Writer and scholar Colin Dickey‘s book Ghostland tackles the historical and cultural implications of haunted places in the United States. From houses to hotels, public spaces to cities, Dickey discusses the many ways that places retain energy memories of the past. The chapter entitled “Passing Through” is devoted to Los Angeles, California and includes an astute observation about the film Barton Fink [Joel Coen (and an uncredited Ethan Coen), 1991]. Dickey suggests that “one of the strange beauties about [the film] is how [it] eschews standard cinematic practice and avoids establishing shots: we’re brought immediately into interior scenes without a sense of what the buildings look like. And so we see the Hotel Earle’s lobby, its elevator, its corridors, and its rooms, but never its exterior” (140). As soon I read those words, I had to find out if it was true. So, I put the DVD on and watched it, making the total number of times I’ve seen this movie to be approximately five (outside of any schooling purposes).

Below are the notes I took while watching Barton Fink; there are spoilers ahead, so I highly recommend you proceed only if you’ve seen the film (or aren’t bothered by spoilers):
~ The film opens with a medium shot of wallpaper; the camera zooms in as several cast members’ names, the film title, and then “New York CIty, 1941” appear on screen. Camera cuts to the pulleys of the backstage area of a playhouse.
~ Next scene: a restaurant, no exterior. The camera is from Barton Fink’s POV.
~ Transition scene: a giant rock on a beach with an ocean wave crashing against it (from the ocean toward the beach).
~ Next scene: camera is deep in the lobby and Barton Fink (John Turturro) is just inside the doors. No exterior! I never noticed that before!
~ The stationery of The Hotel Earle has the tagline: A day or a lifetime. How fitting, especially considering Dickey pointed out the exchange that the front desk clerk (Steve Buscemi) has with Fink about being a transient or a resident (140, 141).

~ The picture of the girl on the beach on the wall of Fink’s room is as “outside” as the film has gotten so far.

~ Next scene: Capitol Pictures film studio, no exterior, instead it’s studio head Mr. Lipnick’s (Michael Lerner) office and the camera is already inside.
~ Camera cuts from the office door closing to the hotel hallway. Bam. No exterior.
~ 1st John Goodman scene.
~ Next scene: inside the reception area of Ben Geisler’s (Tony Shaloub) office.
~ Next scene: restaurant, just inside the door. Omgerds, no exterior! Since it’s a Coen Brothers film, it’s got to be a deliberate artistic, thematic choice, but part of me wonders if it wasn’t just easier logistically to film without exterior establishing shots.
~ Next scene: bathroom at the restaurant with WP Mayhew’s (John Mahoney) first appearance.
~ Next scene: outside Mayhew’s office! We see Barton walking a ways down an outside walkway towards the camera.

~ Next scene: Barton’s room, replasting wallpaper. John Goodman demonstrates a wrestling move.
~ Next scene: outside lunch with Mayhew and Audrey (Judy Davis)!

~ Next scene: Barton’s room, John Goodman and shoes.
~ Next scene: match on action cut with typewriter keys to Ben Geisler’s office reception area, and then cut to inside his office.
~ Next scene: on set of a wrestling picture, which turns out to be footage from the dailies that Barton is watching in a screening room.
~ Next scene: camera zooms in for a slight high-angle close-up of a typewriter in Barton’s room; he calls Audrey.
~ Next scene: Audrey pays Barton a visit.
~ Bathroom sink transition back to Barton’s bed; Audrey is in bed and she’s dead.
~ Some hallway footage, back to Barton’s room. John Goodman pukes in the toilet, Barton sits in the bathroom.
~ Next scene: backyard of Lipnick’s house. There’s a pool.

~ Next scene: Barton’s room. John Goodman gives Barton a box for safekeeping.
~ Hallway transition back to Barton’s room; he’s reading the Bible.
~ Next scene: hotel elevator–> lobby, front desk, two detectives from the LAPD talk to Barton.
~ Next scene: Barton’s room — what’s in the box?
~ Hallway transition back to Barton on a roll typing at the typewriter. He makes a phone call.
~ Next scene: USO dance hall where Barton is dancing. No exterior!
~ Trumpet transition to the hotel hallway.
~ Next scene: Barton’s room. The two detectives show a news clipping that Mayhew is dead. Camera cuts to the hallway and the elevator is on fire. The detectives go into the hallway, John Goodman comes out of the elevator. Fire is at the end of the hallway. He takes a shotgun and shoots one of the detectives and comes running down the hallway (towards the camera). Fire follows him along the walls.
~ Next scene: Barton’s room. John Goodman bends the bars at the foot of the bed so Barton can slip out of his handcuffs and then goes back to his room. Barton takes the box and his manuscript and leaves the room.
~ Next scene: Reception area of studio; he calls home.
~ Next scene: Lipnick’s office.
~ Next scene: that rock on the beach from near the beginning of the film. Barton walks down the beach with the box. He sits down and sees a woman walking. She sits down in the same position as the woman in the postcard on the wall. A bird falls from the sky into the ocean.


There’s only one scene that begins with something resembling an exterior establishing shot: when Barton walks down the outside walkway to Mayhew’s office. And why do we see it? Because Barton never goes inside? Where are the other scenes with any outside time? When he has lunch with Mayhew and Audrey, the poolside backyard of Lipnick’s house, and the last scene at the beach. Barton doesn’t go inside Lipnick’s house either.
Had I not come across Ghostland, had Colin Dickey not pointed out the lack of exterior establishing shots, specifically of the hotel, I would never have noticed myself. Now I understand a bit more why I’ve always found Barton Fink to be unsettling.
Curioser and curioser.
A shout-out to Caitlin Doughty‘s book From Here to Eternity for introducing me to Dickey’s book Ghostland.
You can find clips from Barton Fink here.
Pic creds: IMDB, Penguin Random House, dvdcover.com