The Coen Brothers' debut returns to screens in October.
Joel and Ethan Coen announced themselves as a cinematic force with their rarely bettered 1984 debut, the neo-noir Blood Simple. Now a director's cut of the film has been given a Coens approved 4K restoration for an October release in the UK.
The Coens' thriller will play in cinemas October 6th, followed by a DVD, blu-ray and EST release on October 30th. A special preview screening will be held at the BFI Southbank September 29th.
Special features announced for the DVD/blu-ray release include interviews with Joel and Ethan Coen, and actors M Emmett Walsh, Frances McDormand and John Getz.
A stylish official poster for the rerelease has arrived...
The official synopsis reads:
A stylish, imaginative and hard-boiled neo noir, Blood Simple announced the Coens as vital and distinctive new cinematic voices on its release three decades ago. Possessing all the characteristics that propelled the Coens to later success – razor sharp dialogue; a predilection for lethal and futile violence; ironic, fatalistic humour; and an inventive focus on the tragicomic lives of idiosyncratic misfits.
M. Emmett Walsh is sleazy Texas private eye Visser, hired by bar owner Marty (Dan Hedaya) to kill his unfaithful wife (Frances McDormand) and her lover (John Getz). Given a plan to work from, he decides to modify it without warning; and matters quickly spiral out of control.
Beautifully shot and performed and with a haunting score by the Coens’ long-time collaborator Carter Burwell, it’s a landmark film, a trailblazing, near virtuosic debut which reinvented the noir for a new generation and marked the arrival of two filmmakers who would go on to revolutionise the American indie cinema scene.