outline for presentation " Blood Simple"

Outline for the Presentation  (100 Points)

Blood Simple

I.                    Introduce your film and provide the premise of the film in three sentences or fewer.

a.       Blood Simple is a story of adulterous actions Between Abby, Marty’s wife, and the bartender Ray.  Marty is the typical jealous husband that hires a private investigator named Visser.  This is a love triangle story that ends wrong.  And three people end up dead and the only one that survives is Abby.

II.            Characteristics and Conventions of the Film that Link it to Classic Film Noir

1.      Narration

a.       At opening of the movie starts with a narration, which give the best representation of film Noir.  It gives the audience s sense of anxiety because they don’t know what to expect from the film due to Visser’s words which express how it does not matter how important you are you will never guess the person who will stab you in the back.

2.       Ambiguous protagonist

a.       Ray represents the ambiguous  protagonist, because he tends to be a simple normal bartender but the love for Abby drags him to the bad side.  He thinks Abby killed her husband so when he finds Marty shot he hides evidence.  He finds out that Marty was not dead so he takes him to the fields in Texas and buries him alive.   

3.       Visual elements

a.       Visual elements from classic noir are shown in the film. Many of the scenes when murder , or something bad is going to happen, it will take place in the night time. These scenes gives anxiety and mistrust.

II.                  Elements of the Film that Deviate from Classic Film Noir and Link it to Neo Noir

                                                               i.      Neo- Noir

1.       Noir has changes throughout the years. The genre is now considered Neo- Noir, it has taken the characteristics to a new level theirs more graphic violence, sex, murder.

1.       Intermixing of races

a.       The Neo- noir introduce a new element which is the introduction of different races, they don’t only show the white people.  The introduction of different races shows the audience the anxieties of this time. And before when only whites appeared in the film, that showed only the anxiety’s they had.

2.      Crucial graphics

a.       The classic Noir film did not show graphic murders but the new and improved Neo-noir do.The film involves violence and murder.  Visser Shoots Ray from another building : this scene shows all the blood flowing from Rays back and how it goes through his chest.  This was a very graphic murder.

3.      Double Crosses

a.      Double indemnity has double cross that gives the noir and neo noir feeling due to anxiety and mystery, that Abby thinks that the husband is fallowing them, but that does not stop them from having their affair, they go to a hotel and have sex.  

Quotes from Outside Sources (These may be inserted anywhere in the outline)

Source One:

Context:  Provide a signal phrase that includes the title of the source and the author:	Quote from the Source: Be sure to include the page number	Significance: How does this quote relate to the topic of your essay?
The movie “Blood Simple” opens with a narration from Visser.	“ The world is full of Complainers, and the fact is, nothing comes with a guarantee.  Now I don’t care if you’re the pope of Rome, president of the united states or man of the year something can all go wrong… what I know about Texas, and down here, you’re on your won”.	This quote gives the film the classic noir feeling because it starts with a flashback.  But not only that but its gives the audience anxiety because the way he expresses his words that does not matter how important a person is you will never guess who will stab you in the back.

Source Two:

Context: Provide a signal phrase that includes the title of the source and the author:	Quote from the Source: Be sure to include the page number	Significance: How does this quote relate to the topic of your essay?
According to Matt Murray	““Blood Simple” is classified as a mystery.  But for a few scattered counterexamples, the plot machinations are always known to the audience. Not mystery, but misunderstandings”	This demonstrated that the twists and turns.  The audience has an idea whats happening, but don’t know who to expect it from.  The characters get trapped in personal desertion.  They have helplessness understanding of who did what .

Annotated Bibliography

Bakan, Micheal B. "The Abduction of the Signifying Monkey Chant:
Schizophonic Transmogrification of Balinese Kecak in             Fellini's Satyricon and the Coen Brothers" Blood Simple". Ethnomusicology Forum 18.1 (2009): 83-106. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO.web. 30. Apr. 2011.

In the article "The Abduction of the Signifying Monkey Chant: Schizophonic

Transmogrification of Balinese Kecak in Fellini's Satyricon and the Coen Brothers" BloodSimple". by Micheal B. Bakan examines different musical aspects of the film "Blood Simple" . "Balinese kecak performances in two landmark films, Federico Fellini satyricon (1969). and Joel and Ethan Coen's Blood Simple (1984)"(84).  The musical, or sound affects of the movie blood simple, the audio affects are used to give the audience a sensational feeling of the scene.  Micheal mentions " Joel and Ethan Coen's dark, psychological murder- and revenge drama blood simple is relatively sparse heard in just two scenes and for only about a minute in each but its impact on the film is profound nonetheless" (96).    in the article Micheal B Bakan also mentions the features of the film and about the love triangle between Abby, Ray, and Marty.  "Blood Simple was the first features film made by the coen brothers whose more recent efforts have included no c country for old men, winner of the Oscar for Best picture at the 2007 acadamy awards. blood simple is a sinister and macabre Texas tale of an adulterous wife Abby her lover Ray, and husband Marty.  a psychopathic private investigator cum hit cum cold - blooded murder, Visser, who ultimately is reveled to be bet on the destruction of all three members of this severely dysfunctional love triangle" (96).

