Chapo Trap House - Movie Mindset 02 Teaser - Angel Heart

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Enjoy the first 10 minutes of Movie Mindset episode 2. Subscribe today for access to the full episode and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/chapotraphouse

Let's start with Angel Hart first, but before we get into that, I introduced Mickey Rourke, like longtime followers of me on Twitter will know that I've been a long been a Mickey's, one of Mickey's biggest advocates on social media. I think he's probably the most talented actor of that generation of like the 80s leading man, notoriously kind of a mercurial talent, shall we say? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just on last week's episode, we talked about the IMDb trivia note of Denzel Washington did not enjoy working with Mickey Rourke on Man on Fire, which is funny because they did not share a single scene together. However, in Angel Hart, has so would you would you guess

that Robert De Niro enjoyed working with Mickey Rourke? Let me think. I would have to guess no. Can I put a friend actually? It began a lifelong feud between the two of them to which Mickey Rourke said of it, I used to look up to him now I look through him. I also saw that he didn't make you work blame De Niro for him not getting a role. Yes, not getting a role in the Irishman, which is so funny because like to picture Mickey Rourke looking as he does now in the milieu of the Irishman is a very funny thing to picture. It was sort of like you would show people would scream at restaurants if he walks in the door.

And then like as we'll get into like there is a very interesting sort of meta parallels between Mickey Rourke's character, Harry Angel in Angel Hart and Mickey Rourke like the person. We'll get into that. But just as some introductory thoughts like how do you view Mickey Rourke? How do you view him as an actor and like his body of work? Well, I, growing up, I knew mostly his later work such as like, you know, like Man on Fire and The Wrestler, you know, Sad Rourke where he's kind of down and out his kind of past his prime all messed up in the face area, the brain area possibly as well. But I think I'd never seen either of these two movies before, but I had become very familiar with

Young Mickey and his beautiful, beautiful face and charms. I mean, that is really it when you're talking about Mickey Rourke as a guy who was like the most handsome, charismatic, like sort of like street wise, this like, this like panther like presence in his movies in the 80s. Like one of the most handsome men who's ever existed. And then now, you know, in like later area, later era, Mickey Rourke, he's done a lot of bad stuff. I mean, like he looks totally different than he did back then. I mean, The Wrestler is sort of a commentary on his entire career in a way. But yeah, it's just like, as I said, to introduce it, like he's a like an extraordinarily good looking man who plays

really sleazy, ugly guys. And that's something that I've always really appreciated about him as an actor and his choices and the roles he does. Oh, yeah. And a lot of his movies as well, like there, there, there does seem to be a theme about like him being facially disfigured in some way. Like there was the Walter Hill movie he did called Johnny Handsome. Have you ever seen that? No, it's about like an Eric Stoltz mask style guy who does a bank robbery and then he gets facial reconstruction surgery and he looks like Mickey Rourke.

Oh, shit. And we'll get, we'll get into it in Johnny Handsome. That's like the name of a character in Angel Heart. Yeah, Johnny's favorite. Yeah. Johnny Handsome, Johnny's favorite. But in Angel Heart, I chose Angel Heart and Barfly because I think that they are, they are Mickey Rourke at like the height of his powers as like a sexy leading man, but playing

so against type in both of those movies as like leading men and, you know, two very unlikable characters, shall we say. Yeah. I mean, like Barfly, obviously he warms my heart in that movie. Oh, yeah. Of course. But let's get into it in Angel Heart, a movie that may contain actual evil. Yeah.

Yeah. This is directed by Alan Parker, who's other films he's probably best known for. He directed Fame, he directed Mississippi Burning, he directed The Commitments, and he also directed Pink Floyd's The Wall. This, this to me though, Angel Heart is like the real standout of his entire career. Oh, yeah. What is it? What is Angel Heart about? Angel Heart is a movie about.

What a question. Angel Heart is a movie about fan death. It's about the Korean superstition that fans steal your soul and life is also about the unique malevolence of chickens. Oh, yeah. Yeah, chickens. It's about how, you know, if you don't remember anything that happened in your past at any point, there might be something going on, you know. And if you're ever, if you're ever hired to do a job by a guy whose name is Mr. S. Aiton, D. E.

