NEW ORLEANS - A "GENIUS LOCI"

"Bad Lieutenant"

In the Times-Picayune's Lagniappe, David Germain interviews Nicholas Cage, who stars in "Bad Lieutenant", a movie in which, according to Cage, "explosive violence and extreme drug use are leavened by raucously twisted humor".

Directed by Werner Herzog, the film stars Cage as a New Orleans police detective traipsing about post-Katrina New Orleans, snorting, popping and smoking whatever drugs he can while threatening witnesses in pursuit of savage killers.

The film is not an outright remake of 1992's "Bad Lieutenant," which starred Harvey Keitel, but rather Herzog and Cage's take on the idea of a cop without conscience, doing his job in a sometimes hallucinatory fog.

Why film the movie in New Orleans?

"Bad Lieutenant" marked Cage's first time working in New Orleans since he shot his directing debut there with 2002's "Sonny." Cage said he was anxious about returning, because he had a life-changing experience in New Orleans during the "Sonny" shoot.

"In some ways, you could say that I was reborn in New Orleans, and I had this terrifying, mystical experience," said Cage, who would not provide details about what happened.

Critics might assail Cage for his action movies, but they're heaping praise on the actor for the frenzy and fearlessness of his role in "Bad Lieutenant."

New Orleans might have something to do with that, Cage said. Going back was a catharsis, and the city's spirit helped inspire his performance, he said.

"New Orleans is not like any place else in the world. It was colonized by the French and Spanish, it has these African energies, and all these things sort of roll into one to create this genius loci, which is the reason we have jazz," Cage said.

"I felt that I could embrace that, and that I could maybe have a bit of jazz, or my understanding of jazz, in the delivery. Which, my understanding is, that you know the lines so well that you go off-page and you improvise, and you can riff, and you can soak that energy up if you're willing to listen to it. And that's what I think happened." (My emphasis)

I haven't read a better description of my beloved native city in quite a while. His words on jazz as a metaphor for the city are brilliant. Not everyone "gets" New Orleans. Not all of the native-born "feel" the city, and then there are those who come from far-away places who "feel" the city right away.

I may have to see the movie, although "explosive violence" is not really my thing. Here's a link to the review of the film in the Boston Globe.