Abel Ferrara on Willem Dafoe in Siberia: “That’s so Willem! He’s the darkness and I’m the dancer.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Abel Ferrara has kept himself active over the past 16 months, after presenting the world premiere (at the 2020 Berlinale) of Siberia, co-written with Christ Zois, shot by Stefano Falivene (Pasolini), scored by Joe Delia and starring Willem Dafoe with Cristina Chiriac, Anna Ferrara, Dounia Sichov, Simon McBurney, Laurent Arnatsiaq, Phil Neilson, Valentina Rozumenko, Fabio Pagano, and Ulrike Willenbacher.
Clint (Willem Dafoe) with his Inuit friend (Laurent Arnatsiaq)
Abel has Zeros And Ones, starring Ethan Hawke, Valerio Mastandrea, and Cristina Chiriac waiting to go and his must-watch Sportin' Life, sponsored by Saint Laurent, and shot by Sean Price Williams, which intimately documents the Berlin festivities, including musical performances, with Abel singing and playing guitar in clubs. The initial tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic in...
Abel Ferrara has kept himself active over the past 16 months, after presenting the world premiere (at the 2020 Berlinale) of Siberia, co-written with Christ Zois, shot by Stefano Falivene (Pasolini), scored by Joe Delia and starring Willem Dafoe with Cristina Chiriac, Anna Ferrara, Dounia Sichov, Simon McBurney, Laurent Arnatsiaq, Phil Neilson, Valentina Rozumenko, Fabio Pagano, and Ulrike Willenbacher.
Clint (Willem Dafoe) with his Inuit friend (Laurent Arnatsiaq)
Abel has Zeros And Ones, starring Ethan Hawke, Valerio Mastandrea, and Cristina Chiriac waiting to go and his must-watch Sportin' Life, sponsored by Saint Laurent, and shot by Sean Price Williams, which intimately documents the Berlin festivities, including musical performances, with Abel singing and playing guitar in clubs. The initial tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic in...
- 6/29/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks with Program Director and author Jack Sargeant about the Revelation Perth Film Festival, which takes place July 9th – 19th 2020.
It’s a virtual festival with all films available across Australia and a handful of films available to watch anywhere in the world. Tickets and details are here. Revelation already provide a streaming service called Rev On Demand. So, if you want to check out their unique brand of eclectic and unusual cinema you can tune in here at any time right here: www.revelationfilmfest.org/film-rev-on-demand
Highlighted films discussed on the podcast are:
Francis Ferguson (2019) Written and directed by Bob Byongton Experimental Programs 2019/20 Morgana (2019) Written and directed by Josie Hess & Isabel Peppard Siberia (2020) Written by Abel Ferrera and Christ Zois; Directed by Abel Ferrera An Ideal Host (2020) Written by Tyler Jones; Directed by Robert Woods...
It’s a virtual festival with all films available across Australia and a handful of films available to watch anywhere in the world. Tickets and details are here. Revelation already provide a streaming service called Rev On Demand. So, if you want to check out their unique brand of eclectic and unusual cinema you can tune in here at any time right here: www.revelationfilmfest.org/film-rev-on-demand
Highlighted films discussed on the podcast are:
Francis Ferguson (2019) Written and directed by Bob Byongton Experimental Programs 2019/20 Morgana (2019) Written and directed by Josie Hess & Isabel Peppard Siberia (2020) Written by Abel Ferrera and Christ Zois; Directed by Abel Ferrera An Ideal Host (2020) Written by Tyler Jones; Directed by Robert Woods...
- 7/7/2020
- by Stuart Wright
- Nerdly
Less than a year after premiering “Tommaso” at Cannes — maybe the most grounded of movies that renegade auteur Abel Ferrara has made with long-time muse Willem Dafoe — the Bronxiest of filmmakers pivots in the exact opposite direction for . Set at the snowy end of the universe (and inspired by one of the latter writer’s manuscripts), “Siberia” is, in essence, a baffling attempt to project the human subconscious on screen.
“I want to see if we can really film dreams,” Ferrara has said of his ambitions for the project. “Our fears, our regrets, our nostalgia.” Putting aside the hundreds of other films that have previously tried to accomplish the same or similar (to varying degrees of success), the evidence here would suggest that we cannot. Then again, if Ferrara’s nostalgia involves lots of sex, his regrets include attending a death metal concert of some kind, and his fears hinge...
“I want to see if we can really film dreams,” Ferrara has said of his ambitions for the project. “Our fears, our regrets, our nostalgia.” Putting aside the hundreds of other films that have previously tried to accomplish the same or similar (to varying degrees of success), the evidence here would suggest that we cannot. Then again, if Ferrara’s nostalgia involves lots of sex, his regrets include attending a death metal concert of some kind, and his fears hinge...
