Angel Heart

Plot synopsis:
Angel Heart (1987)An ominous street; midnight, a dark figure walks down an alley, past the sounds of anguish and moaning. A lone cat looks down from the fire escape, a street dog wanders the alley scrounging for food. The dog spots the cat and barks, giving chase only to stop briefly to lap up fresh blood pouring from the split chest of a homeless man.TitlesNew York, 1955, a man in a trench coach walks a street in Brooklyn, he smokes and greets various neighbours to the constant sound of a phone ringing.Harold Angel (Mickey Rourke), enters his office and answers the phone, he is a private investigator, and writes down details of the caller. An attorney, Mr. Winesap, introduces himself and sets up a meeting, with Luis Cyphre in Harlem.Angel arrives, and walks through an African-American neighbourhood, passing a group of mourners, and enters a building where an evangelist ceremony is being held in progress, the preacher motivates the congregation to donate generously, with the intention to upgrade his car. Harold watches cynically from the gallery above, and is joined by Herman Winesap, who introduces himself and leads him to meet the client. Angel follows him past a room where a maid is scrubbing a massive blood stain from the wall. "A suicide from one of their flock." Winesap introduces Angel to the client, Mr Luis Cyphre (Robert De Niro).Cyphre asks for identification. Fans spin. Cyphre takes his time checking the ID, but is satisfied. Angel inquires how they found him, Cyphre interrupts with a question "Do you know Johnny Favourite?" A singer.Angel explains he is a small timer on the job, Cyphre pays no attention, and continues to say Favourite's real name was Johnny Liebling. Winestead explains that Cyphre had a contract with him and that he had an accident and got amnesia. Cyphre cuts in and asks if Angel was in the war. Angel tells his story, yes he was, but came back prematurely a bit fucked up.Apparently Cyphre just wants to know if his client is alive or dead, and believes that they where deceived, and so they want Angel to "check it out". Cyphre thinks they have met before. Angel is certain they haven't.Angel drives away remembering the conversation points, whistling as he drives, he arrives at the hospital where the singer was supposed to have been. He presents an appropriate ID card, and enters to charm the receptionist, and despite her resistance she shows him the records regarding Jonathan Liebling. He chats casually with the receptionist, and discovers that he was transferred in 1943. He inspects the report, to notice that signature is in ball point, a Dr. Fouler. He observes that in 1943 they did not have ball point, and deducts it is a forgery. He asks about the doctor, only to be told that Dr. Fouler no longer works there.Angel leaves the hospital, drives to the city, and looks up the address of the doctor; goes to the house and breaks in through the back door. Inside the house he finds syringes, a revolver and a bible in a drawer, and drugs in the fridge. He waits in the dark, as the doctor arrives. The doc makes a bee-line for the fridge, and Angel interrupts him.They chat, and the doc does not call the police cause of the illegal substance in his house. Angel ask about Lieblin, and the doctor reveals very little, making excuses, and Angel exposes him. Angel gets rough. The doc says that some people took Leibler away. Angel get pissed off; he wants more details. He finds out that the people that took him went down south and paid him to maintain the pretense he was still at the hospital. Doc says his face was damaged and that he could not recognise him. Angel decides that cold turkey would refresh his memory. He locks him in his room.Angel leaves, passing a church as he walks through the snow. A strange voice calls out "Johnny" and he is lured into the church. Two nuns look up. He imagines a trellis elevator arriving and the doors opening. Angel spends his time in a diner smoking; the diner is empty. A piano plays an old song slowly and ominously. He finishes his coffee, returns to Dr. Fouler's apartment, and takes some morphine up to the doctor's room, unlocks the door to find the doctor violently murdered, shot in the eye. He lights a match on his shoe, sees the gun from the draw, and that the bible concealed bullets. He wipes the flat of prints, and leaves like a thief.The next day, Angel is in the hood and meets Ellie, leaving in a car. He flirts a little and goes to a restaurant to meet with Cyphre. The restaurant is empty. Cyphre does not look amused, he asks about Johnny, and he tells Cyphre that he walked out of the hospital with a girl named Kelly, and the rest of the story as related by the doctor. They chat as Cyphre eats an egg. Cyphre insists Angel find Johnny. Angel tells Cyphre about the doctor, and tries to leave the case, since now he is an accomplice to murder, he wants out. Cyphre ups the payment considerably, and