I was first introduced to William Hjortsberg's novel "Falling Angel" soon after
publication in 1978. Like a lot of hot properties, it was quickly gobbled up by the
Hollywood moviemachinery an optioned by the gentlemen with the big cheque books.
It proved, however, to be a tough nut to crack as a movie and came my way again in 1985.
The attraction for me was simple. The fusion of two genres, a fantastic Faustian tale told as a classic Raymond Chandler detective story. I started writing the script in the summer of '85 and by January of '86 we were in pre-production in New York and New Orleans with a new title; Angel Heart.
From the outset I had tried to write the film's musical identity into the script. Music had always been important in my films but with each movie it seems to have come by a different route. With some it was a starting point, as with 'Fame' where Michael Gore wrote his music as I wrote scenes for the film. With 'Pink Floyd the Wall', Roger Waters' music and lyrics were the entire narrative of the piece. In some of my other films, music came later as with Giorgio Moroder's score for 'Midnight Express' or Peter Gabriel's music for 'Birdy' which was largely created by plundering the used (and often unused) 24 track masters of Peter's old albums.
I asked Trevor Jones to do the music for Angel Heart because I'd liked his score for Konchalovsky's 'Runaway Train', and had in fact already pinched a couple of tracks to use on my rough mix whilst editing the film. Trevor and I met in Paris and I explained that I'd admired the full orchestral score he'd done for Konchalovsky. Trevor, with his consummate good manners, puffed at his roll-up and revealed sheepishly that the body of the score was synthesised on his synclavier.
Much of our source music had been done during filming. I'd cast the great old Blues singer Brownie McGhee to play the character 'Toots' and we re-recorded his "Rainy Days" in New Orleans.
In the script I had made Johnny Favourite's 30's hit pivotal to our story and I wanted it to haunt the movie as it had haunted Harry. From a mountain of 78's I chose "Girl of my dreams" which was nostalgically familiar, but not too connected with any one artist. Trevor cleverly wove the old theme in to his new atmospheric score, and had the brain-wave of using the brilliant young Courtney Pine for the sax solos. Courtney played along to the picture like a silent movie accompanist and would have continued from front to end credits if we'd let him.
To mix the music tracks, Trevor had appropriately chosen the Angel Recording Studios, built in a disused church in Islington, North London. This was deja-vu for me as the mixing-room was once the room where I'd spent every Sunday, as a kid, in the Boys Brigade. Trevor had laid down the separate tracks in what we call our 'tool-kit' method, allowing the greatest freedom when doing the final film mix at Warner Hollywood Studios. We've also included some of the film's dialogue and effects on this record mix to hopefully conjure up a little of the atmosphere of the movie.
© Alan Parker 1987