Fingers (1978 film)

Last updated
Fingers
Fingers poster 1978.jpeg
Theatrical poster
Directed by James Toback
Written byJames Toback
Starring Harvey Keitel
Tisa Farrow
Jim Brown
Cinematography Michael Chapman
Edited by Robert Lawrence
Distributed by Brut Productions
Release date
  • March 2, 1978 (1978-03-02)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.3 million [1]

Fingers is a 1978 American crime drama film directed by James Toback. The film is about a troubled young man being pulled between his mob father and his mentally disturbed pianist mother. [2]

Contents

Plot

Jimmy "Fingers" Angelelli (Harvey Keitel) is a brilliant young pianist who also works as a debt collector for his father Ben (Michael V. Gazzo), a local loan shark. Wherever Jimmy goes, he always carries a tape player with him, playing classic pop hits (mainly soul and R'n'B) from the 1950s and 1960s. While trying to concentrate on an upcoming recital interview at Carnegie Hall, Jimmy loses focus when he falls for a woman named Carol (Tisa Farrow). He gets further sidetracked when collecting a large debt from a mafioso named Riccamonza (Tony Sirico), who eventually threatens Ben's life. This forces Jimmy to seek retribution.

Cast

Production

James Toback said he originally wanted Robert de Niro to play the lead, but then decided to use de Niro's best friend Harvey Keitel. "Harvey agreed to play Jimmy and quickly began to astonish me by taking the character into dimensions of darkness well beyond my original imagining", wrote Toback. [3] The film was remade in 2005 in France as The Beat That My Heart Skipped . [4]

Critical reception

Writing in The New York Times , critic Vincent Canby noted upon the film's release that it features "a series of anti‐climaxes that dog the movie with the persistence of a humorless flat‐foot," that "[w]ithout building any momentum whatsoever, the movie darts among its various plot threads like a cat who wants play, but can't stick at one thread long enough to have any fun," and that "something more than apparent talent was involved" in Toback's ability to have made the film. [5] A contemporary review of the film in The Boston Phoenix by Stephen Schiff described it as not "just bad; it’s wildly; extravagantly, even entertainingly bad," and "what comes through is not how troubled Jimmy is, but how bizarre the man who made this film [Toback] must be." [6] A review of the film by Thomas Davant for Turner Classic Movies described it as "[a]ggressive, shocking, heart-wrenching" and "[i]n its tale of the battle between dual loyalties, contradictory desires and an internal madness that threatens to consume it all, the film pulses with a desperate power." [7]

Music

Two notable pieces from the film are "Angel of the Morning" by Merrilee Rush and "Summertime, Summertime" by The Jamies. Director Toback initially wanted to use the song "Summertime" because the movie had "a summertime feel to it", and they wanted to shoot it during the summer months. The whole film, however, is framed by the music of Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata in E minor (BWV 914), which Keitel's character plays throughout the film, including during his audition at Carnegie Hall.

Related Research Articles

<i>Mean Streets</i> 1973 film by Martin Scorsese

Mean Streets is a 1973 American crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin, and starring Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. It was produced by Warner Bros. The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 2, 1973, and was released on October 14. De Niro won the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Johnny Boy" Civello.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey Keitel</span> American actor (born 1939)

Harvey Keitel is an American actor known for his portrayal of morally ambiguous and "tough guy" characters. He rose to prominence during the New Hollywood movement, and has held a long-running association with director Martin Scorsese, starring in six of his films: Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967), Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and The Irishman (2019).

<i>Bugsy</i> 1991 biographical film by Barry Levinson

Bugsy is a 1991 American biographical crime drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by James Toback. The film stars Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould, Bebe Neuwirth, and Joe Mantegna. It is based on the life of American mobster Bugsy Siegel and his affair with starlet Virginia Hill.

Michael Vincenzo Gazzo was an American playwright who later in life became a movie and television actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Godfather Part II (1974).

<i>Alice</i> (1990 film) 1990 film by Woody Allen

Alice is a 1990 American fantasy romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Mia Farrow, Joe Mantegna, and William Hurt. The film is a loose reworking of Federico Fellini's 1965 film Juliet of the Spirits and Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Sirico</span> American actor (1942–2022)

Genaro Anthony Sirico Jr. was an American actor known for his portrayal of Paulie Gualtieri in The Sopranos.

