Alex Belth

The Big Lebowski is one of my favorite movies of all time, and also one of my most-watched (for many people the two are not quite the same), so naturally I was down to read an account of its production by the Coen brothers' personal assistant. There's a limit to how truly revelatory a book like this can be, but if you're a die-hard Urban Achiever then this hits all the right notes. I loved the anecdotes, the asides, the accounts that brought home how personal this movie was for everyone involved. It's really gratifying to know that a movie famous for its quotability had that exact same effect on the people who made it, and that such an intensely lovable film had such an affable genesis (at least, as affable as the making of a major motion picture can be).

I would watch the films with all of these alternate castings:

"Robert Sean Leonard was a military Brandt, Tim Blake Nelson an insipid Brandt. Steve Zahn was a dense Brandt, Paul Giamatti a volatile Brandt, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who got the part, a big-assed Brandt. I didn’t recognize many of the younger actors who read for the role, but among them were Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, Jamie Kennedy, and Vince Vaughn. Catherine Keener and Patricia Clarkson read for Maude. Ethan said Clarkson gave an excellent enunciation of "vagina." Meat Loaf read for Marty, the Dude’s landlord; Joey Lauren Adams and Charlize Theron for Bunny; Billy Idol for one of the Nihilists; Drew Carey for Gary the bartender; and Matthew Lillard tried out for Jackie Treehorn’s blond goon."

Fun quotability anecdote:

"As the Boys edited, we heard the same dialogue over and over. Soon, I greeted Joel and Ethan by quoting the Dude and they'd quote him back. Our favorite lines were: "Awww, man" (when the Dude wakes up from the first dream sequence); "Shit yeah, the achievers"; "He thinks the carpet pissers did this?"; "Employed?"; "After effects?"; "Ron Kuby"; and, of course: "I gotta rash, man." It occurred to me that Bridges' voices cracked in these, and other, line readings. I don’t know whether it was a conscious choice on his part, but Bridges was doing his variation on the way the way the Boys spoke."

Belth tries to explain the Marv Albert scandal to Elvis Costello:

"This was when the NBA commentator Marv Albert was on the front page of the tabloids for dressing in women's clothes and, as his mistress testified, biting her during sex. Elvis looked at the front page of the Daily News and asked me who Marv Albert was. How to convey who the voice of the Knicks was and what he meant? Marv just looked like another front-page perv. I did my best to explain, and Costello nodded thoughtfully."

Overall you come away wishing that you could just hang out with the Coen brothers all the time while they make movies. I'm sure that in reality it's not quite this much fun, but I want to believe.… (más)

A fun and speedy read through a behind-the-scenes view of the making of The Big Lebowski. Belth was a young man looking to break into film editing when he lucked into the position of personal assistant to Joel and Ethan Cohen (aka The Boys). He followed them to LA and had a fly on the wall view of the casting, filming, and editing of one of the Cohen's classics. Belth has an engaging writing style sprinkled with humor and observations without getting too gossipy or name-droppy. If you have Amazon Prime, this is free Kindle Single and is worth a read for folks interested in the Cohen Brothers, The Big Lebowski, or the world of film making in general.… (más)