event Joel And Ethan Coen: Raising Cain: Blood Simple

The Coen Brothers’ 1984 debut feature Blood Simple still stands as a high watermark in American independent cinema, a brilliantly plotted and scabrously funny thriller that tweaked the noir genre for a more knowing modern sensibility. With few characters and limited means, the Coens crafted a model of low-budget efficiency and ingenuity, but what makes Blood Simple so enduring is how it mingles the messy business of crime with ordinary, desperate people who don't have a knack for it. The premise—about a  bar owner (Dan Hedaya) whose bored wife (Frances McDormand) is having an affair with one of his employees (John Getz)—is lifted from the most elementary of noir novels, James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. An opening night reception for the Walker's Coen Brothers retrospective Raising Cain will be held after this screening.

The Coen Brothers’ 1984 debut feature Blood Simple still stands as a high watermark in American independent cinema, a brilliantly plotted and scabrously funny thriller that tweaked the noir genre for a more knowing modern sensibility. With few characters and limited means, the Coens crafted a model of low-budget efficiency and ingenuity, but what makes Blood Simple so enduring is how it mingles the messy business of crime with ordinary, desperate people who don't have a knack for it. The premise—about a  bar owner (Dan Hedaya) whose bored wife (Frances McDormand) is having an affair with one of his employees (John Getz)—is lifted from the most elementary of noir novels, James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. An opening night reception for the Walker's Coen Brothers retrospective Raising Cain will be held after this screening.