Corliss, Richard. "Joel and Ethan Coen. (cover story)". Time 171.19 

     (2008):101. Academic search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 1 May 2011.

In the article of "Joel and Ethan Coen" focus primarily on Independent film makers and Academy awards (Motion Picture) by Corliss, Richard.  Joel and Ethan Coen made the Time,  They were able to win three Oscars due to their great films.  " Their appearance to the Oscars, to pick up statuettes for best picture, direction and adapted screenplay...( Richard). Richard Corliss also examines about their film Blood Simple .  "Blood Simple" in 1984, they've lent their acute camera skill to tales of murder kidnapping and other crimes of the heart, perpetrated by lost souls as funny as they are desperate" This passage demonstrates how the Coen brothers develop their new and improved camera skills in their films.  their film Blood Simple involves murder, kidnapping and much more crimes.  Blood Simple was the Coean brothers first filmed they developed and it had much success.

Lee, Chris. "Zhang Yimou remakes the Coen brothers' 'Blood Simple'".  
       Los Angeles Time. web. 1 May 2011.

The article "Zhang Yimou remakes the Coen brothers' " Blood Simple" written by Chris Lee talks about how the film "Blood Simple" made by The Coen brother was a multiple Oscar nominee, and Zhang Yimou wanted to remake a movie but he was not sure what movie to pick.  he ended up choosing the movie Blood simple from the Coen brother.  The movie has a very interesting plot. this movie includes a double crossed and misunderstanding. Chris Lee mentions "the film  situates "Blood Simple" Double-crosses and misunderstandings, grand mal scheming and thivery, in desolate Gansu province, somewhere between the Great wall of china and the silk road, during the late ming gynasty of the 17th century" (1). This article also mentions about the the different lightnings of the film " as well, where "Blood Simple" exist almost as a formal exercise in the cinematic usage of darkness, shadow and light, color fairly explodes from the screen in " A Woman, A Gun" and with several of china's most beloved comedian in prominent roles, it is also shot through with a goofy brand of Peking opera inspired comedy that has proved somewhat baffling to many non Chinese viewers.

Snee, Brian j. " Soft- Boiled cinema: Joel and Ethan Coen's Neo- Classical neo- noirs"  film quarterly  37.3 (2009): 212-223. Academic search premier. EBSCO. wed. 30 Apr. 2011.

The Article " Soft- Boiled cinema; Joel and Ethan Coens' Neo- classical neo- noirs" gives back ground information about the film Blood Simple.  it gives characteristics of noir and neo noir "the cinematic roots of fim noir are found in the radition of Hollywood gangster films, German expressionist films, and french poetic realist films among others"(215). and how the film has developed throughout the years.  The article also talks about the different scenes in the film and how they relate to neo- classical. the scene were the detective kills Marty is a neo- classical because it represents the tendency so it can remind the audience the impresion of being perceived or generated by consciousness. 

Klawans, Stuart. " Blood Simple" Nation 280.5 (2005): 34-36 Academic search premier. EBSCO. web. 1 may 2011.


The article "Blood Simple" written by Klawans Stuart focus on motion picture and a documentary Film.  this article docent focus on the movie " Blood Simple" specifically but it gives detailed description of the different motion picture used in the different neo noir films. Klawans Stuart mentions " He noted, for example that these so called action pictures often showed little more than viwers of men standing around on a sidewalk, waiting for something to happen. the something, when it came, was often an inventive way to torture human flesh" (34).  

Neo-Noir Movie

Trying to find a movie was hard but I finally decided to write about Blood Simple. Blood simple is a film from 1984. This film was directed and produced by Joel Coen, and Ethan Coen.  The movie has two films the first one that was released and the second is the director’s cut.  The director’s cut is digitally enhanced and boring parts were taken off the film.  This movie has very good ratings.  This film has an interesting twisted Plot that makes it seem confusing at the beginning.  Marty is the Husband that contracted a private investigator to fallow his wife, he wants to find out if she is cheating on him.  He asks the private investigator to do an illegal job for him and he will pay him 10,000 to kill them.  They set their plans and the investigator tells him to go fishing so he can be seen by people. At this point the private investigator gives the audience a suspicious feeling about him.  Well it turns out that he just played with Marty he didn’t kill them he took the money and killed Marty.  This film has the Neo-noir and classic noir feeling to it because it involves the detective the Femme fatale that is cheating on the husband, sex, manipulations, bad language, and of course murders.  The title of the movie reveals what happens throughout the film, it involves a lot of blood.

 

Work cited   

Bakan, Michael B. "The Abduction of the Signifying Monkey Chant: Schizophonic

         Transmogrifications of Balinese Kecak in Fellini's Satyricon and the Coen

                        Brothers' Blood Simple." Ethnomusicology Forum 18.1 (2009): 83-106. AcademiSearch Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30 Apr. 2011.

Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style; 1992, Woodstock : Overlook (3rd

            edition).  Edited by: Silver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth. Document Type: book; (AN

            BGJCBAGAD) [Citation Record]Database: EBSCO

  Rotten Tomatoes.http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blood_simple/

Schwartz Ronald. " Neo-noir: The new film noir styles from pshycho to collateral". Scarecrow

            Press 2005.Print. 