Angel is interested.Cyphre eats the egg in an almost violent manner staring strangely at Angel, telling him in some cultures the egg is the symbol of the soul.Angel returns to the first church, and finds the blood smeared room clean, and also discovers a strange occult shrine. A street procession march, the preacher carried along surrounded by his congregation. Angel observes the shrine, concluding it is obviously occultic and deeply disturbing.When he leaves a single mourning woman dressed in black catches his attention, he approaches her, but is attacked from behind. He runs off and is chased into the back alley. He escapes by joining the street procession. The preacher is knocked from his suspended chair and crashes to the floor.Angel arrives at a bar to meet his secretary, who has some photos he needs to collect of Johnny. Later she tells him what she found. As they undress, she tells him where to find some key people: a rich woman, a jazz player and says that they were all involved in magic. The woman was known as the witch of Wellesley. Angel sarcastically summarises the case and has a flash memory of soldiers returning from war; a spiral staircase, and someone ascending; feet of a woman that sits down, and fans spinning.Angel, in his office, at night, listens to tape recorded facts, and adds more data about the doctor, and about how he tracked down Spider Simpson, and more info about the jazz player, Toots Sweet. Apparently Johnny had a black lover down south, that ran a magic store, and details about Madam Zorra, another person that he saw regularly.On the beach, a single man in a deck chair, Angel talks to this guy named Izzy, and asks after Madam Zorra, a friend of his wife; Angel asks about Johnny and is directed to his wife standing in the sea, but gives some more info about the crooner. Angel goes off to talk to the wife, more about Madam Zorra, she tells Angel that Johnny and she were very close, and that Margaret Krusemark was Madam Zorra, and that they went down south. She sings a tune of Favourites. Angel leaves her singing and thanks the man for the nose shield telling him he is headed for Louisiana.Angel arrives at the station, and is hot and sweaty. Street boys tap dance to a brass band, Angel has only a single suitcase, and in a hotel room, changes his shirt. The boys dance outside, as he walks around. Life is calm, and Angel takes a tram after spotting a woman board it. He watches her from behind, fascinated. She alights and he follows at a distance. He rings the bell to her apartment.Margaret Krusemark (Charlotte Rampling) greets him by name, he enters with an appointment. Her apartment is strangely decorated. She takes his details for a fortune reading, he plays with a curious artifact, a strange knife. When offered a drink he asks for tea, and the maid prepares it. Angel fiddles around as she questions him. He makes idle chitter chatter. The woman relieves the maid. He tries to smoke but she asks him not to. She asks for specific birth details. Angel gives her a birthdate, she notices that it is the same as a "friend" and he approaches the subject directly. He mentions Johnny Favourite, he tells her he is investigating, and she tells him he is dead, and tells him to leave. He persists. She throws him out. She reads his palm at the door, he notices her necklace, a pentacle.It is raining, when Angel arrives at a voodoo shop. He enters and it is full of strange shit. He asks about Evangeline Proudfoot (the other lover), he tries to get info about Proudfoot, and the store owner tells him where she lives. Angel buy some roots and leaves.Angel hires a car for a week, and drives through an outback landscape, this is the home of a poor community. Here he finds Proudfoot's grave. Behind the graveyard a baby cries, and a woman with a child arrives. Angel recedes into the shadows to watch the woman and changes offerings on the grave, then leaves with the her young son. Angel follows her home and watches from a distance. She washes her hair. She is a very beautiful young African-American woman.Angel approaches her, her child starts crying. Angel introduces himself, he wants to talk to the young woman's mother, the young woman's name being Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet). She tells him her mother is dead. He asks about Favourite and she knows nothing. Some chickens approach, and Angel is disturbed by them. He then asks about the musician, and Epiphany doesn't say anything. As Angel is about to leave, he gives Epiphany his number. He compliments her. There is chemistry. Angel leaves.Johnny visits a jazz bar. The bar is packed, and the patrons are enjoying the act. Toots Sweets (Brownie McGhee) is the musician. Angel enjoys the gig and at the break follows the singer to the bar. He schmoozes with him, and asks about Favourite. Toots cuts to the chase, and leaves for the toilet. He is not engaged at all. Angel follows him to the loo. Toots is not