Name: Fargo (1996) | Keeping the Score Series
Start: 2025-11-06T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Princeton Garden Theatre

Be it a gentle piano interlude or a glorious orchestral fanfare, no element of filmcraft sets a movie’s tone and identity quite like the musical score. Film music has the power to underline a filmmaker’s narrative ideas, forge our bond to a heroic character, and move us to the point of tears. Join us all year long as we showcase cinema’s iconic composers whose musical talents enrich the images we see on screen and have us humming their unforgettable melodies as we exit the auditorium. The series comes to a close in November with the Coen Brothers' classic FARGO. 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗧𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀: princetongardentheatre.org/specials
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲: Set in rural North Dakota, Frances McDormand stars as a pregnant, small-town police chief tracking two inept kidnappers. Considered by many critics to be the Coens Brothers' best film. FARGO is a comedy that's bleak and hard-edged on the one hand and warm and folksy on the other. McDormand would go on to win Best Actress, while the Coens took home the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Also featuring outstanding performances from William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi.
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲: Joel and Ethan Coen have a well-earned reputation for how they blend dissonant tones in their films, none more so than this Minnesota-set crime fable. Carter Burwell, the brothers’ longtime composer, proves himself well-attuned to that Coen sensibility. Burwell knows precisely how to use music to unify those seemingly irreconcilable tones into something singular. From the opening minutes of FARGO, the score gives a tender, folksy, home-spun sound through acoustics, fiddles, and drums, as if he’s telling his Paul-Bunyan-style tall tale. But as the story’s grave events progress, Burwell’s music – sparing and judiciously deployed – anchors the movie as it whips between shocking violence and absurdist comedy, always underscoring the tragedy.
𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝗻𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 $𝟭𝟬!Become a member of our nonprofit theater for as little as $40 a year. Learn more at princetongardentheatre.org/membership