Blood Simple

Blood Simple, the Coen brothers first foray into their surrealistic and black comedy laden feature film universe comes together as a rousing success. Blood Simple follows the very staples of the genre they have patented which includes heavy doses of dark comedy, mistaken identity, and deliciously ironic endings. The story follows Julian a small town bar owner and his maniac selfish pursuits of murdering his wife Abby and her lover Ray (coincidentally a bar tender at Julian’s establishment). However things go awry when the hit men Visser decides to murder Julian after deceiving him into thinking he had committed the murders. As simple as this would sound it isn’t as the title would aptly indicate.

First and foremost the cinematography by Barry Sonnenfeld is absolutely memorizing and gorgeous, his use  of the colour palette available to him is eye popping. The seedy, dirty, violent, and ironic veneer of this story is painted upon a canvas of lush red’s, washed blues, and greens. In addition he uses his shadows appropriately allowing for complete contrast and doing proud to the Phillip Marlowe film’s this movie heavily homage’s. The shot’s inside the bar, within the apartment in the end, and the hypnotic trance inducing fifteen minute silent sequence are all a successful testament to this.

However, the camera work is only a compliment to the outstanding direction that is available in this film, the initial fraught and foreboding of the scenes setting up the story is tensely palpable. Signature camera movements are presented  with temerity as they move through drunks, ever persistent slowly methodical fan blades, and long stretches of road. Within this the Coens enjoy their use of time lapse transition. Two particular instances of ingenious editing is when Abby put’s her head down to sleep and the outside window turns from dusk till dawn. Secondly the ominous and mentally unhinged Ray appears to her bloody and confused one night after he has disappeared. The day after this she appears in a fugue state , the camera close on her head from the moment she uncovers Julian’s office broken into  until she goes back to bed; the direction capturing a moment of perfect uncertainty, time appearing false, and break down seamlessly in less than fifteen seconds. Albeit the movement of the camera and the transitions are not the only successful elements of the direction, but the framing plays a very important part. The tight camera frames allows us only to show what the character sees and nothing else; the moment something should go horrifically wrong is insistent from the very fade in as the celluloid begins to roll.

In regards to acting the standout is Frances McDormand; her character usually in this genre would have a delicious twist in the end implicating her in some nefarious plot where she pulled the strings of our hapless protagonist. Nonetheless, as the movie  roll's on we aren’t sure of this till the first last frame, thus managing to create an excellent level of uncertainty throughout the run time. Her character could be as dangerous as once foretold in genre’s past but she plays the character with such trepidation, anxiety, and aloofness that we instantly become attached; our worries readily becomes her and ultimately she is the strongest and most unlikely survivor of the bunch.

The last point of merit that should be mentioned is the beautifully haunting melancholic score by Carter Burwell.  Every single frame of the film matches perfectly with every single note orchestrated by this talented composer. Even the song choices diegetic and non-diegetic is sublimely selected and it is no wonder that Coen Brother’s continuously work with this gifted composer.

After all is said and down Blood Simple is a staggeringly impressive first entry by the Coen brothers and their motley crew of collaborators. The very few nitpicks that coincide with contrived and seemingly forced camera positions and movements in minor parts of the film can be swept under the rug by the powerful and beautiful cinematography shot by Sonnenfield. In conclusion,  if you consider yourself to be an aficionado of the Noir genre or a Coen Brothers fan boy, this is a well crafted film that is in the upper echelons of their film making career.