Cult Classics: Blood Simple (Directors Cut)

The Coen Brothers’ grimly comic debut feature follows a double-crossing Texas detective

Arc Cinema

8:00PM

$19.50 Full / $16.50 Concession (+$1.50 booking fee)

26 June, 2026

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Cult Classics: Blood Simple (Directors Cut) 26 June, 2026

1984 | R18+ | 4K DCP | USA | D: Joel and Ethan Coen

The NFSA presents a series of irreverent, Friday night filmic feasts, curated and hosted by drag artist and culture warrior Venus Mantrap.   

Cult Classics with Venus Mantrap dives into the world of sharp, edgy films and beloved fan favourites. Each event features a pre-screening live performance by Venus in our beautiful art deco Arc Cinema.

Our Cult Classics screenings are often interactive and always full of laughs and surprises. Leave your serious side at home and enjoy a movie night with a twist. And probably a shimmy.

Abby (Frances McDormand) is married to a menacing Texas bar owner Julian (Dan Hedaya) but has fallen in love with the barman (John Getz). When Julian hires a private detective (M Emmet Walsh) to intervene, suspicion, misunderstanding and paranoia take over.

Guns, bodies, betrayal and Stetsons combine in the dark modern noir that announced the singular talent of Joel and Ethan Coen.

‘As black, sinful and nasty as a weekful of Hitchcocks, this is as fresh and intoxicating now as it was back then. In a word: deadly.’ – Empire

Includes pre-screening introduction and live performance by Venus Mantrap.

Coming up in Cult Classics: Scanners, Body Double, Strange Days, The Lair of the White Worm, Death Becomes Her, and Showgirls.

Arc Cinema

We are situated in the heart of Canberra on McCoy Circuit, Acton, between the shores of Lake Burley Griffin and the grounds of the Australian National University. Just a 10-minute walk from the city and state bus interchanges.

1 McCoy Circuit, Acton, ACT 2601

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