– The “Fargo” series, more Coen than ever
The fifth season is still set in the deep Midwest with rich rednecks, capitalist gangsters and a crooked sheriff.
Published today at 6.18pm
Set in 2019, season five still features a very tough sheriff, played by Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”).
Michelle Faye/FX
Ten years have already passed since playwright Noah Hawley deciphered “Fargo”, the revered classic of the Coen brothers, with gusto, without angering fans of the masters. In his anthology, broadcast in its entirety on Canal+, protagonists, intrigues and temporalities vary from season to season, but the spirit remains, even and above all when “Minnesota Nice”, an expression that designates the deceptively nice simpleton, crosses over into Kansas and the Dakotas. .
Better yet, in the fifth season there are direct references to the original film released in 1996. Like a return to origins after a three-year hiatus. It all revolves around a kidnapping. Dot (Juno Temple), the good-natured wife of a car dealer, is kidnapped by mobster Ole Munch (Sam Spruell), following a deal initiated by her ex-husband, a hateful brute. But underneath the little housewife, queen of knitting and pancakes, hides a tiger…
For the record, in their black comedy, the Coens, natives of Minnesota, already clash with the conservative values of deep America. Enough to feed an inexhaustible stock of folkloric, more or less cartoonish creatures: rednecks hiding sleeping predators, gangsters dedicated to capitalism, citizens less ordinary than their status as an undertaker, hairdresser or nurse would suggest. .
Among the other peculiarities celebrated by Noah Hawley, the domestic fantasy of committed murders. After the crazy washing machine, the killer garage refrigerator and another broken air conditioner, the heroine worthy of the kid from “Home Alone” becomes a spray-painted arsonist. Among other excesses.
Here and there the usual philosophical allusions appear, Bertrand Russell or Albert Camus, coded episode titles, as well as references to genre cinema, from “Rio Bravo” to “Once Upon a Time in the West”, sophisticated shots and doublings of Cartier-Bresson screens.
America intertwined with modernity
The “self-made men” of the American dream abound in the world of “Fargo,” a title inspired by the city founded by William G. Fargo, a farmer turned transportation magnate in the late 19th century. In this America intertwined with the advance of modernity with varied origins, even “self-made women” take on the diligence of progress. Like their male partners, these women range from worst to best.
Look at Dot’s stepmother, played with suave wickedness by Jennifer Jason Leigh, a greedy businesswoman and emasculating progenitor. As a true outlaw who rebels against the concept of a powerful stepmother and serving knight, Dot does not intend to be a victim of this monster. For the American fairy tale you will have to return. In “Fargo,” the good guys and bad guys switch sides like T-shirts. And they mess up a lot of them.
Family puppet
Set in 2019, this chapter still features one of the toughest sheriffs, played by Jon Hamm, the former “Mad Men” class. From the imagination of Donald Trump, Roy Tillman, rich and omnipotent cowboy with cigar and floppy hat, imposes his law in the city, receives FBI agents in the jacuzzi on the roof of his farm, shows off his deterrence with weapons and his electoral arguments, then wraps himself in a towel defaced with his effigy on the occasion of his electoral campaign.
In short, pure Coen, this sequence, as hilarious as it is disturbing, where twisted perversions and false candour, naive loyalty and vainglorious stupidity resonate. The difference perhaps with previous seasons is that the puppet, more than ever, gives off an impression of familiarity tolerated by the majority of local voters. Far from being a ridiculous puppet, this man who waves the Bible like a scarecrow to the birds of ill omen can be taken seriously.
You see all the ambiguity of a scene in which this follower of the “natural order” beats a redneck who beats his wife while making a profession of faith: «Jesus was a man with a beard and not a woman. And while the river flows down the hill, her husband rules her house. He orders, the woman obeys. He only raises his hand on her if he forgets her place in her house. And just to educate him.” Enough to make you laugh in your throat.
“Fargo”, complete on Canal+, 5th season from January 18th.
Follow the news of the complete seriesCecile Lecoultreof Belgian origin, graduated in art history and archeology at the University of Brussels, she has been writing in the cultural section since 1985. She is passionate about literature and cinema… among others!More information
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2024-01-13 17:18:48
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