L'Amour Fou - Mickey Rourke And The French

How our friends across the Channel fell for the star of Double Team and Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man.

The French adore Mickey Rourke. They love him every bit as much as Jerry Lewis. That the talented but resistible comedian is considered on a par with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton across the Channel has long caused consternation. Still, thanks to his superb work in Martin Scorsese’s The King Of Comedy and the impressive scale of his output, one can sort of understand how a country could embrace Lewis’ idiosyncratic talent.

On the other hand, Mickey Rourke’s appeal is more elusive still. Sure, he’s a gifted actor. Indeed, go back to the very start of his movie career and you can understand why critics drew comparisons between him and the young Marlon Brando. And on those rare occasions when he can be bothered, he can still deliver the goods, as anyone who caught his Oscar-nominated turn in The Wrestler can confirm. For every nuanced turn, however, there’s been a half-dozen acting disasters. And the contrast between the handsome, soft-voiced star of Body Heat, Diner and Rumble Fish and the rasping, battered Rourke of today couldn’t be more pronounced.

And yet still the French love affair with ‘Le Mickey’ will not die. So devout is it that it’s a rare May that passes without Rourke being flown by private jet to the Riviera in time for the Cannes Film Festival. Though he’s only ever had three films in competition at Cannes, Mickey has become synonymous with the festival; just as his appearances there are invariably associated with carnage.

His first major assault on Cannes occurred in 1987 when he was in town to promote Barbet Schroeder’s Barfly. Written by the infamous Charles Bukowski and inspired by the author’s colourful life and exploits, Barfly called on Rourke to look like he slept in his clothes and didn’t have the money for a razor. The crueller among you might observe that said costume all but became the actor’s uniform throughout the 1990s.