- 2/24/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Willem Dafoe’s character Clint is not going to be the only one struggling to find meaning in Siberia, the latest rumination on life from agent provocateur Abel Ferrara. Not only does the screenplay, which Ferrara wrote with Christ Zois, seem like a highly personal exploration of the director’s own psyche, but it is peppered with dreamlike/drug-like encounters with pregnant women, naked dwarves, shamans and magicians who pop out of nowhere, are questioned and disappear a few minutes later.
Though unmentioned, it is important to know that the film is inspired by self-understanding techniques pioneered by Swiss psychoanalyst Carl ...
Though unmentioned, it is important to know that the film is inspired by self-understanding techniques pioneered by Swiss psychoanalyst Carl ...
- 2/24/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Willem Dafoe’s character Clint is not going to be the only one struggling to find meaning in Siberia, the latest rumination on life from agent provocateur Abel Ferrara. Not only does the screenplay, which Ferrara wrote with Christ Zois, seem like a highly personal exploration of the director’s own psyche, but it is peppered with dreamlike/drug-like encounters with pregnant women, naked dwarves, shamans and magicians who pop out of nowhere, are questioned and disappear a few minutes later.
Though unmentioned, it is important to know that the film is inspired by self-understanding techniques pioneered by Swiss psychoanalyst Carl ...
Though unmentioned, it is important to know that the film is inspired by self-understanding techniques pioneered by Swiss psychoanalyst Carl ...
- 2/24/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Dream team Abel Ferrara and Willem Dafoe, who most recently collaborated on “Tommaso” and “Pasolini,” have done it again with the upcoming Berlinale premiere, “Siberia.” IndieWire shares the stunning first trailer for the film, which is currently seeking U.S. distribution, below. The film premieres at the Berlin Film Festival on February 24.
Throughout, star Dafoe (who recently won an Indie Spirit award for his supporting turn in “The Lighthouse”) wanders the nightmares and dreamscapes of the mind. “You’ve destroyed my life,” a woman laughingly tells him, launching Dafoe, whose character is called Clint, on a dark night of the soul across haunting set pieces. The film boasts cinematography from Stefano Falivene, who worked on Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic” and also shot Ferrara’s “Pasolini.”
Here’s the official synopsis of the film, courtesy of the Berlin Film Festival. In short, we’re firmly in Ferrara country here,...
Throughout, star Dafoe (who recently won an Indie Spirit award for his supporting turn in “The Lighthouse”) wanders the nightmares and dreamscapes of the mind. “You’ve destroyed my life,” a woman laughingly tells him, launching Dafoe, whose character is called Clint, on a dark night of the soul across haunting set pieces. The film boasts cinematography from Stefano Falivene, who worked on Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic” and also shot Ferrara’s “Pasolini.”
Here’s the official synopsis of the film, courtesy of the Berlin Film Festival. In short, we’re firmly in Ferrara country here,...
- 2/22/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Welcome to New York
Written by Abel Ferrara & Christ Zois
Directed by Abel Ferrara
USA, 2014
There are times during Abel Ferrara’s Welcome to New York when you can feel a defiant filmmaker pushing back against the moralizing status quo. When he gives voice to trampled idealism and unapologetic carnality. Those fleeting moments of clarity make the rest of this disjointed, unfocused mess all the more painful. Cinema owes a debt of gratitude to auteurs like Ferrara and Gérard Depardieu, but there’s simply no dramatic necessity for this film to exist.
When “America the Beautiful” serenades an opening credit montage featuring stacks of cash and glistening gold bars you know that subtlety is out the window. Welcome to New York features lots of cinematic spaghetti; different genres and tones thrown against the wall with very little of it sticking. Social satire, melodrama, cinéma vérité, and tragic monologues make for...
Written by Abel Ferrara & Christ Zois
Directed by Abel Ferrara
USA, 2014
There are times during Abel Ferrara’s Welcome to New York when you can feel a defiant filmmaker pushing back against the moralizing status quo. When he gives voice to trampled idealism and unapologetic carnality. Those fleeting moments of clarity make the rest of this disjointed, unfocused mess all the more painful. Cinema owes a debt of gratitude to auteurs like Ferrara and Gérard Depardieu, but there’s simply no dramatic necessity for this film to exist.
When “America the Beautiful” serenades an opening credit montage featuring stacks of cash and glistening gold bars you know that subtlety is out the window. Welcome to New York features lots of cinematic spaghetti; different genres and tones thrown against the wall with very little of it sticking. Social satire, melodrama, cinéma vérité, and tragic monologues make for...
