him about it because we did not want to give the impression we were sucking up." Other works cited as influences for Barton Fink include the film The Shining, (1980) produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and the comedy Sullivan's Travels, (1941) written and directed by Preston Sturges. Set in an empty hotel, Kubrick's film concerns a writer unable to proceed with his latest work. Although the Coens approve of comparisons to The Shining, Joel suggests that Kubrick's film "belongs in a more global sense to the horror film genre". Sullivan's Travels, released the year in which Barton Fink is set, follows successful director John Sullivan, who decides to create a film of deep social import – not unlike Barton's desire to create entertainment for "the common man." Sullivan eventually decides that comedic entertainment is a key role for film-makers, similar to Jack Lipnick's assertion at the end of Barton Fink that "the audience wants to see action, adventure." Additional allusions to films and film history abound in Barton Fink. At one point a character discusses "Victor Soderberg"; the name is a reference to Victor Sjöström, a Swedish director who worked in Hollywood under the name Seastrom. Charlie's line about how his troubles "don't amount to a hill of beans" is a probable homage to the film Casablanca. (1942) Another similarity is that of Barton Fink beach scene to the final moment in La Dolce Vita (1960), wherein a young woman's final line of dialogue is obliterated by the noise of the ocean. The unsettling emptiness of the Hotel Earle has also been compared to the living spaces in Key Largo (1948) and Sunset Boulevard. (1950) Themes Two of the film's central themes – the culture of entertainment production and the writing process – are intertwined and relate specifically to the self-referential nature of the work (as well as the work within the work). It is a film about a man who writes a film based on a play, and at the centre of Barton's entire opus is Barton himself. The dialogue in his play Bare Ruined Choirs (also the first lines of the film, some of which are repeated at the end of the film as lines in Barton's screenplay The Burlyman) give us a glimpse into Barton's self-descriptive art. The mother in the play is named "Lil," which is later revealed to be the name of Barton's own