impressed, another man leaves and Toots is shocked by a chicken foot left on the sink, Angel grabs the claw and harasses him until a bouncer enters, seeing Angel intimidating Toots and throws him out the back door of the bar, into the trash.Angel waits in his car until Toots leaves, at the end of the night, and follows him into the countryside. It is very late at night. He then watches Toots join ritual dancing, as Angel watches from the bushes. He sees Epiphany dance, slit a chickens throat, and pour blood over herself, she is in a trance, and even drinks its blood. Angel hurries off.A fan spins slowly in a dark stairwell, Toots ascends the stairs, and at his doorway Angel grabs him but Toots fights back with a razor, and cuts Angel's hand. It gets rough until Angel dominates the old man. He threatens him and tells him he saw the ritual, Toots tells him Epiphany is a priestess. Angel asks what the chicken foot meant. It means Toots has a big mouth. Angel relaxes as he writes his telephone number on paper, which he stuffs in Toot's mouth before he leaves. Angel drops the razor as he descends the stairs.Johnny enters a dark room at the foot of an elevator, the mourning woman sits on a church bench, her back to him. He sees the razor on the floor, his cut hand bleeds profusely, his shirt is covered in blood, he approaches the woman, and as he touches her shoulder he is woken up by two local cops.They search his stuff, ask him questions and give him a hand written note that they found on the body of Toots sweet. They tell him that his dick was cut off and stuffed in his mouth. They interrogate Angel. He lies about what he is doing, and tells them to call Winesap. They tell him not to go away until they talk to the lawyer. It is Wednesday, "Anything Can Happen Day."Angel goes to a bar. A musician finishes playing, and pass his hat for tips. Angel goes to a phone booth and calls Margaret Krusack. In the booth mirror he sees scenes of an elevator, a post war celebration, a block of flats, more celebrating, a fan in an apartment block, celebrating and just as a soldier is about to turn around the jazz man interrupts asking for a donation. There is no answer to the phone call, Angel hangs up.He returns to Margaret's house, kids tap dance outside, a piano repeats a familiar tune. The door is unlocked, he enters and she is on the floor, with her chest cut wide open. He is revolted, and finds the knife he was fingering earlier. He searches through her stuff, and finds a mummified hand in a cardboard box on the dresser amoungst other vials and strange jewelry. The kid outside tap dances. He leaves that room to continue his search.The kid dances. Angel finds her severed heart, he gags. The kid stops dancing.Angel walks past a church and into the bar. A fans spins slowly, a piano plays a familiar tune.Local hillbilly people rejoice in a river at a baptism, they look inbred. Overhead Angel drives across the river, behind him a pickup truck follows. He notices and stops his car on the side of the road, the truck stops too. He approaches some fishermen. The men in the truck follow and unleash a dog, it attacks his leg. He fights it off, the men then attack him with a baseball bat, and tell him to leave immediately.An old school bus stops on a dusty road, engross alit, one being Epiphany, she finds Angel sitting on a box by the roadside, she asks and he tells her that he got bitten. He tells her he watched her ritual, it doesn't phase her. He tells her about Toots, she knows. He thinks she set him up. Turns out it was her that sent the chicken foot. She denies the setup and murder. She asks about Favourite, Angel counter questions and discovers Johnny Favourite was her father. She talks to a neighbour about keeping her child, then returns to tell him that Johnny never returned from the war and that her mom died waiting. Angel flirts with her. She brushes him off.In a dark-arched court yard of a residential hotel, Angel arrives and is given a message by the concierge. He walks past a young girl to ascend the stairs.A church choir sings, an alter boy prepares the bible. Angel enters and walks throughout the church to the back, to meet with Cyphre. They chat. He asks about the progress. Angel tells him that he found loads of stuff but still no favourite, and 3 murders: the Doctor, Toots and Margaret. He is freaked out by the weird religiocity going around. He tells him that Favourite was not liked. and that the police are investigating him. Cyphre asks about the last murder. Angel tells him about Margaret, and that he is fed up with the case, and all of the vagueness. And that he is getting setup by Johnny, who he thinks is killing all the people he once knew. Cyphre just wants the debt settled, and Angel is not having it. Cyphre offers more money, but Angel refuses, the stakes are getting too high. He wants out.He goes back to his room. It is raining heavily. Epiphany is sitting outside waiting. They have