Thursday, July 17, 2014

Coen Brothers are in Tallinn! (In Spirit)

Rooftop Cinema at the Viru Center opened its doors (or its roof, to be more precise) to American movie fans for a Coen Brothers’ Co-Spective Program this week. It is also exciting news for us, since the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn has been a proud supporter of Rooftop Cinema’s American movie weeks for several years.
(Photo: Film fans at Rooftop Cinema./Courtesy of Aivar Lann)


“We decided to feature the Coen Brothers because their philosophy fits well with our mindset of what kind of movies we want to show here” explained Aivar Laan, the founder of the Rooftop Cinema.  “They are sharp, eccentric, not your typical Hollywood blockbuster choices and they have an excellent eye to see and reflect the black humor in life.”

Aivar Laan says showing these movies wasn’t easy. “It was challenging work to get the copyright of the movies because not only you have to have sufficient funding for these expensive movies, but also have to have good connections, as they are very selective with who to give the copyrights of these movies,” he explained. “So we were happy to work with the U.S. Embassy in this project and unite Coen Brothers with their Estonian fans.”

Laan, who lived as an expat for several years, got the idea of opening a summer rooftop cinema in Tallinn when he was in Australia. Tallinn’s unpredictable summer weather did made him think twice about the venture, but the enthusiasm of bringing a new project to Estonia pushed him forward. Since 2010, the Rooftop Cinema has brought true cinema classics and variety of independent movies to about 30,000 local cinema enthusiasts in Tallinn every summer. (And thanks to some construction work and good weather, they haven’t had to cancel more than five or six screenings since 2010, Laan said.)

Coen Brothers’ Co-Spective Program already started this week and it will continue till July 21 with screenings of  Fargo (Thursday), The Big Lebowski (Friday), Burn After Reading (Saturday), O, Brother; Where, Art, Thou? (Sunday) And No Country For Old Men (Monday). Check the cinema’s website for more information on current and upcoming movie schedule

And if you can’t make it this week, don’t worry. The Coen Brothers will return to the Rooftop Cinema in mid-August and all the movies will be screened once again for a week.

Happy Viewing!

Post by Aylin Erdogan

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