- 4/2/2015
- by J.R. Kinnard
- SoundOnSight
"It's a crime... that I want to feel young?" Ah, mais oui, Gérard Depardieu! We've seen a UK trailer for this previously, but another one should be more than enough to satisfy. IFC Films has debuted the official Us (meaning MPAA-approved) trailer for one of Abel Ferrara's latest films, Welcome to New York, starring Gérard Depardieu, Jacqueline Bisset and Paul Calderon. Depardieu plays a billionaire with ultimate money and power, who is driven by a "frenzied and unbridled sexual hunger". I'm not sure if I'm that into this film's lavishness, but that is quite a way to sell it. The trailer is barely Sfw, but I'm sure the film is not. Here's the official Us trailer for Abel Ferrara's Welcome to New York direct from IFC Films: Welcome to New York is directed by Abel Ferrara (King of New York, Chelsea on the Rocks, 4:44 Last Day...
- 3/2/2015
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Jacqueline Bisset, Paul Calderon, Paul Hipp, Shanyn Leigh, Amy Ferguson, Drena De Niro, Ronald Guttman | Written by Abel Ferrara, Christ Zois | Directed by Abel Ferrara
Review by Andrew McArthur
Abel Ferrara‘s latest work Welcome to New York is a film so unflinching in its portrait of excess and moral-corruption that it makes The Wolf of Wall Street look like it was produced by Cbeebies.
Devereaux (Gerard Depardieu), one of the world’s most powerful businessmen is filled with a gratuitous sexual hunger – a man so entangled in his lifestyle of power, sex and money that he believes everything is his. This is until Deveraux sexually assaults a hotel maid in New York and finds himself arrested, on the verge of being stripped of this power. Ferrara uses the high-profile case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as his factual basis for this slow-burning piece filled with excess and debauchery.
Review by Andrew McArthur
Abel Ferrara‘s latest work Welcome to New York is a film so unflinching in its portrait of excess and moral-corruption that it makes The Wolf of Wall Street look like it was produced by Cbeebies.
Devereaux (Gerard Depardieu), one of the world’s most powerful businessmen is filled with a gratuitous sexual hunger – a man so entangled in his lifestyle of power, sex and money that he believes everything is his. This is until Deveraux sexually assaults a hotel maid in New York and finds himself arrested, on the verge of being stripped of this power. Ferrara uses the high-profile case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as his factual basis for this slow-burning piece filled with excess and debauchery.
- 10/19/2014
- by Guest
- Nerdly
This may be one of the most repulsive movies I’ve ever seen. It’s also an important movie, laying bare the farce that equality and justice become in the face of power, privilege, and money. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
This may be one of the most repulsive movies I’ve ever seen. Its protagonist is a sociopathic narcissist who sees women as playthings, who takes advantage of his power, privilege, and money to — literally — bail himself out when he is unable to tell the difference between ambitious young women who tell him to his face that they’re sleeping with him because they’re turned on by his standing, professional sex workers paid to put on a show of pretending to like him, and uninterested female passersby screaming bloody hell for him to stop assaulting them.
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
This may be one of the most repulsive movies I’ve ever seen. Its protagonist is a sociopathic narcissist who sees women as playthings, who takes advantage of his power, privilege, and money to — literally — bail himself out when he is unable to tell the difference between ambitious young women who tell him to his face that they’re sleeping with him because they’re turned on by his standing, professional sex workers paid to put on a show of pretending to like him, and uninterested female passersby screaming bloody hell for him to stop assaulting them.
- 8/8/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Could it be career rehab time for Gerard Depardieu? Abel Ferrara, who made audiences see Harvey Keitel in a harsh new light when he made the original Bad Lieutenant, has cast Depardieu as a vague analogue of embattled Imf chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Ferrara scripted with Christ Zois, and Jacqueline Bisset co-stars. While it’s difficult to pull too […]
The post ‘Welcome to New York’ International Trailer: Gerard Depardiu Parties His Way Into Trouble appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Welcome to New York’ International Trailer: Gerard Depardiu Parties His Way Into Trouble appeared first on /Film.
- 7/11/2014
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
Those familiar with Gerard Depardieu might not immediately picture him as a dastardly fiend who messes with the unsavory side of corrupt international banking. But that's exactly what the French actor becomes in Welcome to New York, the latest film from Abel Ferrara (King of New York, Mulberry St.). The film has already debuted in France, and is poised to hit the United Kingdom, so that means we get a trailer from across the pond. However, be careful where you watch it, because the crazy antics of Depardieu make it completely Nsfw. It's basically like a foreign version of The Wolf of Wall Street, so there you go. Here's the UK trailer for Abel Ferrara's Welcome to New York from Altitude Film: Welcome to New York is directed by Abel Ferrara (King of New York, Chelsea on the Rocks, 4:44 Last Day on Earth) who co-wrote the script with Christ Zois,...
