Romeo Is Bleeding — Romeo Is Bleeding(Blu Ray)
Originally appearing in 1993 Romeo Is Bleeding was directed by Hungarian-born British Peter Medak(The Changeling, The Men's Club, The Krays). Seemingly it was somewhat of a flop in the box-office, and to a certain extent, I can see why- as the film's mix of noir and brutal ’90s crime drama tropes is often quite unbalancing & head spinning, though that of course makes it stands out from the run of the mill neo-noir films of the 90's. It’s most certainly a very well shot, scripted and well-acted film with a wonderful by soundtrack by Mark Isham, which blends smoky noir horn work with moody electro beats & synths.
The film is largely based in then present-day New York, though with stylized retro noir touches. The films lead character is Jack Grimaldi (Oldman)- a crooked cop who informs the mob about the whereabouts of witnesses, then puts the money he gets paid in a hole in his backyard- often doing a little sing & dance after the event. He’s also cheating on his wife (Annabella Sciorra) with Sheri waitress (a peroxide Lewis). Then, one day, his world starts to fall apart when he is assigned to watch over the devious and sensual Mona(Lena Olin)- fairly soon the pair are getting on a bit too well, and he’s left with a dilemma- get paid a lot of money by her to faking her death, or really wipe her out due to pressure from mob boss Don Falcone( Scheider).
The film features the classic noir voice-over storytelling by Oldman, which largely manages to keep you up to pace with the shifting selection of characters, twisting & turning plot, and often unbalancing flow of the film. Oldman plays well the tough, shifty, if at points longingly romantic cop well, with his US accent largely coming off well. Olin is well placed as the smoky-voiced & hot ‘n’ steamy femme fatale. And Scheider, who doesn’t get much screen time, is effective as the cool, calculated, and quietly unbalanced crime boss. When going into the film I was expecting a more typical and straight gangsters film and was pleasantly surprised how instead it was off-kilter, at points crazed hybrid of classic noir & bloody crime drama. I’d say you’ll need to have some grounding/ love for film noir form to get the most out Romeo Is Bleeding.
Moving onto this new Blu Ray, and the print here looks great- with the picture having real clarity, depth, and balance. On the extras front we get a commentary track with Australian author and film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas- this is a intelligent and informative track. She starts by talking about how the film has a haunted quality, relating this to actress Annabella Sciorra(Jacks wife)- who was one of the first women to come out with sexual allocations against Harvey Weinstein- his attacks on Ms Sciorra were taking place during the film of the picture, and after it, her career somewhat dropped off. She moves onto talk about other actors who were going to take the Oldman role- Al Pacino & Richard Gere, talks about Medak’s filmography in the general. She discusses the critical bashing and appraisal the film got on its release, talks about how the noir tropes/ set-ups are used in the film, and at points subverted. And much, much more- so it's well worth a play. We get a new on-camera interview Medak- this runs around forty-three minutes and sees him discussing his whole career starting with his youth in Hungary & his early love of film, moving onto escaping the country & his early jobs, and of course the rest of his career. We get an Isolated score (featuring some sound effects), an image gallery and trailer. The finished release comes with a fully illustrated booklet with new essays by Rebecca Feasey, Lou Thomas and Dr Josephine Botting and full film credits.
It’s great to see the BFI giving their normally classy reissue to Romeo Is Bleeding, and it really is one of the more distinctively twisted & clever neo-noir of the decade. If your a Noir fan, this is most certainly a must!