The Return of ‘Blood Simple’
Last Week of 12th Annual Film Festival
This may be one of the best Magic Lantern Film Festivals yet put up on
screen. Each of these movies is unique and not yet in wide release.
By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
When "Blood Simple" was released 15 years ago, three good
friends met at a movie theater in New York City to view this movie by the unknown Joel and
Ethan Coen, of that far-flung Midwestern state, Minnesota.
Blood
Simple
The friends argued about where to sit in the theater and when the movie
was over they argued all the way across town, in a yellow checker cab.
The person on the right thought it was gruesome and strange with no
redeeming characters. She compared it to a badly made horror film.
The gal on the left thought it was one of the most brilliantly original
films she’d ever seen. She thought its modern day film noir quality was devious and
clever, that its style was twisted, its humor insidious and the acting superb.
The poor fellow in the middle of them swore he’s d never see another
movie with the two of them again. Such was the influence of "Blood Simple," upon
its original release.
This reporter was the person on the left and her opinion about this movie
has never altered. It’s still a highly original movie with nary a sympathetic
character, where violence has a loony guise, and events transpire exactly as one would
not expect.
Influentially, think of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"
for lack of sympathetic characters; for twisted violence see "Reservoir Dogs;"
and for unexpected plot perversions see "Pulp Fiction"--all of which came after
"Blood Simple."
Happily, we will be treated to a reviewing, or for some a first time
viewing, of the engaging Texas film noir that was the Coen brother’s debut.
The newly remastered director’s cut will be playing at the 12th
Annual Magic Lantern Film Festival, opening tonight for a one-week run.
Unlike other ego-gratifying film auteurs who release director’s cuts
of their movies with added scenes, the Coens have actually trimmed five minutes from
"Blood Simple."
The new version, said to have eliminated "the boring parts,"
according to Ethan Coen, now features a tongue-in-check opening instead. The mono sound
was digitally remastered, which is a swell idea considering the ominous footsteps, the
whup-whuping of the ceiling fan, the ten minutes of shoveling (without dialogue), and the
soundtrack featuring the song "It’s the Same Old Song" playing over and
over. It’s all delicious ear candy.
The Coens have famously gone on to make some of the most unusual and
startling movies of the past fifteen years.
Among their best are "Raising Arizona," "Barton Fink,"
"The Big Lebowski" and "Fargo."
In addition, "Blood Simple" introduced us to the talents of
Frances McDormand, who is also the wife of Joel Coen.
Nominated first for an Academy Award in the movie "Mississippi
Burning" (1988), she won her best actress nod for her hilarious turn as a pregnant
North Dakotan police woman in the Coens’ "Fargo" (1996). "Blood
Simple" revealed McDormand’s amazingly natural acting style and she never looked
sexier.
Also featured in the cast are Dan Hedaya as the oily, despicable,
honky-tonk owning, vindictive husband of adulterous McDormand. Perfect casting.
The character actor M. Emmet Walsh plays the unthinkably crude detective
hired by Hedaya to spy on his wife, and then to act upon his findings in such a way that
much of the movie turns upon his subsequent maneuvers. The viewer will be forgiven for
giggling when he offers to let Hedaya decapitate him, saying "I can always crawl
around without it." Also, his self serving narration gives the movie its bizarre
start.
Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld went on to film the other Coen flicks
"Miller’s Crossing" and the loopy "Raising Arizona" before
turning director himself with such movies as "The Addams Family," "Men in
Black" and "Get Shorty."
Composer Carter Burwell also penned the movies "Fargo,"
"Barton Fink" and "The Big Lebowski" as well as non-Coen films
including "The Spanish Prisoner," "This Boy’s Life" and
"Being John Malkovitch."
The Magic Lantern hosted the Idaho premiere of "Blood Simple" in
1985.
Other pictures being shown at the film festival are "Saving
Grace," "The Tao of Steve," "The Original Kings of Comedy" and
"Shower."
This may be one of the best Magic Lantern Film Festivals yet put up on
screen. Each of these movies is unique and not yet in wide release.
"Saving Grace" won the Audience Award at Sundance this year and
stars two-time Oscar nominee Brenda Blethyn as an impoverished English widow. She
discovers that her talents as a horticulturist may lead her into a seriously inconceivable
occupation and out of bankruptcy.
"The Tao of Steve" won its star Donal Logue top acting prize at
Sundance. It concerns a less-than-typical lothario—an overweight, dope-smoking
kindergarten teacher in Santa Fe, who has an uncanny ability to attract women but not
love.
Spike Lee’s hilarious performance documentary "The Original
Kings of Comedy" stars standup comics D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie
Mac, with Steve Harvey emceeing the event. It was shot live in Charlotte, N.C. The New
Yorker has called it a "wild and wonderful example of how to please an
audience."
There is also the Chinese flick "Shower," which was a huge hit
at the recent Seattle Film Festival. Director Zhang Yang ably layers his characters, who
own and frequent a bathhouse, with individual quirks that convey both familial ties and
encroaching modernization a la the great and sleepy Scottish movie "Local Hero."
Lose yourself this week—it’s that simple.