- 7/11/2014
- by Ethan Anderton
- firstshowing.net
Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Jacqueline Bisset, Paul Calderon, Paul Hipp, Shanyn Leigh, Amy Ferguson, Drena De Niro, Ronald Guttman | Written by Abel Ferrara, Christ Zois | Directed by Abel Ferrara
Review by Andrew McArthur
Abel Ferrara‘s latest work Welcome to New York is a film so unflinching in its portrait of excess and moral-corruption that it makes The Wolf of Wall Street look like it was produced by Cbeebies.
Devereaux (Gerard Depardieu), one of the world’s most powerful businessmen is filled with a gratuitous sexual hunger – a man so entangled in his lifestyle of power, sex and money that he believes everything is his. This is until Deveraux sexually assaults a hotel maid in New York and finds himself arrested, on the verge of being stripped of this power. Ferrara uses the high-profile case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as his factual basis for this slow-burning piece filled with excess and debauchery.
Review by Andrew McArthur
Abel Ferrara‘s latest work Welcome to New York is a film so unflinching in its portrait of excess and moral-corruption that it makes The Wolf of Wall Street look like it was produced by Cbeebies.
Devereaux (Gerard Depardieu), one of the world’s most powerful businessmen is filled with a gratuitous sexual hunger – a man so entangled in his lifestyle of power, sex and money that he believes everything is his. This is until Deveraux sexually assaults a hotel maid in New York and finds himself arrested, on the verge of being stripped of this power. Ferrara uses the high-profile case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as his factual basis for this slow-burning piece filled with excess and debauchery.
- 7/3/2014
- by Guest
- Nerdly
Photo by Quentin Carbonell
Despite the fact the Festival de Cannes—for whatever reason—did not want Abel Ferrara's Welcome to New York, Cannes itself got the film, first in three separate cinema screenings staged during the festival, and then simultaneously online in France through video on demand. Wild Bunch, the film's producers, staged this alt-Cannes premiere as if it were a real one, complete with a press conference with director Abel Ferrara, screenwriter Christ Zois, and actors Gérard Depardieu and Jacqueline Bisset, as well as a series of interviews with the talent provided for the press.
I was able to participate in a roundtable conversation with the director, who was generous in time, spirit and patience with his surrounding journalists. For more on the film itself, see my report from Cannes, as well as Marie-Pierre Duhamel's report from Paris.
Question: I read somewhere that this film was...
Despite the fact the Festival de Cannes—for whatever reason—did not want Abel Ferrara's Welcome to New York, Cannes itself got the film, first in three separate cinema screenings staged during the festival, and then simultaneously online in France through video on demand. Wild Bunch, the film's producers, staged this alt-Cannes premiere as if it were a real one, complete with a press conference with director Abel Ferrara, screenwriter Christ Zois, and actors Gérard Depardieu and Jacqueline Bisset, as well as a series of interviews with the talent provided for the press.
I was able to participate in a roundtable conversation with the director, who was generous in time, spirit and patience with his surrounding journalists. For more on the film itself, see my report from Cannes, as well as Marie-Pierre Duhamel's report from Paris.
Question: I read somewhere that this film was...
- 6/7/2014
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Welcome to New York
Director: Abel Ferrara
Writers: Abel Ferrara, Christ Zois
Producer: Belladonna Productions’ Adam Folk
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Gerard Depardieu, Jacqueline Bisset, Maria Di Angelis
While its source material needs little introduction, what’s perhaps most exciting is that this is Ferrara’s highest profile project in about two decades (his 1981 sophomore feature, Ms. 45 is just now seeing a much needed re-release). Ferrara seems hip to the momentum, now gathering resources to film a highly anticipated Pasolini biopic starring Willem Dafoe as his latest nears theatrical release, but his loaded gun is this Strauss-Kahn treatment, a snapshot of dangerous reptile and told by a filmmaker with an unprecedented knack for documenting the underbelly of New York City.
Gist: A look at the rise and controversial fall of French economist and former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Release Date: While this was...
Director: Abel Ferrara
Writers: Abel Ferrara, Christ Zois
Producer: Belladonna Productions’ Adam Folk
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Gerard Depardieu, Jacqueline Bisset, Maria Di Angelis
While its source material needs little introduction, what’s perhaps most exciting is that this is Ferrara’s highest profile project in about two decades (his 1981 sophomore feature, Ms. 45 is just now seeing a much needed re-release). Ferrara seems hip to the momentum, now gathering resources to film a highly anticipated Pasolini biopic starring Willem Dafoe as his latest nears theatrical release, but his loaded gun is this Strauss-Kahn treatment, a snapshot of dangerous reptile and told by a filmmaker with an unprecedented knack for documenting the underbelly of New York City.