Snee, Brian J. "Soft-Boiled Cinema: Joel and Ethan Coens' Neo-Classical Neo-Noirs." Literature

                Film Quarterly 37.3 (2009): 212-223. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30

               Apr. 2011.

"Gold Coast"

         Out of the four stories from "The Gold Coast Section" The Story that gave me the feel of the best example of noir Is The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones.  This story has all the elements of a film noir because it involves a Femme Fatale, Protagonist, Murder, and Drugs. Cheri the crazy woman that tries to get Tate involve with the murder of Gary.  "" He's not long for this world anyways.  Just help me get rid of him, someplace where nobody'll find him for a long time"( 295 ).  This passage Shows how Cheri  is  being a desperate woman  ordering Tate to help her get rid of the evidence of Gary.   Cheri is all concern about is her becoming famous someday that’s all she is thinking at these moments.  Tate is a scared man she has no clue what to do if to help Cheri or to follow his instincts and call 911. “ My engine is still running when I make the call 911, and I can here a siren coming from the south” (297 ). Tate scared and escaping the crazy woman from that house, were their laid a man that had got killed, multitasking calling for help and driving away from that woman that was shooting at him.  Tate made a good decision because he didn’t fall for the trap of the femme fatale and he escaped the problem and called the police and reported Cheri.  This was much different from the other men in the previous stories, But at the end he is still the classic Protagonist because after what Cheri did  at the end all he could think of " how pretty she still looks"(298).
  The story that I didn’t really feel like it had a noir felling was Kinship This story pretty much just talked about his life and the thing he went through as a teen.  Pretty much the only relation that I saw that this story had a relationship with noir was that it talked about gags and pretty much they just wanted to get revenge from the bully . I really liked the story The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones pretty much the stories that involve  crazy women are very interesting to read.

The two protagonists

Both of the stories were okay I didn’t really like them but they were somewhat understandable. For blog entry nine I am choosing to write about option one. To my understanding these characters didn’t really have much similarity, the only thing that they both had in common was that they both got themselves into trouble and both stories had a kidnapping involved. For no reason. The story The Kidnapper Bell at the beginning I was able to understand everything that was going on, but once it got to the part were Jim goes with the girl to the river and finds a man just laying their dead, then all of a sudden that he can’t find the bell, that got me confused for some reason, well anyways Jim is a cheater. Jim has he his wife but yet wants to get laid by the other girl, for wanting that girl the only thing the he gets is getting into a situation that he has no part into, his girlfriend asks for his help because he kills the man that hurt her sister. Jim plays the role of a detective to find the missing pieces of what was happening,  he figures everything out and he is able to find the sister, he returns to his wife pretending like nothing happened wearing the dead’s man clothes.

The story City of Commerce was the one I liked out of the two it was understandable from start to finish. Nick got himself in trouble for not listening to his girlfriend, he still made the decision to go gambling. He gets into a situation with the Russian guys because Nick is a good poker player and the Russian guy doesn’t like to lose, well the Russian guy end up kidnapping Nick because he wants to get his money back. He gets lucky and he is able to escape those mean guys and what he thinks about his how much money he can make by playing poker.

The method

For Blog entry eight I chose to write about option three. If I had to recommend a story from "The Method" and "Morocco Junction 90210" I would chose "The Method". The reason why I would recommend “ The Method” is because the plot was more interesting.  At the beginning when I started reading I was a bit confused but as I continued to read then I stared to understand it way better the story was explainable and gave detail were it took place,  the only down side of “The Method” is that the author used to much foul language and to much sex talk in my opinion I really don’t like those types of stories theirs TMI, but other then that the story was good. Like at the beginning of the story Richard played as a mysterious guy with Holly. But even though she fell for an older man she was still smart not to trust Richard and she figured it all out and instead of Killing Mariah the innocent women that didn’t do anything wrong, she kills the selfish man, that cant do his own things for him self and uses a girl to do his dirty work . The more exiting part of the story was how things ended up   with Richard. He was killed with rat poison. He died as a rat that he was. “Morocco Junction 90210” was a good story also but to me it was a bit boring.  Not a lot was going on not that interesting.

Los Angeles Noir

For Blog entry seven I chose to write about option two. The story Midnight Sillicon Alley took place in San Marino. In Midnight Sillicon Alley.  In this story the people that are being illustrated are wealthy. I got this impression because in the beginning of the story they talk about the car they are driving. " They caught up with Russell Chen as he drove home from work, running his Lexus off the frontage road by the gravel pits of Irwindale ( Hamilton 85).  Wow they have good cars in this stories.The story Dangerous Days takes place in Leimert Parks. This story is the total opposite from Midnight Sillicon Alley because the people in this story are not so wealthy they live in a different environment theirs more of gangs , and betrayal. Both of these stories bring back the film noir feel because both of the stories involve a murder, they talk about the dark places and the betrayal between one another. both of these stories were interesting to read and how they change the characteristics and bring back some characteristics  of film noir. kinda looking forward on reading more stories from Los Angeles noir.