Fingers

A talented pianist is placed under enormous mental strain, caught between a rarefied world and the sadistic, violent milieu of the mafia. Harvey Keitel plays Jimmy Angelelli, a man who yearns for perfection as a performer but at the same time is pressurised by his abusive father to become involved in the family business of organised crime. Unfortunately Jimmy has an incendiary temper, which makes him ill suited for the work, and when it comes to his anger and frustration, he is without boundaries. Cruising the grimy New York streets with his noisy boom box, playing an incessant round of pop hits, Jimmy is dangerously unhinged and his mental state and grasp on reality, slowly erodes. James Toback’s (Two girls and a guy, Black and white) debut feature is a fascinating view of a man at war with himself and features a stunning lead performance by Keitel. Like Scorsese’s early work (such as Who’s That Knocking at My Door? and Mean Streets) Toback utilises the New York setting to explore one man’s mental deterioration, a theme echoed two years earlier in “Taxi Driver”. Cast also includes Tisa Farrow, Jim Brown and Michael Vincente Gazzo.