Gist: A look at the rise and controversial fall of French economist and former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Release Date: While this was...
- 2/25/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Update: Wild Bunch has clarified the film will not be about Dominique Strasse-Kahn specifically, but more generally about politicians. "Abel Ferrara is currently writing a script about politics, the weakness of today’s politician, who is at the same time all-powerful and lost, miserable in his personal life," Vincent Maraval said. Both Depardieu and Adjani are nowhere near to being locked. As you were. [THR] Controversial filmmaker Abel Ferrara (“Bad Lieutenant,” “4:44 Last Day On Earth”) is lining up a new project that sounds as intriguing as it does tentative. Ferrara is working with screenwriter Christ Zois (who previously co-wrote Ferrara’s 1997 film “The Blackout,” and not much else) on a script that will be somewhat inspired by the sexual assault scandal involving former Imf chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani have been linked to the project, which will be greatly...
- 12/28/2011
- The Playlist
I've only just now caught wind of a one-time-only event that took place in the Port of Tallinn last Thursday, 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero, via Alison Nastasi at Movies.com: "An international collective of directors… contributed their shorts to the single 35mm film anthology that was screened for an audience one time — as part of Estonia's 2011 European Capital of Culture celebration — and then burned to the ground (along with the screen itself). Why, exactly? The project's website describes it as 'flying in the face of the cynicism of marketing, production, business operators, and the moral majority … dedicated to preserving freedom of thought in cinema.'" The roster of participating directors and artists is pretty impressive:
Brian Yuzna (USA), Michael Glawogger (Austria), Aku Louhimies (Finland), Ken Jacobs (USA), Gustav Deutsch (Austria), Tom Tykwer (Germany), Mark Boswell (USA), Malcolm Le Grice (UK), Aki Kaurismäki (Finland), Bruce McClure (UK), Mika Taanila...
Brian Yuzna (USA), Michael Glawogger (Austria), Aku Louhimies (Finland), Ken Jacobs (USA), Gustav Deutsch (Austria), Tom Tykwer (Germany), Mark Boswell (USA), Malcolm Le Grice (UK), Aki Kaurismäki (Finland), Bruce McClure (UK), Mika Taanila...
- 12/27/2011
- MUBI
Gerard Depardieu, the stolid French star, is reportedly eager to take on the character of mysterious international economist Dominique Strauss-Khan, who found himself mired in a sex scandal with New York hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo. The twisting and evolving story surrounding the chief of the International Monetary Fund sent the one-time politicsl player back to France and scuttled his run at the French presidency. Depardieu is said to be eager to play the role opposite actress Isabelle Adjani in a project to be directed by American indie Abel Ferrara. Deadline confirms that Ferrara and his collaborator Christ Zois are developing a script; they hope to use the Strauss-Khan affair as...
- 12/27/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
French Sex Scandal: Call this wishful thinking, but a movie about sexual addiction from director Abel Ferrara, potentially starring Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani, would be worth wishing for, right? Ferrara is working on a script with occasional collaborator Christ Zois that may “include elements inspired by the lives of other politicians like Bill Clinton and Silvio Berlusconi along with [Dominique] Strauss-Kahn; Depardieu and Adjani (who first appeared together in 1976's Barocco, above) have talked with the director about working together. (Deadline) Holiday Box Office Estimates: Steven Spielberg’s War Horse broke out of the gate with two days of impressive estimated earnings, taking in more than $15 million. As expected, Mission...
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- 12/27/2011
- by Peter Martin
- Movies.com
We’ll probably never know what happened between the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Khan and the hotel maid who accused him of sexual harassment, Nafissatou Diallo. It’s a modern scandal that resulted in the high scrutiny of a potential contender for the French presidency and ended with the charges being dropped completely. Still, it was enough to stop Strauss-Khan’s political aspirations – perfect for any conspiracy theorist looking for something fresher than JFK. Now, according to Deadline Neuilly, Gerard Depardieu is pissing himself to play the role and he may team up with actress Isabelle Adjani. At the front of it all is director Abel Ferrara (the original Bad Lieutenant). He and collaborator Christ Zois are working on a script that will apparently utilize the Strauss-Khan story in a larger narrative about “addiction and politicians,” according to Wild Bunch producer Vincent Maraval. Current events are definitely fodder for stories, especially...
- 12/27/2011
- by Cole Abaius
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani in talks for movie that may also draw from lives of Bill Clinton and Silvio Berlusconi
Abel Ferrara, the iconoclastic director of Bad Lieutenant and The King of New York, is working on a film about political sex scandals partly inspired by the one that engulfed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief and one-time French presidential hopeful.
