Mona Lisa (Jordan, 1986): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.30pm
This 35mm presentation (also screening on September 24th) is part of the is part of the excellent 'Acting Hard' season at BFI Southbank.
Chicago Reader review:
A film tailor-made for Bob Hoskins, the appealing British
actor who suggests an unlikely cross of James Cagney and Ed Asner. He's
an ex-con who gets a job as chauffeur and protector to an elegant black
call girl (Cathy Tyson); he's awed by her beauty and poise, and when she
asks him to find an old girlfriend from her streetwalking days, he
charges into London's sexual underworld like a knight on a quest.
Director Neil Jordan (Danny Boy, The Company of Wolves)
does a good job of re-creating the dark romanticism of American film
noir, and if the project does feel a little like a hand-me-down, it is
graced by Jordan's fine, contemporary feel for bright, artificial colors
and creatively mangled space. Hoskins delivers a classic star turn,
capitalizing on his instant likability to draw us into a
characterization of unexpected depth and dignity, and Michael Caine
makes the most of a brief appearance as a satanic crime lord. With
Robbie Coltrane and Clarke Peters.
Dave Kehr
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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