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At The Movies

saloon owner's young wife (Frances
McDormand, now Joel Coen's real-life
spouse) and her bartender lover (John
Getz). Instead he pockets the money,
shoots the bar owner and follows the
two lovers. From there the plot twists
and turns in typical Coens fashion.
Originally released in theaters in
1985, Blood Simple was named one of
toon
characters.
NAOMI PFEFFERMAN
the year's ten best films by, among oth-
Though Joel is credited as director,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
ers, the National Board of Review, USA
and Ethan as producer, their work is
Today, Time and the Washington Post.
so enmeshed that even the actors can't
oel and Ethan Coen, the
The irreverent Coen brothers are
say who did what. It's been said that a
quirky auteurs of Fargo,
notorious
among journalists for
typical
exchange
after
a
take
involves
Raising Arizona and The Big
refusing
to
answer questions, but
Ethan
saying,
"Joel,"
to
which
his
Lebowski, are groaning.
they
perked
up during a recent
brother
replies,
"Yeah,
Ethan,
I
know.
They are recalling a recent viewing
interview
when
asked about the pre-
I'll
tell
them."
of their first feature film, Blood Simple
ponderance of unusual Jewish char-
Their
odd,
distanced,
outsider's
(1984), a stylish, noir-ish tale of mur-
acters in their films.
view apparently comes from growing
der in Texas, the newly restored ver-
There is Bernie (John Turturro),
up Jewish, with Orthodox grandpar-
sion of which opens exclusively today
the
Jewish homosexual con-man from
ents, in the icy American heartland,
at the Detroit Film Theatre.
Miller's
Crossing, the Clifford Odets-
which is depicted in the Oscar-win-
"We cringed through the whole
like
playwright
(also Turturro) who is
as
a
flat,
frozen
wasteland,
Fargo
ning
movie: admits-Joel, the elder brother,
afflicted with writer's block in Barton
Fink; and Walter Sobchak (John
Joel Coen and
Goodman), the crazed Vietnam veter-
Ethan Coen:
an of The Big Lebowski, who insists he
Their odd,
cannot do this or that because he is
distanced,
shomer
Shabbos.
outsider's view
Joel says the idea for Sobchak
apparently
began as he was thinking about his
comes from
Orthodox grandparents and about an
growing up
Jewish, with
observant actress who once asked him
Orthodox
if she would find work in the theater
grandparents,
if she could not perform on Friday
in Minnesota.
nights.
"We wanted to explore the idea of
someone in modern society who
cleaves to all those rules," Joel says.
"The whole idea of this loose-cannon,
gasbag Vietnam vet" proclaiming to be
religious was rather funny and ironic,
occasionally
broken
by
a
tacky
pan-
who is tall, thin, with tousled long
Ethan suggests.
cake house or a motel.
hair and a scraggly goatee. "It was a
As for Barton Fink, the brothers
Everything
about
life
in
the
suburbs
bizarre and interesting exercise," adds
began
the script as an antidote to their
outside Minneapolis was banal, they
Ethan, who has freckles, round specta-
own
writers'
block: While in the mid-
insist; the brothers, whose parents
cles and a closely clipped red beard.
Miller's Crossing, in
dle
of
penning
were
university
professors,
amused
When an impending DVD release
1990,
they
could
not finish the script.
themselves
by
making
Super-8
films
or
led to the new director's cut of Blood
-Instead,
they
paced,
chain-smoked,
watching
kitschy
programs
on
TV.
Simple not long ago, the unconven-
telephoned
friends,
but
nothing
While
their
sister
went
off
to
tional Coens did exactly the opposite
seemed
to
help.
So
they
simply started
become
a
physician
in
Israel,
they
of what one might expect: They made
another
screenplay.
"[It]
washed out
escaped to New York. Joel, who stud-
the movie shorter.
our
brain
and
we
were
able
to go back
ied film at New York University, and
"We cut out all the boring parts,"
Joel
told
Miller's
Crossing,
and
finish
Ethan, a philosophy major at
they say, in stereo, with twin shrugs.
New
York
Times.
the
Princeton,
worked
odd
jobs,
bummed
They also did some re-editing, re-
money from friends and scraped
mixed the sound and added some
together the funds, in dribs and drabs,
music they couldn't afford when they
to complete Blood Simple. (One of
were just a couple of tenacious Jewish
Blood Simple, rated R, opens
Joel's
first jobs out of film school was
their
kids from Minneapolis shlepping
exclusively this weekend at the
assistant director on low-budget hor-
first film around to festivals - in order
Detroit Film Theatre at the
ror films, including Detroit-area native
to find a distributor.
Detroit Institute if Arts. It will
Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead.)
Blood Simple put the brothers on •
be screened 7 and 9:30 p.m.
A crime thriller, Blood Simple
the map (Ethan quit his job as a statis-
Friday and Saturday and 1, 4
begins deep in the heart of Texas,
tical typist at Macy's), and the Coens
7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4-6.
and
where a jealous saloon owner (Dan
went on to write, produce and direct a
$6.
(313)
833-3237.
Hedaya) hires a cheap divorce detec-
series of off-center, ironic, unsettling
tive (M. Emmet Walsh) to kill the
fables peopled with vividly drawn car-

The `Simple' Truth
Out-w i th a director's cut of "Blood Simple," the Coen
brothers still see the world through a shared lens.

IT

❑