Ville, don't take it. Yeah. Just pass up on that, on that contract. But yeah, like Angel Heart is sort of, it starts out as kind of a hardboiled noir, private eye detective story, but very quickly becomes something else entirely. Yeah. This is a fusion of two of my favorite genres, like sort of noir detective stories and occult Satan worship.

Yeah. It really, I'd never seen this and knew nothing going into it about it. So like, when it started, I was like, okay, New York City, let's go. 50s. Let's fucking do it. You know, like detective, he's going around the set dressing on point. Everything looks perfect. It looks beautiful. The production and set design in this movie is so good in layer and texture. It's like unreal. That's one of the things I want to talk about. Yeah.

And the cinematography, gorgeous. And, you know, it's Rourke running around, going around. He's got his signature Rourke charms. He is shown to seduce many a woman at many points in this. Much to his detriment later in the film, his chagrin, if you will. But yeah, like she bring it up like it opens in New York in 1955. And like you said, like the details of the the first third or so of this movie, it's like it's New York. It's the winter. He goes upstate at one point. And just like, I want to talk about like just the feel that

this movie conjures that Alan Parker does with like the steam rising rising from the grates, the way he uses staircases and shadows to kind of bisect the frame of the camera sax wells. Yeah. Like this jazzy music playing in the background like a German expressionist almost shattered. Yeah. And then like, as you mentioned, there are so many details in this movie that actually are actually really clues if you add it up at the end. There are so many like close up

shots of like nightstands, coffee tables, desk and just desks like they're just sort of detritus of like ashtrays, pens, papers, little curios and trinkets, keys that it's just this like creases really like texture layered sense of like set design where like just like and hands as well like they provide little clues for the movie. The main clue in this movie is the repeated visual motif of fans of fans. And then like there are analogs that are found elsewhere in the movie like the rotary phone, the wheels of a car. And then of course, the great the giant, the biggest fan of all the wonder wheel in Coney Island.

Yep. We'll get into what that symbolizes. But I'll just say like we first see Mickey Rourke playing a private investigator, Harry Angel, and he's walking down a street in 1955, New York, smoking a cigarette and chewing bubble gum at the same time. Yes. He's blasting a sig and then blows a bubble. And he's just like, I'm just trying to imagine what that would taste like after a few sets. You've never had the New York double double meal. Forget about it.

So he's from Brooklyn. Yeah. I'm an atheist. I'm from Brooklyn. It was my favorite line in the movie. Yeah. So yeah, like he's a he's a very classic archetype of like a like a sleazy private dick in the 1950s. And he is, you know, contacted by a lawyer who is he's hired by an attorney on behalf of a client. Now, I don't know if you picked this up. The attorney who hires him, his name is Winesap from the firm of Winesap and McIntosh. Can you guess the clue in the names of these attorneys?

Hmm. Let me think. Well, McIntosh, that's like an apple. I hope that's not biblical in any way. The first of many religious illusions in this film. So yeah, he is hired by an attorney played by Dan Florek, who you may remember as Captain Craig in Law and Order and Law and Order SVU. This is the only movie I can think of that I remember seeing Dan Florek in. Yeah, I was really surprised that he didn't that he wasn't, you know, on leave for killing three. For the full episode, subscribe at Patreon.com slash Chompo Trap House, which is something

that happens constantly in SVU. It was just like, Harry Angel, I want you in here now. You gave the defense our briefing on their client. No, no, but it's Dan Florek and he is an attorney hired by one Mr. Louise Seifer. He's a foreign gentleman. Louise Seifer played by Robert De Niro for the full episode. Subscribe at Patreon.com slash Chompo Trap House in 1987. I think Robert De Niro is probably a bigger actor than Mickey Rourke. And he is like an extremely supporting role in this movie. He's only in a couple scenes. And it is De Niro in a way that he's like really never played before. He's playing this very like, loose, weird, like sort of vaguely European, foreign man with really long like pimp for the full

episode. Subscribe at Patreon.com slash Chompo Trap House.