“I Married to the Mob” A new gangster comedy created by Jonathan Demme

Gangster movies from a female perspective

Why did director Demme want to make ``Married to the Mob''? According to an interview article published in the French magazine "Positif" (January 1989 issue), he said that he had wanted to make a movie with a gangster as the main character for some time. It's a genre that I'm good at, and I like it so I Married to the Mob to film it. However, since it's a genre film, it's difficult to break the traditional form and add new elements. depicts gangsters from a female perspective and includes comical lines.

So he pursued this project, aiming to create a comedy entertainment similar to `` Sullivan's Travels '' (1941) by Preston Sturges, who is known as a ``master of screwball comedy''. Gangster movies from a female perspective were certainly new. When it comes to American gangster movies, most of the films made after the 1980s have male characters in them, such as Brian De Palma's ` `Scarface '' (1983) and Martin Scorsese's `` Goodfellas '' (1990). However, the main character of ``I Married to the Mob'' is Angela (Michelle Pfeiffer), the wife of a gangster.

She has been living surrounded by luxurious furniture brought in by her husband Frank (Alec Baldwin), all stolen goods, and she is internally fed up with the lifestyle. And after her husband dies unexpectedly, she disposes of all the stolen goods. She leaves home with her only son and dog to start a new life in a shabby apartment, but she is confused when Tony (Dean Stockwell), a gang boss who has had a crush on her, approaches her. . Meanwhile, FBI agent Mike (Matthew Modine), who is pursuing the fate of Tony's murder case, installs a wiretap in Angela's house and monitors her, but soon romance blossoms between the two.

“I Married to the Mob” (c) Photofest / Getty Images

This work depicts a woman's new journey, and makes you want to root for Angela as she clumsily tries to lead a different life while working at a beauty salon. Come to think of it, there are some overlaps with Demi's breakthrough film, ``Melvin and Howard.'' The main character is Melvin (Paul Le Mat), a good-natured man who works as a milkman, but his wife (Mary Steenburgen) is fed up with her poor life with her previous husband. There, she tries to start a new life as a dancer at a bar in the middle of nowhere.

I wonder if director Demi is interested in a new start for women. In ``Crazy Mama'' (1975, video released), which was produced in the 1970s, three generations of women, a father and son, who were robbed of their land, set out on a journey, sometimes committing crimes while aiming for a new world (``Married to the Mob'' ). Just like in ``Hey, Mafia,'' here too the main character works at a hair salon.) The heroine of the Academy Award-winning film `` The Silence of the Lambs '' (1991) is an FBI trainee who ends up working on criminal cases despite her inexperience. The director always sends encouragement to women who are trying to navigate a new world.

It is also refreshing that the villain in ``Married to the Mob'' is a woman. Connie (Mercedes Ruhl), the wife of gang boss Tony, suspects Angela of having an affair with her husband, and eventually takes bold action. Even the tough-looking Tony can't stand her. Even though he is the antagonist, he is a very well-loved character, but the structure of the story is centered on the conflict between Angela and Connie, which enhances the thrill of being a gangster movie from a female perspective.

Demi's musical sense and performance sense