"Am I getting THROUGH to you, Alva?!"

October 10th, 2012
Vampire's Kiss, (1988)
Nicolas Cage is Peter Loew

"In my own mind I was convinced that there could be a new expression in acting. I was weaned, oddly enough, on German expressionistic films like Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and I wanted to use that kind of acting. Which, shockingly enough, you allowed me to do; you allowed me to go there. I don't think any other director would have let his actor go there. I don't even know if I could do it now or again."

That's Nicolas Cage speaking to director Robert Bierman on the commentary track of Vampire's Kiss. I wrote in my Raising Arizona post about how frustrated Cage was that he wasn't allowed the kind of freedom he wanted by the Coen brothers. Vampire's Kiss is an example of what happened when a young Nic Cage was given that kind of freedom.

Coming off his breakout turn in Moonstruck - a film Cage says he didn't actually like until years later when he was, in his words, "mature enough to understand it" - our man was feeling the pressure of success. After initially agreeing to star in Vampire's Kiss Cage was convinced by his agent to drop out, that a manic turn in a no-budget black comedy about a deulsional man who thinks he's turning into a vampire would be career suicide. Bierman then signed Judd Nelson only to have him pull out as well. Despite having been greenlit and budgeted it looked like Vampire's Kiss wasn't meant to be until Cage called again and asked to be taken back. He needed to "blow it out" after Moonstruck and make a "punk rock movie" and commit to a sort of Brechtian primal scream of a performance. Which is really just an elevated way of saying that Nicolas Cage needed a role in which he could go absolutely apeshit bonkers. If Cage was trying to change acting and challenge his critics no performance in his career has been more challenging than his turn as Peter Loew in this film. It is truly one of a kind.

“That was me at my five-year-old birthday party. I was good-looking even back then.”

September 9^th, 2012

Rumble Fish (1983)

Nicolas Cage is Smokey

Ostensibly this project is about Nic Cage but, since I'm going in chronological order, by default I'm starting with his bit parts. It's funny, with the benefit of hindsight I think it's clear that Cage's most natural fit is as a character actor, but he's made a career as an unlikely leading man. I guess that's what happens to talented weirdos who also happen to be extremely handsome (see also: Depp, Johnny; Ledger, Heath). But Rumble Fish isn't Nic Cage's film. He's here because when your brilliant, film director uncle sends out a casting call you put aside all that stuff about distancing yourself from him and jump on the wagon (three times).  

I knew nothing going into Rumble Fish so the whole thing was a surprise to me. My familiarity with Coppola's work between Apocalypse Now and Jack is pretty limited. I've never read an S.E. Hinton novel nor have I seen The Outsiders. I didn't know it was starring Matt Dillon as a teenager that everyone, including his family, calls Rusty James. I didn't know that Rusty James lives in the shadow of his spacey older brother, an ex-gang leader named The Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke) whom he idolizes. I didn't know it was scored by Stewart Copeland, drummer for that band so dear to my heart, the Police. Hey, is that Tom Waits as a soda jerk? Hey, is that Dennis Hopper? Is this all a beautiful dream?