<i>The Gambler</i> (1974 film) 1974 film

The Gambler is a 1974 American crime drama film written by James Toback and directed by Karel Reisz. It stars James Caan, Paul Sorvino, and Lauren Hutton. Caan's performance was widely lauded and was nominated for a Golden Globe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Toback</span> American screenwriter and film director

James Lee Toback is an American screenwriter and film director. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1991 for Bugsy. He has directed films including The Pick-up Artist, Two Girls and a Guy and Black and White.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Spinell</span> American actor (1936–1989)

Joe Spinell was an American character actor who appeared in films in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as various stage productions on and off Broadway. He played supporting roles in film including The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), Rocky (1976), Rocky II (1979), Taxi Driver (1976), Sorcerer (1977) and Cruising (1980).

<i>Blue Collar</i> (film) 1978 American crime drama film

Blue Collar is a 1978 American crime drama film directed by Paul Schrader in his directorial debut. Written by Schrader and his brother Leonard, the film stars Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto. The film is both a critique of union practices and an examination of life in a working-class Rust Belt enclave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tisa Farrow</span> American actress and model (1951–2024)

Theresa Magdalena "Tisa" Farrow was an American actress and model.

<i>The Pick-up Artist</i> (1987 film) 1987 film by James Toback

The Pick-up Artist is a 1987 American romantic comedy drama film produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox, written and directed by James Toback, starring Molly Ringwald and Robert Downey Jr. in the lead roles.

<i>Love and Money</i> (film) 1982 film by James Toback

Love and Money, also known as Love & Money, is a 1982 American drama film directed by James Toback and starring Ray Sharkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert De Niro</span> American actor (born 1943)

Robert Anthony De Niro is an American actor and film producer. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016.

<i>Exposed</i> (1983 film) 1983 film by James Toback

Exposed is a 1983 American drama film written, produced and directed by James Toback. It stars Nastassja Kinski, Rudolf Nureyev, Harvey Keitel, Ian McShane and Bibi Andersson.

<i>The Irishman</i> 2019 film by Martin Scorsese

The Irishman is a 2019 American epic gangster film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Steven Zaillian, based on the 2004 book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt. It stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, with Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Jesse Plemons, and Harvey Keitel in supporting roles. The film follows Frank Sheeran, a truck driver who becomes a hitman involved with mobster Russell Bufalino (Pesci) and his crime family before later working for the powerful Teamster Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). The film marked the ninth collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro, in addition to Scorsese's fifth collaboration with Harvey Keitel, his fourth collaboration with Joe Pesci; his first with Al Pacino; the fourth collaboration between Pacino and De Niro; and the first collaboration between Pacino and Pesci altogether.

<i>Blindside</i> (film) 1988 Canadian film

Blindside is a 1987 Canadian film directed by Paul Lynch and starring Harvey Keitel.

<i>The Gang That Couldnt Shoot Straight</i> 1971 film by James Goldstone

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight is a 1971 American crime comedy film directed by James Goldstone and written by Waldo Salt, based on the 1969 novel of the same title by Jimmy Breslin, which in turn was based on the life of gangster Joe Gallo. The film stars Jerry Orbach, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jo Van Fleet, Lionel Stander, Robert De Niro and Irving Selbst. The film was released on December 22, 1971, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

<i>The Big Bang</i> (1989 film) 1989 American film

The Big Bang is a 1989 documentary film, directed by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter James Toback. The film addresses questions about life and existence. It was released to theaters May 11, 1990, and aired on PBS on August 6, 1991.

<i>The Comedian</i> (2016 film) 2016 American film

The Comedian is a 2016 American comedy-drama film directed by Taylor Hackford and written by Lewis Friedman, Richard LaGravenese, Art Linson, and Jeff Ross. The film stars Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann, Danny DeVito, Edie Falco, Veronica Ferres, Charles Grodin, Cloris Leachman, Patti LuPone, Greer Barnes and Harvey Keitel.

References

  1. ↑ "AFI|Catalog".
  2. ↑ "Fingers". IMDb .
  3. ↑ James Toback, "A Hollywood Mis-Education", Vanity Fair, March 2014 accessed 10 February 2014
  4. ↑ Critique: Mélodie pour un tueur, de James Toback. Critikat: Accueil.
  5. ↑ Canby, Vincent (1978-03-19). "'Fingers' is Strictly from Desperation". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  6. ↑ Schiff, Stephen (1978-05-16). "Sticky Fingers". The Internet Archive. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  7. ↑ Davant, Thomas. "Fingers (1978)". Turner Classic Movies. Turner Classic Movies Inc. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.