The Coen Brothers direct Frances McDormand, John Getz and Dan Hedaya in this Neo-Noir where a dangerous businessman learns his trophy wife is having an affair with one of his bartenders.

An excellent M. Emmet Walsh was paid cash every day. The Coens avoided showing Frances McDormand the meticulous storyboards they had paid for as the artist they had hired kept drawing her character in the nude. This is very much a calling card debut. A promise of things to come. While Blood Simple doesn’t hold a candle to their best work, the set pieces have the same mordant sense of humour and bold style as later masterpieces. Frances McDormand and the soundtrack make the movie. There’s definitely something extra encrypted into the imagery that you could pull your hair out trying to fathom. Dead fish on an office desk. The under workings of a sink. The Coens have been curve balling us for over 30 years with this kinda deliberate but elusive nonsense.

7

Perfect Double Bill: The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)

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