Carried at arm’s length by a fabulous Mickey Rourke launched into a sordid investigation and a Mephistophelian Robert de Niro, Alan Parker’s “Angel Heart” puts the nerves to the test more than once. Until the shocking final revelation.
1955. Harry Angel is a private detective. A man calling himself Louis Cyphre hires him to search for a certain Johnny Favorite. His investigation has barely begun, all the people he contacts who knew Johnny are killed in mysterious circumstances. As he learns more about himself and his client, Harry discovers that he must fight for his own survival…
Adapted from the novel The Sabbath in Central Park by William Hjortsberg and published in 1978, Angel Heart by Alan Parker has the intelligence to greatly relocate the plot of the novel by situating it largely in the sweaty bayous of Louisiana.
Sensational mix, ultimately quite rare, of Thriller and horror, carried at arm’s length by a Mickey Rourke at the top who wades with rage in the nauseating swamps of his subconscious as his investigation progresses, the film will unfortunately be a painful failure at the box office. A totally unjustified sanction, which time will fortunately repair to raise this nugget to the rank of cult work.
I Know who I am!!!!!!
The ending of Angel Heart is both complex and entirely symbolic; where the atrocious epilogue of a quest for identity, an inevitable and tragic destiny, and the inevitably disastrous consequences when one makes a pact with evil incarnate are mixed.
Harry Angel therefore leads an investigation during which the corpses pile up more and more: all the witnesses he meets and who are involved in his affair find themselves murdered.
In the end, Harry Angel discovers that he is none other than the man he is looking for, Johnny Favorite. The latter, who was also a great voodoo sorcerer, had sold his soul to the Devil for fame and fortune, represented by Louis Cyphre… Lucifer.
But when the Devil came to claim his immortal soul following this Faustian pact, Johnny Favorite tried to escape it. In 1943, Favorite had kidnapped a young soldier and performed a satanic ritual on the boy, murdering him and eating his still beating heart in order to hide from the Devil by swapping his identities.
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At the home of Margaret Krusemark (Charlotte Rampling), Harry discovers hidden in a small vase the identity tag of the famous soldier: it is his, Harold Angel. Louis Cyphre then appears, and Harry understands that he is none other than Lucifer himself.
Harry pathetically tries to deny his responsibility for the murders in his investigation, but Louis Cyphre quickly confronts him about his macabre record. “I didn’t kill anyone! I know who I am!” – “I’m afraid so, they were all killed by your own hands, guided by me, naturally” let go of the Devil. “For 12 years you have been living on borrowed time and someone else’s memories.” And to add: “the flesh is weak, Johnny. Only the soul is immortal. And yours belongs to me!”
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Frantic, Harry returns to his hotel room, where the Police have discovered the body of Epiphany Proudfoot, raped and horribly mutilated, with Harry’s soldier’s dog tag that the Devil placed on her. When Harry tells the police that Epiphany is actually his daughter, one of them shouts at him. “you will burn for this”. To which Harry replies: “I know. In hell”.
During the end credits, Angel is seen standing inside a freight elevator-like elevator, which descends interminably. An image which obviously refers to his descent into hell. As the screen fades to black, Cyphre can be heard whispering “Harry” and “Johnny”, announcing his possession of the two shared souls.