‘Simple’: Nothing Simplistic

“Blood Simple,” the title of the Coen brothers’ first movie, is criminal slang that loosely tries to interpret what happens to some people when they get too familiar with murder.

To explain it simply, the sight of blood makes them stupid. Their brains fuzz up, and their will turns to mud. When it comes to killing, the phrase implies, amateurs need not apply.

That’s pretty much the condition that befalls the already dim hero, a bartender played by John Getz, of the Coens’ (Joel directs, Ethan produces) 1984 picture, which continues UC Irvine’s “Global Fishbowl” series Friday night.

He didn’t plan to get his hands bloody, but you know how things happen with film noir. One moment you’re sleeping with someone’s wife, the next you’re shooting at shadows that may or may not be hazardous to your health.

The bartender gets into trouble the way most losers in crime flicks do: He takes a wrong step (affairs always seem to be a bad idea) and then finds nasty things happening out of his control. Slipping into the bed of the wife (Frances McDormand) of a jealous bar owner (Dan Hedaya) is only his first mistake.

The errors pile up after the husband hires a seedy private detective (M. Emmet Walsh) to murder them both, but he has his own creepy agenda. When the bar owner is apparently killed, forcing the bartender to get involved, those left standing must deal with each other, often in decidedly unpleasant ways. That’s enough of the corkscrew plot, which was co-written by the Coens.

“Blood Simple” isn’t the most graceful film noir when it comes to story line--coincidence plays a huge role, and a few scenes feel diagramed, not inspired--but the stylistic flourishes always lift it above the usual.

“Blood Simple” is funny, too. In fact, the film’s finest accomplishment may be in turning a small Texas world of bad guys into a drawling black humoresque. The Coens, at the top of their form, have an agile way with deadpan dialogue and a knack for giving their characters personalities sunstruck by the glare of idiosyncrasy. Walsh’s investigator, for instance, is a vividly soiled bundle of evil who works out of a faded Volkswagen bug.

But those familiar with the Coens’ later pictures should know that “Blood Simple” is more controlled and less antic than “Raising Arizona” or “The Hudsucker Proxy.” The brothers were outsiders with their first film and didn’t have much money (a reported budget of less than $1.5 million) to work with. Their economy made them economical, something that doesn’t much describe their more expensive later efforts.

In their recent movies (the dully self-conscious gangster flick “Miller’s Crossing” excepted), the Coens move the camera all over the place, trying to create energy through jump-starts and goofy angles. But in “Blood Simple,” cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld holds the lens relatively still, focused on mundane yet atypical places, and lets the deliberate action develop from there.

The technique makes for some surprising passages, such as when the bartender trucks the husband’s body to an oddly lit field; it’s strange, like the surface of the moon. Then there’s a much later scene, when a character dies staring upward from the floor of a bathroom. What a way to go, being watched over by a toilet and a dripping faucet.

* What: Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Blood Simple.”

* When: Friday, Feb. 3, at 7 and 9 p.m.

* Where: The UC Irvine Student Center Crystal Cove Auditorium.

* Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to Jamboree Road and head south to Campus Drive and take a left. Turn right on Bridge Road and take it into the campus.

* Wherewithal: $2 to $4.

* Where to call: (714) 824-5588.

MORE SPECIAL SCREENINGS

African American Artists

(NR) A work highlighting the accomplishments and contributions of African American artists through two centuries of American history. Screens today at 7:30 p.m. at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. Part of the museum’s celebration of Black History Month. Included with museum admission, $1.50 to $4.50. (714) 567-3600.

Yoruba Art and Culture

(NR) Three short films about sacrificial ceremonies, initiations, culture and art of the Yoruba tribe of Africa screens Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art as part of the museum’s celebration of Black History Month. Included with museum admission, $1.50 to $4.50.

Sammy and Rosie . . .

(NR) A British couple’s lives are disrupted when the man’s reactionary father returns from India and objects to his son’s sexually open lifestyle. The film, directed by Stephen Frears in 1987, screens Feb. 10 at 7 and 9 p.m. in the Student Center Crystal Cove Auditorium at UC Irvine, Campus Drive at Bridge Road, Irvine. Part of the UCI Film Society’s “Global Fishbowl” series. $2 to $4. (714) 824-5588.