Thornton accepted the title role before reading the script, saying he knew it would be good, in his first time working with the Coens.
- For one day of filming in Orange, California, standing in for Santa Rosa, the crew spent more than two weeks dressing the streets for 1949: traffic signs were replaced, facades modified and minor street repairs made.