a drink. The apartment is leaking badly. Angel tells her that he thinks that Johnny was a creep. he ask more about him, she tells him that her mother thought Favourite was true evil and that he was a great lover. She was 17, Angel asks about the father of her son. They laugh about the state of the leaky room, she talks about witch craft, and getting pregnant. Then Epiphany puts on some music, and invites him to dance. He declines, only to revoke. He picks her up and they dance. She kisses him. They lay down. The rain pours. She straddles him. The rain gets harder. They make passionate love. They rain is pouring in the room, and the water turns red. She screams and it turns to blood. It gets very violent and intercut with ritual, elevator, widow. A fabrication. They orgasm. Angel immediately gets up and punches a shaving mirror.The cops return knocking. He exits in a towel. They are tracing the new death of Margaret. They are racist and state that Krusmark, comes from white family of money. Angel brushes them off. They want to know who he is seeking. He insults them. They get pissed off. The cops leave.He returns to his room, she is now in the bath singing the words to the familiar piano piece. He asks after the tune, "a tune by Favourite". She continues. Angel looks at himself in the broken mirror.He walks down the street, and sees the pickup trunk from before, is watching him. He quickly approaches, attacks the seated driver. The passenger runs off, Angel gives chase. The driver recovers and follows after them. Angel is lead into a stable. The passenger starts shooting. The horses go frantic, the driver sets a dog free, the dogs attacks only to be kicked by the horse, which then gets shot and falls on Angel. He is trapped but struggles free, he escapes by running through a chicken coup.A group of hicks gather skinning animals and commence to cock fighting. A rough horse race starts, someone points Angel to an elderly man. The mans asks what he wants. Angel knows that the two geezers are his men. The man tries to pay him off to reveal who Angel is working for. Angel tells him the facts he knows concerning his part in the release of Johnny Favourite, he is Margaret Krusemark's father (Stocker Fontelieu). The man gets nervous, they go into a kitchen, and have a drink where is it private. He confesses it was him that paid the doctor. He tells Angel that him and his daughter dropped Johnny in a crowd of people on new years eve. Angel fidgets with ice. The man tells Angel about Margaret's voodoo stuff and that he witnessed Favourite summon up Satan, he is a devoted satanist, and that says that Favourite sold his sold his soul to Satan for fame. Angel gets really mad, and starts yelling, "Who was the boy?" He tells him that Toots and Johnny took an innocent man, and conjured complex stuff, and then he ate his heart, to deceive the devil, it worked but Johnny was drafted. Angel runs into the toilet to vomit. Then looking at the mirror, has a flashback. The toilet door slams closed, and when Angel exits he finds the man face first in a cauldron of boiling soup. Angel takes off.Angel hastens back to his apartment, rushes upstairs, and enters searching frantically for something her father had mentioned, a vase. He ransacks the drawers, breaking and smashing everything. Finally he finds the vase, it contains army dog tags. The tags read "Harold Angel" Angel screams in disbelief. Pleading "I know who I am".Cyphre sits behind him smiling, in the apartment. Luis Cyphre is Lucifer. Angel tells him that he is not scared of him, and that he knows he is being set up, a frame. He did not kill anyone, he names the dead people. And Cyphre addresses him as Johnny, and contradicts saying that he DID kill them, and that he has been living on borrowed time. Angel threatens to call the lawyer, Cyphre smirks saying Winesap is already dead, Cyphre continues to say only the soul is important, and that his belongs to him. Cyphre picks up a record and a gun. He plays the record, takes the dog tags and leaves Angel to recall the details of how he murdered each of the people. He refuse to accept the truth. The last person that flashes before him is Epiphany. He runs off through the rain.He arrives at his own hotel room. A widower sits by his door, it is a man. The police are inside. Epiphany is dead, bleeding from the groin on his bed. The detective asks who she is, and why his dog tags are around her neck. Angel says that she is his daughter. The cop does not believe it. The other cops bring out his grandson from the joining room and tell him "You're gonna burn for this, Angel". He replies, "I know... In hell". The babies eyes glow orange as he points at Angel.Credit rollAn elevator's doors close and it descends. Details of the descent are intercut by credits. Angel dressed in a smart suit is the passenger. It finally stops at the bottom, deep below. The trellis doors slide open. A heartbeat goes silent.The end.

