Movie Magic

So I rented two movies (Chaplin and Blood Simple) this last week from Blockbuster because they're not available on Netflix.

I liked both, but the best part is the commentary from Kenneth Loring of Forever Young Film Preservation Society on Blood Simple. It is quite comical. He describes the different processes necessary to make "movie magic." For example, in the opening scene where the "agreeable fellow" and the lead actress are driving in a car, the crew had to film the scene upside down and backwards to get the lights of the oncoming traffic to synch properly. This of course required considerable amounts of hair gel so that the actors' tresses would not give the technique away. He also supplements a side story that was cut out of the original film because a producer named Adrian Butts is a moron. This story involves the P.I. having a Bulgarian father who was part of the revolution with flash backs to the boy in Eastern Bloc school rooms. I don't know who Kenneth Loring is, but he adds quite a bit to the Coen Brothers' first film.