Abel Ferrara

[hearthesilence]

Horrendous label. They're selling ancient DVD / VHS masters as HD and use DNR to death as soon as a hunch of grain is on their masters. Sound is also never lossless, which is telling. I (unfortunately) fell for a few of their releases some years ago and it was horrible even before I knew what DNR was. I don't know for this film in particular but from past memories, I wouldn't give them a cent.

Ugh. Thanks for the warning.

[Adam X]

I could swear I read a negative review of the disc on this very forum, but I can’t find anything. But nicolas’ words sound about right. I really hope someone can see it released in a decent state.

[kubelkind]

I have this disc and it looked OK to me, a vast improvement from the DVD I saw, at least. I need to dig it out for a full appraisal, and I never saw it on a film print (who has?). I can't see this being a film that will ever look pristine. Not only is there a lot of use of low grade video and 90s standard digital, but also digital processing of the sections shot on film to achieve those dissolves, I believe. I assume the masters aren't too high definition. I'd hate to see it upscaled a la Inland Empire. It is what it is, that's the time period and the aesthetic. One of my favourite films ever.

[swo17]

Oh look, Fear City for a reasonable price

[beamish14]

Oh look, Fear City for a reasonable price

If only China Girl would finally get a decent release

[therewillbeblus]

Fear City is the only Ferrara I can think of offhand that I appreciated on a visual level but otherwise got nothing out of. And yet its aesthetic is so attractive that I may pick this up simply to look at it, volume optional.

[sabbath]

Oh look, Fear City for a reasonable price

Wrong aspect ratio alert from the other site (confirmd by another user):

I got the 101 films disc today. Think the movie is likely the same versions Shout put out - however, while the uncut version plays in the correct aspect ratio, on my set up the main theatrical cut plays full 16x9, which is to say the 1.57 ratio is stretched to fill the whole image, so everything looks fat and distorted. The uncut version is my preferred choice so it’s not a big deal to me, but it seems like someone ****ed up somewhere.

And suspicious gamma setting as well: Caps-a-holic.com

[Matt]

Any recommendations for writing on Ferrara? Jonathan Rosenbaum recommends Nicole Brenez’s entry in the Contemporary Film Directors series and sort of halfheartedly recommends Brad Stevens’ Abel Ferrara: The Moral Vision, but I don’t really want something scholarly or something that focuses too heavily on “themes.” I’d love a career-spanning collection of interviews or something like an oral biography (like Mitchell Kuckoff’s book on Altman) but neither of these seems to exist. Anything else out there worth reading?

EDIT: Oh, I see from my searching that he’s writing his own book, due in 2025! Now that’s what I want.

[nowhereisaplace]

Just to note, I find the Stevens book to be excellent. My only gripe is it ends after R'Xmas.

[oh yeah]

^Speaking of 'R Xmas, somehow I didn't realise until last week that that film was released on Blu-Ray in 2022 by Shout Factory.. Limited to 1500 units. I just got a copy and will take a look soon; from the little I can find online it sounds like it's a decent enough transfer, but I dunno. Special features are minimal but at least they did port over Ferrara's commentary from the old Artisan DVD. Now we just need The Funeral, The Blackout and New Rose on blu.

[John Cope]

And Mary (possibly my own favorite film of his from the last 25 years).

[beamish14]

And Mary (possibly my own favorite film of his from the last 25 years).

Go Go Tales is extraordinary. Like Mary, it was co-financed by the late Silvio Berlusconi

[therewillbeblus]

And Mary (possibly my own favorite film of his from the last 25 years).

It's mine too (perhaps surpassed by the brilliant Tommaso, which is very esoterically appealing to AA affiliates)

[oh yeah]

Mary is a beautiful film, need to rewatch that one but I recall being pretty bowled over by it all, especially Forest Whitaker's character & Ferrara's use of cross-cutting and lap dissolves which is as elegant as ever. I guess I just have a soft spot for the 1990s "New York"/pre-Rome Ferrara -- I've seen everything from KoNY to R Xmas like dozens of times -- but starting with Mary he arguably became a more mature filmmaker.

[hearthesilence]

I mentioned this in the thread for The Last Temptation of Christ, but Anthology Film Archives is running a retrospective on Willem Dafoe and as luck would have it, he's in town shooting a film. (He didn't say what, but he mentioned that he rarely makes a film in America anymore, much less New York City, thanks to the current economic reality for films he prefers to make.) Again, it was probably one of the best post-screening discussions I've been to in quite some time. I think it helps that it's Anthology so it was clearly catering to cinephiles, both the moderator's questions and Dafoe's responses.