Tags: dark, mystery, neo noir, murder, paranormal, cult, violence, flashback

Review:
This unmatched sense of place is a symptom of his stark imagery and sombre lighting which is played out through an amalgamation of film noir and the focal iconography of 50s and 60s French New Wave (the use of elevators, ceiling fans, staircases etc).For many of these reasons and more Angel Heart is a very influential film and its inspirations can be seen in many of the psychological thrillers/horrors released in the past 20 years, it is thought provoking and at times a lot more disturbing than any of its genre equivalents.
The multi-faceted love scene in the film is one such example, it plays very well as it is cleverly interspersed with a host demonic echelons which (given its style and narrative position) I believe to be unparallelled, even in contemporary cinema.Overall Angel Heart is a very well paced and well acted film  although initially I felt that having Mickey Rourke in the lead role was a poor choice (based on his more recent work) but clearly he was at his acting best in his younger days almost Oscar-worthy, Robert De Niro is also on form as is the young Lisa Bonet  but these performances combined with everything else make Angel Heart a film that will stick with you, not as much as Midnight Express or Mississippi Burning (dir.
He has a real sense of place and time that's a key component to making the terror of this movie real.Aside from Parker's talents, there are three performances without which the movie just wouldn't work.Robert de Niro gives the second best performance of his career here, right next to "Raging Bull", and even that's pretty close.
The direction is truly amazing, as Parker drives us deeply through a meticulously prepared dark atmosphere, full of allegories and secret hints.In "Angel Heart", we watch Mickey Rourke in his finest acting hour, who plays Harry Angel, a private investigator hired by the mysterious Louis Cyphre, depicted by the great Robert De Niro.
The task is much harder than it first looks however, as Angel bumps into several murders in the process; and as if that were not enough, the quest makes him realize some very unpleasant truths about himself and Mr. Cyphre.As noted before, both Rourke and De Niro are excellent in their roles; a high mark goes for the rest of the cast as well, with Lisa Bonnet standing out as charming and apocryphal Epiphany Proudfoot.
The supporting cast deliver some of the most interesting and story driven performances which include Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet and Charlotte Rampling to name a few.You can feel 1955's New Orleans warm rain, hear the jazz, taste the grit of 1950's Brooklyn, Michael Seresin's cinematography is amazing.
I do not go much for that Parker kind of stuff("Midnight express" ,albeit technically breathtaking was a little racist,"Shoot the moon" was a big bore,and you've got to be into Pink Floyd to appreciate such a work as "the wall")"Angel Heart " is a different matter,because it deals with the horror and fantasy genre.Against all odds,for someone who had never tackled this difficult genre,Parker succeeded magnificently.The screenplay is first-rate,with a strong story,with an ending you'll never guess (and I will not reveal it of course!)Including drugs,voodoo,sabbath ,intense love scenes,featuring a wonderful cast:Rourke,who had never been better (and never would)and a frighteningly deadpan DeNiro cast as Louis Cipher,this movie takes us along in a meandering,labyrinthine investigation in which private detective Rourke will find so dreadful things he won't escape unharmed.