According to website Deadline, Ferrara, who was worked intermittently in recent years but maintains a powerful reputation as a film-maker with a unique vision, is in talks with Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani to star in the project, which is still in the early stages of development. The screenplay, by Ferrera and Christ Zois, may also include elements from the lives of other politicians, such as Bill Clinton and Silvio Berlusconi, who found themselves embroiled in sex scandals.
"One thing we do know is that there's a common desire amongst Depardieu,...
Abel Ferrara, the iconoclastic director of Bad Lieutenant and The King of New York, is working on a film about political sex scandals partly inspired by the one that engulfed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief and one-time French presidential hopeful.
According to website Deadline, Ferrara, who was worked intermittently in recent years but maintains a powerful reputation as a film-maker with a unique vision, is in talks with Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani to star in the project, which is still in the early stages of development. The screenplay, by Ferrera and Christ Zois, may also include elements from the lives of other politicians, such as Bill Clinton and Silvio Berlusconi, who found themselves embroiled in sex scandals.
"One thing we do know is that there's a common desire amongst Depardieu,...
- 12/27/2011
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
Abel Ferrara, best known as an independent filmmaker of such films as Ms. 45 (1981), King of New York (1990), Bad Lieutenant (1992) and The Funeral (1996) is now re-teaming with screenwriter Christ Zois (New Rose Hotel) to work on a feature script partly inspired by this summer’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair. Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle [...]
Continue reading Abel Ferrara Working on Dominique Strauss-Kahn-Inspired Project on FilmoFilia.
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Continue reading Abel Ferrara Working on Dominique Strauss-Kahn-Inspired Project on FilmoFilia.
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- 12/26/2011
- by Nick Martin
- Filmofilia
Release Date: Oct. 2 (limited)
Director: Abel Ferrara
Writers: Abel Ferrara, David Linter, and Christ Zois
Cinematographers: David Hausen and Ken Kelsch
Studio/Run Time: Aliquot Films, 88 mins.
In 2007, the longtime manager of New York’s Chelsea Hotel, Stanley Bard, was forced from his position in an attempt at turning the sometime-bohemian paradise into a corporate edifice earning money from its historic status. It’s an interesting and ongoing story, one that director Abel Ferrara has been capturing on film as it’s been happening by speaking with many of the hotel’s current and past inhabitants about the building’s past and future and how much it’s affected them personally. Too bad that’s only a small portion of the ramshackle Chelsea on the Rocks, which only peripherally explores the current developments and as a result topples under the weight of its unfocused ambition.
Director: Abel Ferrara
Writers: Abel Ferrara, David Linter, and Christ Zois
Cinematographers: David Hausen and Ken Kelsch
Studio/Run Time: Aliquot Films, 88 mins.
In 2007, the longtime manager of New York’s Chelsea Hotel, Stanley Bard, was forced from his position in an attempt at turning the sometime-bohemian paradise into a corporate edifice earning money from its historic status. It’s an interesting and ongoing story, one that director Abel Ferrara has been capturing on film as it’s been happening by speaking with many of the hotel’s current and past inhabitants about the building’s past and future and how much it’s affected them personally. Too bad that’s only a small portion of the ramshackle Chelsea on the Rocks, which only peripherally explores the current developments and as a result topples under the weight of its unfocused ambition.
- 10/2/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
You can't say that director Abel Ferrara is retreating into formulaic blandness as his career progresses. His newest effort, an adaptation of a short story by noted cyberpunk author William Gibson, is as loopy and weirdly self-indulgent as anything he's ever done. Starring Willem Dafoe, Asia Argento and Ferrara regular Christopher Walken in one of his trademark bizarro turns, "New Rose Hotel" is unlikely to win any converts to the director's work, but his longtime fans will no doubt get a kick out of it. Most audience members, however, will simply be baffled.
Set in a vaguely science fiction-type environment, the film gives us Walken and Dafoe as "Fox" and "X," two partners in crime whose specialty is industrial espionage. Fox's latest scheme, the prospect of which literally makes him dance with glee (it's always a pleasure to watch Walken reconnect to his hoofer roots), involves stealing away a brilliant Japanese scientist (played by Yoshitaka Amano, an actual designer of video games), using beautiful prostitute Sandii (Argento) as bait. Fox assigns X the task of shepherding Sandii through her seduction, but the plan backfires as X promptly falls in love with her.
Summarizing the plot doesn't begin to convey the extent of the film's idiosyncrasies, which have to be seen (or not, depending on your amount of disposable time) to be believed. The screenplay, co-written by Ferrara and Christ Zois, seems to allow plenty of time for the actors to indulge in improvisation, with less than interesting results. The film is a structural mess and often incoherent, and much time is taken up with various dreamy sex sequences featuring the lead performers and a bevy of Japanese beauties.
