ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Ethan Coen

Blood Simple (1984) Criterion Collection: Light & Sound #TBT

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Back in 1984, director brother Joel and Ethan Coen teamed with first-time cinematographer Barry Sonnefeld to deliver their first feature film,?Blood Simple. They would go on to work together again on Raising Arizona and?Miller’s Crossing, but their combined filmography includes?O Brother, Where Art Thou?,?No Country For Old Men,?Men in Black, Fargo,?Get Shorty, and a host of other well-known hits. Today, thanks to the Criterion Collection, you can watch their breakthrough noir thriller and hear them pick it apart shot by shot, lighting choice by lighting choice, sound by sound.

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The plot revolves around the affair of Abby (Frances McDormand, and Joel’s real-life wife) and Ray (Joe Getz), who anger Abby’s jealous husband, Marty (Dan Hedaya). Marty then hires the morality-free Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh), and all hell slowly breaks loose as double-crosses and unintended violence color the Coens’ most colorful neon film. But there are no good guys here – only broken vows of all shapes and sizes.

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While the Criterion Collection includes a look at the moody music of Carter Burwell, and an essay by Nathaniel Rich, the best feature provided to fans of the film, the Coens, and cinematography in general is the commentary provided by Sonnefeld and the Coens. Here, the three men – who obviously admire each other – gamely pick their first film apart. [For the record, have you checked out your first anything? Poem, sermon, art project, sound recording? It can be a truly miserable experience!] But from the very get go, when they dive into the way that they used three different cars to shoot one scene from the film, they are self-deprecating and insightful.

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The three of these men talk about decisions made in wardrobe, location, light, casting, crew, and more throughout the film, with telestrators to draw our eyes to things they liked … or didn’t like. While the film itself is dark and foreboding, the relaxed nature of the conversations is hilarious at times, as they pick at themselves and each other. It underlies the hard work of filmmakers to produce the 90 to 120 minutes we devour easily, like a good meal cooked all day can be inhaled in a matter of minutes.

While there are things to learn about Sonnenfeld and the Coens, some of my favorite thoughts included:

bloodsimple6-Sonnenfeld’s insistence on not worrying where the light should be coming from but what part of a face or scene he wanted to highlight.

-The Coens’ reflection on other films that influenced them, like?Mad Max?or?The Evil Dead.

-Sonnenfeld’s recollection that Kathryn Bigelow wanted him to shoot?Near Dark?based solely on a shoot-out scene in?Blood Simple.

-That they chose short people to throw trash into a dumpster in one scene because they couldn’t find a bigger dumpster and wanted to give the impression that it was larger.

Seriously, who thinks of this stuff? Directors. And thanks to the Criterion Collection, we get to hear directly from some of the best.

Hail, Caesar – Golden Days of Hollywood a la Coen Brothers

?Would that it were so simple.?

The Coen Brothers? Hail, Caesar is an entertaining look at the old Hollywood Studio System with a load of insider references. (I would love to have a Cliff Notes type of resource to identify all those references.) But like nearly all of their films there is more here than just the good time we have watching it.

Set in the 1951 at Capitol Pictures (the same fictitious studio as in their film Barton Fink), the film spends a day following Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), the studio head, as he spends his days and nights dealing with one problem after another: a starlet being taken advantage of by a photographer, the choreograph film extravaganza star (Scarlett Johansson) is pregnant but unmarried, rival twin gossip columnists (Tilda Swinton) out for a scoop, a singing cowboy (Alden Erhenreich) who has been pushed into a high society role under an acclaimed director (Ralph Fiennes), and the kidnapping of the star (George Clooney) of a biblical epic (from which the film gets its title) that is nearly done filming. All of this gives the film a chance to look at the various film genres of the day. If you?ve wondered how the Coen Brothers would have made a Gene Kelly dance film or an Esther Williams swimming number, you get a glimpse in Hail, Caesar.

Because Mannix is so good at solving the never ending stream of problems, he is being recruited by Lockheed Corporation. They offer him more money, better hours (he never seems to sleep, and only gets a few moments with his family), he would be working for national security rather than dealing with the crazy Hollywood scene. It seems like a no-brainer, but he is hesitant. A clue as to his reasons might be seen in the way the film is bookended by two trips to confession. This is a daily occurrence for Mannix where he confesses minor sins (like lying to his wife about quitting smoking). He is trying to be a good person, even though he may be skirting some of the morality of the day. When he seeks the priest?s advice about changing jobs, the advice the priest gives him is ?God wants us to do what?s right.?

That is very close to the essence of many of the Coen Brothers? films: what does it mean to be a good person. Among their earlier films that look at that question are Raising Arizona; Fargo; The Hudsucker Proxy; O Brother, Where Art Thou; The Man Who Wasn?t There, and A Serious Man. In these films people do things that may or may not be good. It always seems to come down to that advice from the priest of doing what is right. That is the issue that Mannix faces in everything he does. It is then up to us to decide if he succeeds in being the kind a man he wants to be.