Viewers should also be cautioned when watching "Angel Heart" because it is extremely bloody and then of course there is that love scene between Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet which stirred up a little bit of controversy when it was first released back in 1987.
And, what a debut it was, as she and Rourke gave us a scene that had all the appearance of reality.The film also features Charlotte Rampling, who, while not giving us the show she did in The Night Porter, nevertheless provides a treat as she lies dead with her heart cut out.And, we wouldn't want to leave out Elizabeth Whitcraft (Goodfellas, Working Girl) who gave the most skintastic performance of her career.But, the real credit for the film goes to Robert De Niro, who plays a greasy looking character that hired Rourke, and provided the twisted ending that makes this film a horror classic..
So many fine reviews of this film and so good to see that the appreciation of what makes it great, runs so deep.It creates a fantastic atmosphere, I never lived in NY in the 50's but I did in this film.It generates intense visceral fear without the need for gratuitous violence or gore.It has great performances from De Niro, Rourke and Bonet.
If you enjoyed these movies, "Angel Heart" would be a favorite piece in your DVD collection.Set in 1955, it is an excellent period work, as are the settings and cinematography, especially shots of dark, seedy, and steamy backdrops in Louisiana.
Title: Angel Heart (1987)Rating: * * * * 1/2Version Reviewed:  Lions Gate (NTSC  Region 1) Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) Audio: English dd 5.1 Running Time: 1:52:50 Rating: RDirector: Alan Parker (Pink Floyd: The Wall / Fame) Writer: Alan Parker (Mississippi Burning / Evita / The Commitments) Music: Trevor Jones (From Hell / Dark City / Labyrinth) Photography: Michael Seresin (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban / Birdy) Editor: Gerry Hambling (Pink Floyd: The Wall / Fame)Starring: Mickey Rourke (Fade to Black / 9 ½ Weeks) Robert De Niro (Godsend / Jackie Brown / Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) Lisa Bonet (High Fidelity / Bank Robber / Enemy of the State) Charlotte Rampling (Swimming Pool / Orca) Stocker Fontelieu (Mandingo) Brownie McGhee (The Jerk)Synopsis: 	 Harry Angel (Rourke) is a rather ragtag and rough and tumble private detective.
He has some great supporting actors with him, too; Lisa Bonet excels in a layered performance as the voodoo-practising Epiphany Proudfoot; Charlotte Rampling as a fortune teller; finally Robert De Niro, as great as ever as the sinister Louis Cyphre.The film is pretty slowly paced but laced with moments of action and violence that breathe life into it.
Mickey Rourke, in one of his very best performances, stars as Harry Angel, low rent NYC private eye hired by mysterious Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro, who's fantastic) to locate a vanished crooner named Johnny Favourite.
It's even got a very typical 'noir' set-up- gleefully typical in actuality- as private eye Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is sent by Louis Cyphre (ho-ho, though not as such played by the totally dead-pan De Niro) to seek out a man who welshed on a contract signed with him.
It leads him through Harlem, then to New Orleans, into a whole web of black magic, voodoo, and sinister figures on his trail, and other skeletons in the closet to find.Parker's style is meant to ratchet up the questions raised in the viewer as the film progresses, and as any good twisty thriller goes it deepens these questions by the complexity of the protagonist, leading to the final twist that one may have seen done in quite a number of films since, but does retain its power as something of a dark catharsis for this character.
Considering how over the top his contemporaries- Nicholson and Pacinio- went with the role of the devil himself, this may be the most subdued of them all, which makes it all the more chilling (see the egg scene), with the Scorsese-esquire beard a good asset.Although the casting isn't altogether perfect- Rampling is given an all too brief role to work wit, the minor characters being reasonably well suited for the atmosphere, and Lisa Bonet being just about adequate, though not quite the same caliber as Rourke, in her role as a mysterious bayou teen who is the daughter of the suspect in question- having these two heavyweights under Parker's command is quite staggering for any movie fan to enjoy.