Walken provides line readings that are as interestingly off-kilter as always, while Dafoe plays it so straight that he gives an uncharacteristically monotonous performance. Argento confirms that the interesting qualities and sexual allure she displayed in "B. Monkey" were no fluke. Showing up in blink-and-you'll-miss-'em roles are such performers as Gretchen Mol, Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Lurie and Annabella Sciorra.
NEW ROSE HOTEL
Lions Gate Films
Director: Abel Ferrara
Screenplay: Abel Ferrara, Christ Zois
Producer: Edward R. Pressman
Executive Producer: Jay Cannold
Director of Photography: Ken Kelsch
Editors: Anthony Redman, Jim Mol
Music: Schoolly D
Color/stereo
Cast:
X: Willem Dafoe
Fox: Christopher Walken
Sandii: Asia Argento
Hiroshi: Yoshitaka Amano
Madame Rosa: Anabella Sciorra
Running time -- 93 minuntes
MPAA rating: R...
Set in a vaguely science fiction-type environment, the film gives us Walken and Dafoe as "Fox" and "X," two partners in crime whose specialty is industrial espionage. Fox's latest scheme, the prospect of which literally makes him dance with glee (it's always a pleasure to watch Walken reconnect to his hoofer roots), involves stealing away a brilliant Japanese scientist (played by Yoshitaka Amano, an actual designer of video games), using beautiful prostitute Sandii (Argento) as bait. Fox assigns X the task of shepherding Sandii through her seduction, but the plan backfires as X promptly falls in love with her.
Summarizing the plot doesn't begin to convey the extent of the film's idiosyncrasies, which have to be seen (or not, depending on your amount of disposable time) to be believed. The screenplay, co-written by Ferrara and Christ Zois, seems to allow plenty of time for the actors to indulge in improvisation, with less than interesting results. The film is a structural mess and often incoherent, and much time is taken up with various dreamy sex sequences featuring the lead performers and a bevy of Japanese beauties.
Walken provides line readings that are as interestingly off-kilter as always, while Dafoe plays it so straight that he gives an uncharacteristically monotonous performance. Argento confirms that the interesting qualities and sexual allure she displayed in "B. Monkey" were no fluke. Showing up in blink-and-you'll-miss-'em roles are such performers as Gretchen Mol, Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Lurie and Annabella Sciorra.
NEW ROSE HOTEL
Lions Gate Films
Director: Abel Ferrara
Screenplay: Abel Ferrara, Christ Zois
Producer: Edward R. Pressman
Executive Producer: Jay Cannold
Director of Photography: Ken Kelsch
Editors: Anthony Redman, Jim Mol
Music: Schoolly D
Color/stereo
Cast:
X: Willem Dafoe
Fox: Christopher Walken
Sandii: Asia Argento
Hiroshi: Yoshitaka Amano
Madame Rosa: Anabella Sciorra
Running time -- 93 minuntes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/4/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Leaving Los Angeles" would be a proper title for Abel Ferrara's "The Blackout", a graphically decadent depiction of a Hollywood movie star's slide into booze and drugs.
Thematically similar to Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant", in which a cop's alcoholism ruined his life, this darkly delirious portrait is, by nature of the Hollywood milieu, much more salacious, both sexually and psychologically. While no one has ever accused Ferrara of being either upbeat or a prude, "Blackout", in its bawdy sexuality, often resembles an adult video, albeit one snuffed over with demonic obsession. With a charismatic and complex lead performance from Matthew Modine and his eminence bizarro, Dennis Hopper, doing a self-parody, "Blackout" should attract some cultish curiosity.
As some of us have heard, Hollywood can look the other way toward a star's drug addiction, and, in this case, screen star Matty (Modine) is encouraged to be as wild as he wants. Sexually, he has a new flavor every day, while pharmacologically, he's either sniffing or chugging. Still, he clamors for stability and deludes himself that his current wild child, Annie (Beatrice Dalle), is his one-and-only. Annie, however, is more realistic, having the keen perception to deduce that a guy who hangs out at a video company dedicated to bringing sexual saturnalia to the small screen might be a little conflicted as to his overall intentions.
And, most pointedly, she doesn't wish to mother the child of a "drug addict."
When confronted with her feelings, Matty not only goes into denial but into delirium, no longer able to control himself or even recall his actions: Has she left his life or has he killed her? Nightmares portend the worst -- and not even rehab, psychotherapy or the love of a good woman who looks like a supermodel (Claudia Schiffer) can assuage Matty's tormented despair.