Dafoe mentioned he got on Ferrara's radar because early in Ferrara's career, Ferrara "cast a wide net" to see who'd be interested in his films and who would be available. Dafoe says Ferrara isn't the type of director who really waits, if he can have a film ready to go, he'll move to get it done. They first worked together on New Rose Hotel which Dafoe didn't discuss, he only said it was an extremely difficult film to make. (Earlier in the talk, he mentioned Ferrara's personal struggles, saying he used to do things that he really enjoyed that he eventually knew he couldn't do anymore.) I'm not sure if I have the chronology right on this, but basically years later, Dafoe and Ferrara were living in Rome. With Dafoe, he said he needed a change in scenery, but I think it was also because his wife is Italian and living in Rome. While there, they discovered they were virtually neighbors, so in his words, they basically became "two idiots in Rome" and hung out together. I think this is what started their long and close relationship as not just friends but collaborators. FWIW, he championed Tommaso as Ferrara's "most personal work yet deceptively his loosest," and I'm guessing Dafoe chose to do Q&A's for this and Siberia partly to promote Ferrara's work. As he put it, so much of it doesn't really make it in the States. People here will say Bad Lieutenant and King of New York, but "he's done SO much more."

It's clear Dafoe is likely the ONLY person who could've made Tommaso - he mentions Ferrara doesn't really have a script, he usually sets things up and let the actors go, but for this particular film, it often involved scenes where Dafoe had to draw from actual events in Ferrara's life, things he would already know or understand. In fact, Dafoe was virtually the only "actor" in the film, and so much of the cast used non-professionals from Ferrara's life. For example, the support group is actually Ferrara's in real life, and the people playing Tommaso's wife and child are actually Ferrara's. (Dafoe makes the point that in order for his scenes with them to work, he had "to drive" - nothing against Cristina Chiriac, she's good and has presence, but she doesn't have the background and experience of an actor, much less one as extensive as Dafoe's.) There's also a scene - a domestic fight outdoors, or "the lamp" scene - that's virtually a re-enactment of what Ferrara went through with his wife and daughter. They did only two takes (and it's a long take scene - I think it never cuts until the final minute when we see reaction shots from bystanders), and Dafoe told Ferrara he couldn't do more takes because Ferrara's daughter is in the scene and he thought they were essentially making her relive a traumatic experience she already had even though she understood they were doing a movie.

However, despite the nature of this film, Dafoe says he's usually wary of improvisation and how it can misguidedly open the door to actors rewriting scenes or behaving self-consciously. (He even mentions John Cassavetes and says there are moments in his films where they seem "so self-conscious," but of course Cassavetes films are actually tightly-scripted!) He also said “acting isn’t about emotions. It’s about doing things…letting things happen…and being open to that.” He contrasts this with others who come up with a character history or backstory, but he doesn’t believe in doing any of that.

During the audience questions, the first came from some gross asshat that I won't repeat, but Dafoe was graceful enough to just ignore it and politely dismiss it as starting off interesting before crashing and burning. Someone asked him about the meditation scenes - totally unfamiliar with that world, but she said given what was shown, it seemed like Dafoe was a longtime practitioner of that particular form, and Dafoe said this was true, "it helps me." Someone asked if there are any roles he was hoping to play, and said he doesn’t think about roles he would like to play because an actor could get into trouble for imagining a specific role and the rewards that come out of it even before an actual film is even conceived.

Siberia was the next film and the moderator mentioned you really have to see both. They took a straw poll to see who was staying and who had seen both films - something like four people raised their hands indicating they were going to stay. Dafoe mentioned Siberia took certain things in Tommaso (particularly what you see towards the end) to the next level, possibly even too far, but he was clearly happy that was screening next even though "just the four of you" would be staying. Unfortunately I didn't catch it so I can't report on his Q&A for that, but it was also a sold out screening.

EDIT: It was also great to see Dafoe do a brief impression of Ferrara. Just the sudden and complete transformation is remarkable.

[tolbs1010]

Thanks for sharing this. The few Q&As I have attended are usually lame because of fawning or stupid questions from moderators and audience members alike. And the interviewees are often guarded or bland in their responses. Sounds like Dafoe was open and entertaining in his responses.

I've been on a Ferrara kick lately which includes Pasolini and Tommaso. The latter felt informed by actual experience in that it was both loose and specific in a very lifelike way, so it was cool to read that Dafoe called the film somewhat autobiographical for Ferrara. Ferrara obviously has valued close collaboration throughout his career (Nicholas St. John, Ken Kelsch, Walken, Dafoe, and several others), but his work still feels singular. He continues to experiment with form and has grown and evolved as a filmmaker, despite minuscule budgets and difficult distribution. How many filmmakers continue to push themselves and find new ways of using the medium at his age? Coppola and.... I'm sure there are others, but many great filmmakers repeat themselves with more refinement and less potency as they get older.

I watched Pasolini and Ms. 45 back-to-back. Very different films decades apart, yet I can see Ferrara's sensitivity towards individuals that attempt to carve their own righteous destiny into the monolith of oppressive society that surrounds them in both films. Siberia is next on my list. Not very well-liked by critics or general audiences it seems, but Ferrara is one of those filmmakers that I have found isn't done justice by reviews/ratings.

Dafoe's career is a marvel. Besides being incredibly prolific, he is capable of very stylized, BIG performances (Wild At Heart and Shadow Of The Vampire come to mind) as well as beautifully natural performances like in Tommaso or The Florida Project. It doesn't hurt that he has one of the great actor faces of his generation. And I agree with him about Cassavetes' films!