It is a classic, one of those films you can watch more than once, and with each watch always pick up on new things again and again in its fine content!As you know the film is set in 1955 and is about A New York private detective; Mickey Rourke's  Harry Angel hired by a client, Mr Louis Cyphere (Robert De Niro) to track down a missing singer Johnny favourite.
His effective use of symbolism, hidden messages and dramatic irony is evident in his expressive camera work.One scene this can all be seen in is at the table where Harry Angel meets Louis Cyphere (Ingenious pun/play on words for us to think twice about Robert de Niro's character).
The texture of the red gives us a sense of danger, which is what Harry Angel is in and we are made to feel very, very uncomfortable and disturbed when viewing such images.I even remember wanting to turn away when I saw the sex scene with Harry Angel and Epiphane Proudfoot (Played by Lisa Bonet), where blood drips off the ceiling to cover them and we glimpse a scene of a group of people having an orgy surrounded by a bright red background with fire flames in a hell like place.Most 90's horror movies would instead tirelessly try to scare us poorly with such images, but Parker has instead ingeniously let such graphic images tell us through their look what is happening in the story; rather then just letting us just think 'Ok another boring dead body that popped out to try to scare me Sh**less'.
"Angel Heart" is a classy, dark and creepy horror movie by Alan Parker, with a scary Robert De Niro in the role of Lucifer and Mickey Rourke in the top of his career.
There's also a fair amount of black humour, and a wealth of sparkling cameo performances (Izzy and Wife) that add depth and quirkiness to the film - making the overall experience even more enjoyable.I get the impression that director Alan Parker was at a point in his career where he could choose the style of movie he wanted to make, and was willing to direct against "type" with this private eye/occult thriller.
"Angel heart" takes place in the 50ies revolving around a private eye from Brooklyn played too damn perfect by Mickey Rourke who gets a job by a man named Louis Cypher (played great like expected by Robert De Niro) to check out where one of his debtors hid.
once Mickey Rourke said : "Alan Parker wears that glasses to look like Oxford's graduates, but he's been raised in the streets indeed & that's why he's a great director"."Angel Heart" was the first shock.
Recently I re-watched Angel Heart and now I appreciate this absolute masterpiece more than ever.Rarely can a movie "scare you to your very soul" but this film is an exception.There's not a single bad actor and the story is quite intense and interesting.For this film alone Mickey Rourke should be considered one of the greatest actors of his generation because the performance he delivers here is outstanding.You can feel every line and every mimic he does.By the end of the film he already establishes himself as a professional who expertly portrays his character's torment and fear.Robert De Niro is of course superb as ever and with a chilling performance expertly portrays a man with a very dark secret.The plot is beyond interesting and the viewer is grabbed from the start and is sucked into the story almost becoming a part of it.As the film keeps going the questions become more and more till everything comes into place in the shocking and absolutely surprising finale which will surely shock and scare you to the extreme.Overall this is truly one of the greatest films I've ever had the pleasure of seeing and I absolutely advise everyone to watch it and experience the terror..
Having said that, there is enough in the earlier sections of the film to admire, and it would be unfair of me to dismiss the whole film simply because the final few minutes don't work in my opinion.In 1955, New York private eye Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is hired by a mysterious client named Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to track down a missing man.
Gradually, Angel becomes more and more aware that he is involved in a very sinister mystery indeed, the solution to which may affect him more personally than he could ever imagine.The good points include strong performances by Rourke and De Niro, the former holding the film together with his edgy interpretation of the scruffy, moody hero; and the latter doing well in his handful of scenes as the creepy client.
Angel Heart features a stand out performance from Mickey Rourke; a man that made a few good movies in the 80's, and then somewhat and unfortunately disappeared from our screens (although he did have a great little part in 2003's best movie; Once Upon a Time in Mexico).
