Abel Ferrara

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Oedipax
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 8:48 am
Location: Atlanta

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#76 Post by Oedipax » Fri Sep 05, 2014 8:10 pm

Very nice appreciation of Ferrara, oh yeah. My only addition would be to not forget about The Driller Killer either, an intoxicating mix of exploitation film, punk rock documentary, and even a hint of 60s Godard in the interior apartment scenes. It has a real energy to it that's infectious.

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Lowry_Sam
Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 3:35 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#77 Post by Lowry_Sam » Sat Sep 06, 2014 10:37 pm

I haven't paid any attention to his career after seeing The Bad Lieutenant , which I liked a lot. Judging by imdb ratings though, it doesn't look like I've missed much, but his new one, Pasolini, looks promising (in spite of Willem Defoe speaking only English & French). Criterion just posted the link to the trailer on its facebook page.

oh yeah
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:45 pm

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#78 Post by oh yeah » Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:02 am

Oedipax, Driller is also one of my blind spots with Ferrara, unfortunately; I do want to see it, but I got so carried away with watching and re-watching the 90's stuff that I forgot.

Lowry -- to each his own, but I'd hardly use IMDb ratings as any kind of decent judge for whether a movie's worth seeing. If one were to go by those, then Ferrara pretty much only made two worthwhile films (and even then, both King of New York and Bad Lieutenant barely rate a 7; I think both were hovering around 6.9 for quite a while). I understand that his style, especially in the late 90s and beyond, is divisive, but really... a 5.7 for 'R Xmas? A measly 5.9 for the lean, mean genre piece (and much more) Body Snatchers? Only a 6.6 and 6.4 for the acclaimed Funeral and Addiction, respectively? It's all rather ridiculous. And when a film as non-mainstream and confounding and polarizing as Lynch's Lost Highway can rate an impressive 7.7 on there, I don't see how Ferrara's films so consistently stay in the 4-5-6 range.

On another note, I just re-watched New Rose Hotel yet again as part of my semi-chronological Ferrarathon, and I was even more impressed than ever before; formally, the thing is just a knockout, one of the most beautiful and sensual aesthetic experiences of recent years for sure. It's a film that may be a little confused and silly in places but I just love the world it creates and the dreamy way it's shot and composed and color-coordinated. After Bad Lt., probably his best film.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#79 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:37 am

I definitely agree on that 90s run, though I still have not yet had the chance to see anything post-The Funeral yet (The Blackout and 'R Xmas sound great, and as a Asia Argento, Juliette Binoche (and perhaps more pertinently, Matthew Modine) fan I'm sure I'd find something interesting about Mary and Go Go Tales).

Even Body Snatchers, though the least of the three official adaptations, still has a few inventively memorable set pieces and scarily committed performances (particularly the ranting Forest Whitaker at the opening and Meg Tilly's 'evil' stepmother!) and is worthwhile particularly to see Ferrara utilising the whole widescreen frame to create maximum paranoia! Has he worked in a 2.35:1 ratio before or since?

oh yeah
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:45 pm

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#80 Post by oh yeah » Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:05 pm

Body Snatchers was indeed Ferrara's only use of 2.35:1, and that may be part of why it's such a visually stunning picture (I'm a sucker for films shot in that AR). Bojan Bazelli, who also shot China Girl and King of New York, was the DP, and it's interesting to compare his work on those films -- lavish and very stylized, often yellow-tinted**, lots of use of shadows and expressive movement of the camera -- with the style of Ken Kelsch, who shot all of Ferrara's other 90's films, and has a more classical and comparatively "invisible" style less prone to wild camera movements and color filters, but is nonetheless an equally brilliant artist (The Addiction is a masterpiece of expressionist B&W photography). Anyway, Snatchers also has a big Hollywood budget to its benefit, and I think this is why the film is so aesthetically exacting and precise in a way Ferrara usually isn't. If it weren't for a somewhat mediocre final 20-25 minutes I'd rank the film even higher; it's really eerie stuff and its tautness is a great virture, with barely a superfluous minute. I'd love to see another Ferrara film with a really big budget, but that doesn't seem very likely!

Continuing with my marathon, I just re-watched 'R Xmas and it remains one of my favorites for its beautifully elliptical, minimalist style (with an exquisite use of slow, dreamy dissolves as central editing device), plus its surprising tenderness and restraint -- not to mention a great performance from Drea de Matteo and a wonderfully bittersweet "happy" ending. It's also funny how similar the film is to Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut in a few key ways.

