What is it about brothers and film?

December 6, 2001 10:15 AM

What is it about brothers and film? You've got the Hughes Brothers, the Cohen Brothers, the Polish Brothers, the Wachowski Brothers, the Farrelly Brothers, to name the best known. We also have the Weinstein Brothers, and numerous up-and-comers taking the fraternal route. What's behind this phenomenon? And where are the sisters?
posted by cell divide (26 comments total)

The sisters are doing it for themselves.
posted by DragonBoy at 10:20 AM on December 6, 2001

Doing lots of champagne and coke, apparently.
posted by luser at 10:22 AM on December 6, 2001

Don't forget the Brothers Quay.
posted by ryanshepard at 10:31 AM on December 6, 2001

And it's the Coen brothers, which means I can't pretend to be their long-lost cousin or anything.
posted by solistrato at 10:34 AM on December 6, 2001

well, there's the goodman sisters, who did the tao of steve.
posted by jimw at 10:43 AM on December 6, 2001

If you saw Memento, then you may be aware of Team Todd -- Jennifer and Suzanne Todd, who also produced all the Austin Powers films. The Ephron sisters did You've Got Mail.
posted by jessamyn at 10:46 AM on December 6, 2001

The Maysles Brothers have been making documentaries for forty years. Veritably.
posted by liam at 10:47 AM on December 6, 2001

Then there's Onegin, starring and produced by Ralph Fiennes, directed by sister Martha, with a score by brother Magnus, played on the piano by sister-in-law Maya.
posted by liam at 11:05 AM on December 6, 2001

The Raimi brothers.
The Wayans brothers.
posted by ODiV at 11:05 AM on December 6, 2001

The Zucker brothers.
posted by raysmj at 11:14 AM on December 6, 2001

And, of course, the Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister...she's the cute one)
posted by briank at 11:14 AM on December 6, 2001

No, solistrato, I think cell divide meant Cohen père et fils - Leonard and son Adam - which is another phenomenon(he said slightly changing the subject as he couldn't think of any other movie brothers, apart from Paolo and Vittorio Taviani).
Like Bob and Jacob Dylan, Loudon and Rufus Wainwright, Tim and Jeff Buckley, Frank and Nancy Sinatra(Frank Jr. doesn't count), Bob and Ziggy Marley, John and Sean Lennon, Brian Wilson, John Philips, Don't Remember and those Wilson Philips girls.

So it looks like siblings=movies and offspring=music. Why, though?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:20 AM on December 6, 2001

So it looks like siblings=movies and offspring=music. Why, though?

Not always, lest we forget Francis Ford & Sofia Coppola, Henry & Jane & Peter Fonda, Gary & Jake Busey, Tom & Ethan (?) Hanks, Goldie Hawn & Kate Hudson, Billy & Jennifer Crystal, Debbie Reynolds & Joely and Carrie Fisher, Lloyd & Jeff & Beau Bridges, Kirk & Michael Douglas, Eve Ensler & Dylan McDermott, Michael Bay & John Frankenheimer (proving that "talent" may be hereditary and not a product of environment). . .
posted by Dreama at 11:36 AM on December 6, 2001

Tom & Ethan (?) Hanks

Colin.
posted by jerseygirl at 11:45 AM on December 6, 2001

Michael, Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave and Joely Richardson; the whole Barrymore family... oh Dreama, I'm so sorry!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:55 AM on December 6, 2001

Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson have collaborated on a few great flicks.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 12:06 PM on December 6, 2001

There's Jill and Karen Sprecher, who wrote and directed the somewhat amusing Clockwatchers in 1997. They're from Madison, Wis., where I live. (But I don't know them personally.)
posted by schmedeman at 12:12 PM on December 6, 2001

No, solistrato, I think cell divide meant Cohen père et fils - Leonard and son Adam

But he linked to information on Joel and Ethan Coen.
posted by UnReality at 12:44 PM on December 6, 2001

I know, I know - it was just a feeble joke.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:45 PM on December 6, 2001

Michael Bay & John Frankenheimer (proving that "talent" may be hereditary and not a product of environment). . .

I think this combo is proof of just the opposite...
posted by bingo at 12:56 PM on December 6, 2001

Don't forget the Dark Bros., makers of such classics as New Wave Hookers....

(In truth, I'm not sure there was ever a second Dark Bro. Right?)
posted by dhartung at 1:02 PM on December 6, 2001

Are you thinking of the "Behind the Green Door" Mitchell brothers too, dhartung? But too polite to say so? I remember a vile article in Vanity Fair, about how it all ended in hatred and murder.

New Wave Hookers 5 was the best. But Portuguese TV broadcasts it twice a week and stuffy film critics say it's fascist because of the police baton business(be thankful I didn't use the British "truncheon"), so I've gone off it.

But not a lot!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:23 PM on December 6, 2001

Oops. The 'H' is Coen is apparently not just silent, but invisible as well.
posted by cell divide at 1:55 PM on December 6, 2001

The plight of the Mitchell brothers was portrayed by the real-life brothers Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez in Rated X.
posted by bingo at 2:41 PM on December 6, 2001

Funny story about a guy staying at the St. Francis Hotel at the time the movie "Dirty Dancing" had just opened in theaters. The guy asked the doorman where he could see "Dirty Dancing" and the doorman gave him directions to the Mitchell Bros. theater.

The guy came back and said "That wasn't what I meant. But it was pretty good..." [props to Herb Caen for that one].

Also, let's not forget the Kano sisters -- well, not entirely relevant, I suppose. They keep talking about getting into film-making, but have never achieved anything beyond being named the "honorary" Bond girls -- whatever that means...
posted by Bixby23 at 6:31 PM on December 6, 2001

Blues Brothers, Blues Brothers, Blues Brothers.
posted by aaronshaf at 2:11 AM on December 7, 2001