[hearthesilence]

You're welcome! Also remembered another detail - the cinematographer/camera operator Peter Zeitlinger had worked extensively with Werner Herzog - mostly on his great run of documentaries (beginning in the 1990s) but also on a few of his later narrative films - and Dafoe himself brought this up (didn't even use Herzog's first name) which pretty much tells you what they expected from the audience that attended the screening.

[beamish14]

It’s a shame we never got to see Dafoe as the co-lead in the comedy Arrive Alive, surely up with Bogart Slept Here as one of the few Hollywood films from the last 50 years to be shut-down mid-production for being unsatisfactory.

He did a Q&A for Shadow of the Vampire here at the Egyptian some time back, but I only caught the tail end of it before the film started.

Abel Ferrara’s prints are housed at the Anthology Film Archives, so I’m glad he held his discussion at said venue

[Zot!]

Abel Ferrara personal list project top ten:

1. The Addiction - The most comprehensive film about coping with existence made by an addict with hypersensitivity to stimuli
2. Tommaso - Perhaps the greatest and most self-consciously confessional film about living the 12-step recovery life
3. Ms. 45 - Either the greatest or second greatest rape revenge film, though its strategy at engaging us in its textures of alienation is quite different from the other!
4. The Blackout - Perhaps the greatest and most self-consciously confessional film about hitting bottom in active addiction
5. Mary - A monstrously dense examination of our spiritual maladies and the 'solutions' we find
6. Siberia - Metaphysical Madness!
7. King of New York - Ferrara having Fun
8. Body Snatchers - A horror epic with all the fat cut off, to such drastic lengths that the second half feels like an animalistic ravaging of both its central characters and the audience
9. New Rose Hotel - Sci-Fi digital wasteland, where the memories of wine can taste like wine.. if we want them to.. maybe
10. Go Go Tales / The Funeral - Coin flip on if I'm in a jovial or gloomy mood

No Bad Lieutenant? I've only seen half your list, but I would definitely place it at the top.

[Glowingwabbit]

Abel Ferrara personal list project top ten:

1. The Addiction - The most comprehensive film about coping with existence made by an addict with hypersensitivity to stimuli
2. Tommaso - Perhaps the greatest and most self-consciously confessional film about living the 12-step recovery life
3. Ms. 45 - Either the greatest or second greatest rape revenge film, though its strategy at engaging us in its textures of alienation is quite different from the other!
4. The Blackout - Perhaps the greatest and most self-consciously confessional film about hitting bottom in active addiction
5. Mary - A monstrously dense examination of our spiritual maladies and the 'solutions' we find
6. Siberia - Metaphysical Madness!
7. King of New York - Ferrara having Fun
8. Body Snatchers - A horror epic with all the fat cut off, to such drastic lengths that the second half feels like an animalistic ravaging of both its central characters and the audience
9. New Rose Hotel - Sci-Fi digital wasteland, where the memories of wine can taste like wine.. if we want them to.. maybe
10. Go Go Tales / The Funeral - Coin flip on if I'm in a jovial or gloomy mood

No Bad Lieutenant? I've only seen half your list, but I would definitely place it at the top.

Great list therewillbeblus. I'd have the first 9 films in my top ten as well just in a slightly different order. I'd probably want to add 4:44 as my tenth. I'm not high on Bad Lieutenant either (but that is also a symptom of Ferrara having such a great filmography). I think it's reputation has gone down among Ferrara heads. Also, I really need some label to give us a nice edition of The Blackout.

[therewillbeblus]

No Bad Lieutenant?

Nope! You can look to the previous page for my thoughts on that one

I just revisited New Rose Hotel again on the new blu-ray and would probably place it higher on a list made today

[Zot!]

No Bad Lieutenant?

Nope! You can look to the previous page for my thoughts on that one

I just revisited New Rose Hotel again on the new blu-ray and would probably place it higher on a list made today

Ah, see it now. I won't deny your experience, but I can say that Bad Lieutenant held up much better than I expected, and I love the stripped down fractured nature of it. Probably one of the better "angry-man-in-existential-crisis" outings I can remember, and I surprisingly like it much better than Schrader's more fussy career highs (barring Taxi Driver). Also reminded me a lot of Buffalo '66 and Fingers/Beat My Heart Skipped. I'm keen on seeing The Addiction, as that is one I've not seen, so thanks for raising that on my queue.

[hearthesilence]

Tommaso would be among my favorites too. I'm surprised it got such a cool and even uncharitable reception from the press (see Richard Brody's review), I'm not sure everything works but as I posted upthread, I thought it had considerable merit.

[therewillbeblus]

I think it's a bit esoteric to the recovery community, not so much in content but in its reflection of the world engaging with spiritual principles of the 12-step program. That's not to say outsiders can't enjoy it, and I do have a bias, but it very much struck me as a community insider's movie when I was watching. Just a theory on why more people didn't get on board

[John Cope]

I'd have to include Dangerous Game near the top as it may be my favorite of the St. John collaborations (and that's saying something).