FILM SCREENINGS

Blood Simple

1984. USA. Directed by Joel Coen. Screenplay by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. Music by Carter Burwell. Cinematography by Barry Sonnenfeld. Editing by Roderick Jaynes, Don Wiegmann. Casting by Julie Hughes, Barry Moss. Production design by Jane Musky. Costume design by Sara Medina-Pape. Sound editing by Skip Lievsay. With Frances McDormand, John Getz, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmett Walsh. Nothing is simple in the Coen brothers' bloody debut. A cuckolded husband, cajoled by a slimy private investigator, enters into a plot to off his cheating wife and her lover—but the dead never really stay dead. On their first feature film, the Coens worked with McDormand, Burwell, Sonnenfeld, and Lievsay, who would all go on to become members of their core collaborative team. 99 min.