**In fact, it's the prominent use of yellow filter in Snatchers that makes me wonder if the latest blu-ray and DVD special edition transfers of King are really accurate compared to the bare-bones old DVD which had a very yellow cast throughout.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
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Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#81 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Fri Dec 05, 2014 3:08 pm

For anyone curious to see what made Ferrara so angry—not that winding up Abel Ferrara is any real achievement—the UK Blu-ray of Welcome to New York includes the truncated made-for-IFC cut as an unhelpfully-titled "exclusive alternate version." Apparently the recut is more than just a bowdlerization, with some deleted scenes restored to the film and at least one alteration that radically changes the narrative. Of course that doesn't excuse taking it away from Ferrara, but the alternate version should be more interesting to watch and compare than a simple "softcore" edit.

oh yeah
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Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#82 Post by oh yeah » Fri Jun 03, 2016 4:05 am

So apparently Dangerous Game got a blu-ray release from Olive last year. There are no extras besides a trailer but it does apparently include both the theatrical cut and the NC-17/director's cut of the film! Which is fantastic -- I'm just wondering which cut was included on the previous MGM DVD, which is the only version of the film I've ever seen. The MGM DVD does say it's "unrated" and is 109 minutes, which is the purported length of the Director's Cut, so I don't know... anybody able to give some insight?

Anyway this is pretty much an instant buy for me. Can't believe I didn't hear about it sooner. Let's hope for more Ferrara on blu ASAP, particularly New Rose Hotel and The Addiction and The Funeral.

It's weird because Amazon says the release is Region B but everywhere else I can find states it's clearly Region A.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#83 Post by knives » Fri Jun 03, 2016 6:31 pm

Napoli Napoli Napoli also just got a Blu release.

oh yeah
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:45 pm

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#84 Post by oh yeah » Fri Jun 10, 2016 3:59 am

knives wrote:Napoli Napoli Napoli also just got a Blu release.
That's good. I still need to see that as well as pretty much all of Ferrara's other docs, but I have to say that from what I've seen of them they don't seem particularly interesting. It's almost as if his fiction films are already documentaries of a sort, so making something completely real just feels flat. I dunno.

Anyway, I have the Dangerous Game blu now and the quality is definitely worth the upgrade from the MGM disc, but the idea of including both Unrated and Rated cuts is much less impressive than it sounds! Apparently, as you can see here, there is only the most miniscule difference between the cuts -- the Unrated adds 27 seconds more to the rape scene in the film-within, and uses some more explicit footage for a few frames of Sarah's sex tape. I thought there must have been a much bigger difference, but it really is that small. I admire the intention, but it's not exactly fascinating to compare. Now if they somehow got a hold of the early workprint of the film -- which, I think clocks in at around 4 hours, and is described in detail in Brad Steven's exhaustive Ferrara book... that would be something.

Oh, and I forgot when mentioning ideal Ferrara blu releases above -- the most ideal of all would be Bad Lieutenant with the original Schoolly D track restored! Maybe Criterion can make Jimmy Page an offer he can't refuse...

oh yeah
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Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#85 Post by oh yeah » Sun Nov 27, 2016 12:36 am

Apparently Body Snatchers got a well-deserved blu release from Warner Archive last month. No special features of course but the transfer seems to be quite good from what I've seen.

M Sanderson
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 3:43 am

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#86 Post by M Sanderson » Thu Dec 01, 2016 7:51 am

So the Dangerous Game Blu is definitely good?

Really pleased with the Arrow DRILLER KILLER and Warner Archive BIDY SNATCHERS.

oh yeah
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:45 pm

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#87 Post by oh yeah » Fri Dec 02, 2016 2:51 am

Definitely good, in the sense that the Body Snatchers blu seems to be (i.e. no extras but a good enough, if not extraordinary, transfer).