In the mid nineteen fifties, a mysterious and slightly sinister business man, Louis Cypher (Robert De Niro), hires Brooklyn gumshoe, Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke), for a missing person case.
Angel's investigation, for which he is being paid a princely sum for the time, takes him from Harlem to New Orleans, as he looks for a former crooner named Johnny Favorite, who sometime during the early nineteen forties apparently welched on a business deal with Louis Cypher and hasn't been heard from since.In my opinion this is very much a film which you will be able to enjoy on repeated viewings, to savour the art of the cinematographer as well as to get a better understanding of the complexity of the plot.
The general photography delivers a sense of dark eeriness and estrangement and the Sound Track (mostly Blues) works like "a charm".As a side note I would also like to mention the actor Pruitt Taylor Vince, who in this film acts as a sidekick for Det. Sterne; but the curious tidbit is that you also get to see him on "Jacob's Ladder" (1990), another Thriller/Noir Master Piece of eeriness (though a very different movie), and as memorable as Angel Heart..
Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is a two-bit private detective who takes a job that requires him to find a mysterious and famous crooner from the past, named Johnny Favorite.The story, set in 1955 and mostly in New Orleans, is fairly convoluted, with important events taking place a dozen years before 1955.
Rourke, in still one of his best ever performances, plays small time PI, chicken phobic Harry Angel, who's offered a hefty fee by a mysterious and slightly menacing character, Louis Cyphre (a flawless memorable performance from Deniro) to track down a musician, Johnny Favourite, who was into a lot more than just music, and could already be six feet under.
This was one of the greatest films that i've ever seen.with great performances of everybody.the film goes with a very mystery type.& also horror with all the sequences.story of Harry Angel(Mickey Rourke),a detective that is hired by Louis Cyphre(Robert De Niro)to find Johnnie Faivorate who is a lost singer.& following the case Angel meets a lot of people to solve the case such as:Margaret Krusemark(Charlotte Rampling),Toots Sweet(Brownie McGhee),Ethan Krusemark(Stocker Fontelieu),these people do know Johnnie very good.& Epiphany Proudfoot(Lisa Bonet)who was very close to Johnnie & he falls in love her .all these people died after Angel met them.and after all he finds out that Louis Cyphre is Locifer the Satan.and he is Johnnie Faivirate and in order to be famous he sold his soul to evil.& he killed Harry Angel chosen by the people that he killed himself & lived by Angel's identity for a lot years.& Now he found out of his real identity.this was a great film & lots of mystery in it.and all the performances are excellent.& powerful direction by Allan Parker but the greatest performance among all these actors is for Mickey Rourke.e is as astonishing as it can be.he plays as Angel very good & skillfully.
Eventually, the movie begins to completely turn away from its noir roots and becomes surrealistic horror.In what can be called a virtuoso performance, Mickey Rourke gives Angel a perfect glibness that makes his journey all the more surprising.
(There are Spoilers) Voodoo and Satanic inspired film-noir detective story that at first starts out as a run of the mill missing person investigation by Brooklyn private dick Harry Angel, Mickey Rourke, that leads him to New Orleans and Algeries LA.
The actors are perfect too, Mickey Rourke Love him or hate him he steals the film in this battle of anticipation and suspense as private eye Herald Angel and with supporting cast like one of the best in the business Robert De Niro its got all the ingredients to be a classic for many years to come.I know I've mentioned him but, Mickey Rourke is one of the best actors ever and seeing him in his prime in the late 80's and how well he blends in with the almost bleak atmosphere is just a delight to watch..
"Angel heart" featuring Mickey O'Rourke and the as always godlike Robert De Niro is one of the more difficult movies from Parker.
Title: Angel Heart (1987)Director: Alan ParkerCast: Mickey Rourke,Robert Deniro, Lisa Bonet Review: I cant believe that I had let this movie pass me by!
It's a very straightforward story that ends up being more than meets the eye, mixing in horror and satanic elements to become a one-of-a-kind thriller.Private detective Harry Angel (Rourke) takes on a case to locate an old-time crooner named Johnny Favourite, who has been missing since WWII.