As usual, Ferrara's stylistic will not be for every taste, but even detractors here will marvel at the production's shimmering sensuality. Admittedly, he has draped a horrible disease in G-string psychological garb, but the scenario (Marla Hanson, Christ Zois, Abel Ferrara) is generally credible and the characters identifiable. At its worst, the second half of the story is basically a drunk video as Matty spirals down into mania. "Blackout" is essentially structured in two parts, which might be blithely titled "Bottoms Up" (the bacchanalic first part) and "Bottomed Out" (the sickened second part).
Alternately dashing and debauched, Modine is well-cast as the drunkenly depraved Matty. As a sleazeball with auteuristic pretensions, Hopper is wildly entertaining as the smut-shooting video director, while Dalle is all wild sizzle as Matty's uninhibited "love."
"The Blackout" is brightest in its glossy visuals, with special praise to cinematographer Ken Kelsch for his sinuously glossy compositions and to composer Joe Delia for the drenched and steamy score.
THE BLACKOUT
Out of competition
MDP Worldwide
Presents in association with
Les Films Number One and CPA
An Edward Pressman Production
Producer Edward Pressman
Writer-director Abel Ferrara
Co-producers Pierre Kalfon, Michel Chambat
Executive producers Mark Damon, Alessandro Camon
Screenwriters Marla Hanson, Christ Zois,
Abel Ferrara
Director of photography Ken Kelsch
Production designer Richard Hoover
Music Joe Delia
Editor Anthony Redman
Cast:
Matty Matthew Modine
Micky Dennis Hopper
Annie Beatrice Dalle
Susan Claudia Schiffer
Annie 2 Sarah Lassez
Running time -- 89 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Thematically similar to Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant", in which a cop's alcoholism ruined his life, this darkly delirious portrait is, by nature of the Hollywood milieu, much more salacious, both sexually and psychologically. While no one has ever accused Ferrara of being either upbeat or a prude, "Blackout", in its bawdy sexuality, often resembles an adult video, albeit one snuffed over with demonic obsession. With a charismatic and complex lead performance from Matthew Modine and his eminence bizarro, Dennis Hopper, doing a self-parody, "Blackout" should attract some cultish curiosity.
As some of us have heard, Hollywood can look the other way toward a star's drug addiction, and, in this case, screen star Matty (Modine) is encouraged to be as wild as he wants. Sexually, he has a new flavor every day, while pharmacologically, he's either sniffing or chugging. Still, he clamors for stability and deludes himself that his current wild child, Annie (Beatrice Dalle), is his one-and-only. Annie, however, is more realistic, having the keen perception to deduce that a guy who hangs out at a video company dedicated to bringing sexual saturnalia to the small screen might be a little conflicted as to his overall intentions.
And, most pointedly, she doesn't wish to mother the child of a "drug addict."
When confronted with her feelings, Matty not only goes into denial but into delirium, no longer able to control himself or even recall his actions: Has she left his life or has he killed her? Nightmares portend the worst -- and not even rehab, psychotherapy or the love of a good woman who looks like a supermodel (Claudia Schiffer) can assuage Matty's tormented despair.
As usual, Ferrara's stylistic will not be for every taste, but even detractors here will marvel at the production's shimmering sensuality. Admittedly, he has draped a horrible disease in G-string psychological garb, but the scenario (Marla Hanson, Christ Zois, Abel Ferrara) is generally credible and the characters identifiable. At its worst, the second half of the story is basically a drunk video as Matty spirals down into mania. "Blackout" is essentially structured in two parts, which might be blithely titled "Bottoms Up" (the bacchanalic first part) and "Bottomed Out" (the sickened second part).
Alternately dashing and debauched, Modine is well-cast as the drunkenly depraved Matty. As a sleazeball with auteuristic pretensions, Hopper is wildly entertaining as the smut-shooting video director, while Dalle is all wild sizzle as Matty's uninhibited "love."
"The Blackout" is brightest in its glossy visuals, with special praise to cinematographer Ken Kelsch for his sinuously glossy compositions and to composer Joe Delia for the drenched and steamy score.
THE BLACKOUT
Out of competition
MDP Worldwide
Presents in association with
Les Films Number One and CPA
An Edward Pressman Production
Producer Edward Pressman
Writer-director Abel Ferrara
Co-producers Pierre Kalfon, Michel Chambat
Executive producers Mark Damon, Alessandro Camon
Screenwriters Marla Hanson, Christ Zois,
Abel Ferrara
Director of photography Ken Kelsch
Production designer Richard Hoover
Music Joe Delia
Editor Anthony Redman
Cast:
Matty Matthew Modine
Micky Dennis Hopper
Annie Beatrice Dalle
Susan Claudia Schiffer
Annie 2 Sarah Lassez
Running time -- 89 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 5/12/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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