M Sanderson
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 3:43 am

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#88 Post by M Sanderson » Fri Dec 02, 2016 3:56 am

Excellent, I was very happy with the Body Snatchers Blu, so I'll be grabbing Dangerous Game.

accatone
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Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#89 Post by accatone » Tue Jan 12, 2021 7:22 am

In lack of a Directors Thread i just wanted to say that i enjoyed Tommaso quite a lot. It perfectly fits in a row of Ferraras films of male self-pityness, certainly out of a autobiographical perspective, embodied phantastically by Dafoe. From the Driller Killer to the Orecchiette cooking, i could follow them (Ferrarar/Dafoe) to the nursing home easiely, no doubt. As often the random situations are the most interesting. The cooking, the yoga, the playground settings, but also the drunkard scene in the street. The dramatic peaks i did not care for i.e.
SpoilerShow
mostly the ending.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#90 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jan 12, 2021 11:42 am

I thought he balanced self-pity with self-critique very well One of the most honest films about being in recovery I’ve ever seen

dave1
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:16 am

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#91 Post by dave1 » Sat Jul 10, 2021 8:24 am

I don't care much about Siberia but was looking forward to buying the Lionsgate blu, however it seems it's missing roughly a minute of footage (during a certain sex scene). I tried searching for more info on that but I haven't come up with anything.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#92 Post by knives » Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:24 pm

Had an interesting double feature today. The first, Alive in France, uses direct cinema to create a self portrait that would pair well with Tommaso. It sees Ferrara relaxed and happy having integrated his whole past into the present. The film is often abstract using music cues from his past to create the story punctuated by an explanation of self. The moment that stands out the most to me, for example, is when an audience member asks why he doesn’t make gangster films anymore and Ferrara explaining that those aren’t the kind of people he wants to communicate through anymore with violence being something he’s not in the mood to engage with right now.

The other feature is last year’s Zeros and Ones which opens with an heartfelt appreciation by Hawke for Ferrara presumably to fill out the film’s length. The movie itself is all about the moment trying to contextualize the shut down of society into the context of other horrors humanity has experienced such as the war on terror and the Great Depression. There’s a real question of if anything actually has changed that eventually leads down to the film denying any change on society as having been real. It’s easily the most pessimistic Ferrara has been in a while while retaining ideas of small scale humanity he has recently been engaging in.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#93 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Aug 30, 2022 6:49 pm

I've been embarking on a personal project to either revisit or finally get to blind spots Ferrara's filmography, which I predominantly disliked in the past with a few notable exceptions. Somewhat unexpectedly, so far these revisits have been comprised of fruitful re-evaluations, and I'm slowly transforming my feelings on Ferrara as an artist. I previously saw a man dwelling in addiction-fueled defeatism and taking it at face value as uniformed self-pity. But now I see a man who recognizes this as a part of himself, and cannot unsee or unfeel the raw desperation of moral erosion in urban prisons-function-as-faux-playgrounds, and the personal experiences of powerlessness he's been sobered to from his time as an active addict and a man in recovery facing those demons. In a way, he's like a grittier version of Sam Levinson, another artist who drives his themes into our consciousnesses through primarily visual means. It's in the sensationalistic aesthetic that both men channel their messaging.

Ms. 45 moved from a one-star to a five-star film on a revisit, because I could finally see that it was communicating something more complex and vulnerable below the surface regarding how we cope with trauma, with Ferrara allowing that information to exist as intangibly to us as it is to his protagonist. My past inability to glean what he was trying to convey, focusing solely on my subjective repulsion of the surface content, mirrors Zoë Lund's own directed engagement with tangible violence to attempt to content with vessels within her that are actually deeper yet nebulous. It's the iceberg theory in action- and Ferrara has the audacity to make us work to engage with the film on its (very necessarily) obfuscated terms with (again necessarily) deceptively popping surface candy. Not that this isn't ironically gorgeous in its own way- master filmmaking that's grating and enthralling and disturbing and sublime.

The Blackout is a painfully accurate exhibition of the impotence of inebriation, and the struggle to cope with events that are lost forever in our blackouts. This one hit way too deep, and that's a compliment, using the actual material in fragmented, arrhythmic style and different film stocks to convey depersonalized and ultrasubjective perspectives on events, muddying the waters via uncomfortable and alienating methods. This guy just gets it. A perfect double feature with Tommaso, and makes me incredibly grateful that both of us were able to make it to the state of being that later film inhabits.

I love being wrong about filmmakers. I love changing my opinions through re-evaluations, and I love this forum for prompting me to do so ever so gently and indirectly. Many here have offered thought-provoking insights on Ferrara that have helped me open my mind to giving him another shot, and I thank you for that.

