From 32 years ago, a movie set 32 years prior.
Angel Heart (1987) stars Mickey Rourke as New York gumshoe Harry Angel in the wild and wooly world of 1955. Tasked by enigmatic client Louis Cyphre (De Niro) to find once-famous crooner Johnny Favorite, Angel sniffs around the city until the trail he picks up leads him down to New Orleans.
There he seeks a Margaret Krusemark (Rampling) and meets beautiful young Evangeline Proudfoot (Bonet), whose mother, she recalls, once knew Johnny Favorite. Though Krusemark and Proudfoot move in different circles, they share a common interest in what Angel sees as voodoo mumbo jumbo. Oddly enough, everywhere he goes, people wind up dead. And the deeper Angel goes, the more Angel wants out.
Excellently shot, featuring standout performances, Angel Heart exudes black Gothic mystery. It's got sex, it's got sax, and it's jam-packed with violence back when Rourke first turned heads as an actor invoking comparisons with James Dean and Marlon Brando.
Rourke recently revealed that during shooting De Niro did not want to talk with or in any way associate with Rourke. Clearly this was simply partly of De Niro's professional process in preparation for the role, but not all actors appreciate this sort of thing, and Rourke seems to have taken offense at De Niro's method. Yet to watch the film, you'd never know it.
Hell of a story, too. Complete with original use of elements from Greek Tragedy.
Lisa Bonet has said that Bill Cosby--she played a daughter on his popular TV show at that time--was livid with rage with her for her part in the film, which includes a racy sex scene.
A Faustian tale draped in Spanish moss, and well worth tracking down.
ANGEL HEART
Starring Mickey Rourke,
Robert De Niro,
Lisa Bonet,
Charlotte Rampling,
Directed by Alan Parker
Written and directed by Alan Parker
Based on the novel by William Hjortsberg
Runtime 113 minutes
Stewart Kirby writes for
THE INDEPENDENT
No comments:
Post a Comment