Steve Buscemi’s Fargo wardrobe helped him figure out Carl Showalter, the criminal he played in the Coen brothers’ 1996 film. At its 25th anniversary reunion in 2021, he credited costume designer Mary Zophres with making the character click: “It’s the polyester sweaters,” he said, as The Guardian reported.
Joel Coen had also made him a promise around the time of Barton Fink: “Your character is gonna be a very good-looking guy,” Buscemi recalled at the reunion, according to Entertainment Weekly.
John Frankensteiner’s 20 January 2023 tweet about Buscemi’s look has since become part of London’s Prince Charles Cinema promotion for Fargo’s 30th anniversary screenings in 4K.
The film follows car salesman Jerry Lundegaard, played by William H. Macy, whose scheme to have his wife kidnapped leads to murders investigated by Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson. McDormand won the Best Actress Oscar, while Joel and Ethan Coen won Best Original Screenplay.
The restoration was supervised in 2023 by Fargo cinematographer Roger Deakins and sourced from the original camera negative, according to Deutsche Kinemathek. The cinema’s listings put the screenings on 14 November 2026 at 6:20pm and 1 December at 12:15pm.