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tolbs1010
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Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#94 Post by tolbs1010 » Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:19 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Aug 30, 2022 6:49 pm
I love being wrong about filmmakers. I love changing my opinions through re-evaluations, and I love this forum for prompting me to do so ever so gently and indirectly.
Seconded. This forum has spurred me to revisit films many times based on comments that offered a perspective that I hadn't considered. Your post here is a good example. I saw the The Blackout many years ago and thought it was an embarrassment for all involved. Now I'm going to have to watch it again and see if my younger self was too dismissive, which is entirely possible. Sometimes you have to watch a movie at the right time in your life (or even the right time of day) for it to register.

Lots of interesting detours in Ferrara's career. The free streaming channels have carried several of my own Ferrara blind spots, specifically that weird period between Ms. 45 and King Of New York where Ferrara seemed to be attempting to carve out a more 'mainstream' career for himself. Or maybe he just wanted to pay the rent and eat while he got other projects off the ground. Fear City is probably the most entertaining of that lot, though I haven't watched his TV movie, The Gladiator, yet.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#95 Post by knives » Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:56 pm

The TV Movie is okay by the standards of its day, but also really weird.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#96 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Aug 30, 2022 9:58 pm

tolbs1010 wrote:
Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:19 pm
I saw the The Blackout many years ago and thought it was an embarrassment for all involved. Now I'm going to have to watch it again and see if my younger self was too dismissive, which is entirely possible. Sometimes you have to watch a movie at the right time in your life (or even the right time of day) for it to register.
I think it can be a reasonable reaction to be dismissive of this film. It's playing around with formal and narrative elisions that reflexively engage with the themes but inherently make the film difficult for the viewer to engage with. I don't want to say that this is the kind of film where one needs to relate to the material on a personal level to get anything out of it, but I do think that helps. I've read a couple of posters here and elsewhere who wrote powerful insights on this film, and they seem to be either posturing at or open about being in recovery from addiction. But I don't think it's necessary to relate specifically. I feel an affinity to Sam Levinson's work due to our literal similarities in experience and having gone through the same 12-step schooling that forms idiosyncratic worldviews and alternates ways of processing information, but other people can and have related to his work on a broader level, which is just as valuable. Likewise, plenty of people can relate to feeling desperate, isolated, powerless, fear-driven, hell-bent on suicidal self-destruction, etc., and this film has the potential to work just as well for them as anyone. Or if one is merely curious to watch a filmmaker regurgitate his internal struggle onto the screen, without identifying with any of it- that works too. Most of my favorite films are ones I relate to broadly rather than specifically, or that I just enjoy entering a foreign world of outside of any holds of personal recognition. That's a bit of a rant that went no where, but I think, if nothing else, it helps illustrate your point that we respond to a film depending on what we're looking to get out of it and how open we are to a versatile reaction (i.e. can I pivot and be interested, if a film doesn't grab me on a personal level; or if I'm looking for a vacation, am I open to getting triggered on a personal level, if the film catches me by surprise?)

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#97 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:08 pm

Can anybody speak to the quality of the Canadian, Spanish, or French blus of Ms. 45? The Drafthouse blu looks great, but I'd rather not pay OOP prices for it

Glowingwabbit
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#98 Post by Glowingwabbit » Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:26 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:08 pm
Can anybody speak to the quality of the Canadian, Spanish, or French blus of Ms. 45? The Drafthouse blu looks great, but I'd rather not pay OOP prices for it
I've been wondering if Vinegar Syndrome will put this out since they just did Miami Connection

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#99 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:40 pm

Glowingwabbit wrote:
Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:26 pm
therewillbeblus wrote:
Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:08 pm
Can anybody speak to the quality of the Canadian, Spanish, or French blus of Ms. 45? The Drafthouse blu looks great, but I'd rather not pay OOP prices for it
I've been wondering if Vinegar Syndrome will put this out since they just did Miami Connection
What's the connection between the two films? I was wondering that myself, but just cause it seems to be on brand

Glowingwabbit
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: Abel Ferrara on DVD

#100 Post by Glowingwabbit » Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:48 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:40 pm
Glowingwabbit wrote:
Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:26 pm
therewillbeblus wrote:
Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:08 pm
Can anybody speak to the quality of the Canadian, Spanish, or French blus of Ms. 45? The Drafthouse blu looks great, but I'd rather not pay OOP prices for it
I've been wondering if Vinegar Syndrome will put this out since they just did Miami Connection
What's the connection between the two films? I was wondering that myself, but just cause it seems to be on brand
Both were originally released by Drafthouse so that was the only connection I was thinking of.

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