The Robert De Niro movie that blew Christopher Nolan’s mind: “I was pretty fascinated”
In addition to making some of the most acclaimed movies of all time, Christopher Nolan is a massive fan of classic cinema. He’s not shy about his love for Ridley Scott, having spoken many times about how much his work inspires him. The likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars formed the basis of his obsession with science fiction, and his other interests are wide-reaching and numerous.
In terms of actors, Nolan is clearly a fan of Robert De Niro. The accomplished Brit is a massive admirer of Michael Mann’s Heat, which stars De Niro as a big-time bank robber. Nolan borrowed heavily from Mann’s depiction of Los Angeles for his version of Gotham City in his Dark Knight trilogy. He’s also a big fan of the 1987 psychological horror feature Angel Heart, as he once told Filmaclock.
“That’s a movie that Alan Parker made that has this incredible twist at the end that sort of changes everything you’ve seen. And I was pretty fascinated,” he recalled. “You could go back and watch it again and be surprised that you hadn’t noticed certain elements of the story that lead up to that ending. So it was a film that took you by surprise but that played fair with you, you know.”
Angel Heart sees De Niro play a mysterious man named Louis Cyphre who hires a private investigator (Mickey Rourke) in 1950s New York. Cyphre tasks the PI with tracking down a lounge singer named Johnny Favourite, which leads him down a dark path of intrigue and supernatural mystery. The film also stars Lisa Bonet and Charlotte Rampling. Fans of Parker might be surprised that he directed something so murky, given that the biggest entries in his filmography include Bugsy Malone, Fame, and Evita. He also made Midnight Express, however.
In terms of the film’s plot twist—which we won’t spoil here—Nolan reckons it ranks up there with the very best. “People talk a lot about The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects or films like this. But I think there’ve often been interesting movies where the story surprises you at the end in some way or towards the end in some way that does make you rethink what you’ve seen,” he said. This undoubtedly influenced his own choices while making Memento, his breakthrough movie with its own share of twists and turns.
“Instead of some kind of snapping twist at the end, so much as a changing relationship with [the] central character. A character that you start to basically distrust through the story and you start to question the things they’re showing you; the things they’re telling you,” he said of his own work. “That seemed to me to be kind of an interesting thing to play with.”
Despite its famous fans and widespread critical recognition, Angel Heart failed to recoup its budget. De Niro and Rourke actually fell out on the set of the film, and the former has spoken in interviews about how he felt the movie came apart after a strong start.
No matter how one of its stars feels about it, Angel Heart is a massively important movie. If it hadn’t inspired Nolan to make Memento, then the career of one of modern cinema’s most prominent names would have never gotten off the ground. That’s worth more than any box office receipt.
