Mona Lisa (1986)

What is it about Mona Lisa that makes her so iconic? Is it the mastery on display in the fine details, the mystery that surrounds her or maybe it’s all of the above? The same stature surely applies to Neil Jordan’s equally beguiling 1986 feature “Mona Lisa”, in which the tale of the recently released ex-convict George (Bob Hoskins) chauffeuring around the exquisite and mysterious Simone (Cathy Tyson), lays bear a film that is much a noir as it is a romance, swimming in the styling’s of the period and showcasing the directors talents for weaving stories of enormous complexity.

Co-written by David Leland, Neil Jordan’s film opens with a violent display of affection, where George attempts to re-kindle his relationship with his family and make amends for what he has put them through. It’s a scene that is violent and heartfelt, showing the anger that has built up in George but also his compassion. It’s a trait that is both his strength and weakness when he meets Simone, a luxurious call girl, who is entrusted by his previous boss Mortwell, played with frightening conviction by Michael Caine, to take her from client to client. Slowly but surely, as the layers unfold from George’s personality he begins to see Simone for more than what he thinks she is.

With cinematography by Roger Pratt, the film brings out in vivid display a time engulfed in reds and blacks, a type of decoration some might now call Kitsch. It’s this world of neon lights and darkened back alleys, so realistically displayed, which adds to the films power: a gritty drama with an underlying beauty. It’s a compliment to Leland and Jordan that, while the film is as much a visual experience as any other, the script is never overshadowed by its style. Jordan later went on to make “The Crying Game”, arguably his very best, with similar themes of race, class and gender (to go to deep is to spoil the joy and mystery of the film) but the breakdown between the working and upper class, societies approach to dealing with the race divide and what makes a man a “man” is always present. Its themes, which in different ways perhaps with the advent of 9/11, still resonate today: Noir in look but a socially conscious drama for the times in feeling.

The film reveals its essential themes in no mad rush though, allowing time for the film to sink into the viewer and allowing for the filmmaking and acting to take center stage. Bob Hoskins, never better playing George, rightfully gained plaudits for his role, winning the best actor award at Canne and only narrowly missing the Oscar (it went, instead, to Paul Newman for “The Colour of Money”). This isn’t a one-man show though: Cathy Tyson as Simone, in one of her first roles, is the girl with the priceless heart; alluring, manipulative but at all costs secretive, concealing what is closest to her heart. The only relief from the grittiness is in the form of Robbie Coltrane’s Thomas, a delightful grumph and eccentric, which George visits when needing a good book to read.

As with all of Jordan’s, there’s a virtuoso craft in the filmmaking. Nearing the end, when Simone’s vicious pimp comes back for her, the camera moves from his point of view as if it were out to attack the viewer, that was not only inventive for its time but is filled with more energy than most thrillers today, a technique which has been cleverly incorporated into “Byzantium”, Jordan’s latest. It’s not faultless: the ending wraps up neatly and tidily, making one ponder whether studios were the ones who directed the closing few minutes, and simply some scenes are done in poor taste (the scene involving the midgets on the pier is a step too far). But then the film is based around flawed characters, all with trouble pasts and dark secrets, all trying to find away of connecting again with one another, even after all that has happened. It’s beautiful in its detail of a London that seems all to fictional but one we must remind our selves is real, and moving in its own peculiar way; a film, despite its subject matter, which we can all resonate with.