{"id":2840,"date":"2019-05-02T13:44:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T13:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/?p=2840"},"modified":"2019-05-02T13:54:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T13:54:49","slug":"abel-ferraras-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/abel-ferraras-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Abel Ferrara&#8217;s New York"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Born in the Bronx in 1951, Abel Ferrara has New York in his blood. What began as a hobby making shorts on 8mm is now an almost 50-year filmmaking career that, with two films premiering in 2019 (the documentary <\/span><strong><i>The Projectionist<\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the Tribeca Film Festival and the semi-autobiographical <\/span><strong><i>Tommaso<\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> out of competition at Cannes) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moma.org\/calendar\/film\/5065\">a near-complete retrospective at the <strong>Museum of Modern Art<\/strong><\/a>, shows no signs of stopping. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A central character in all of Ferrara\u2019s work has always been the city itself. From the back alley \u00a0sludge of <\/span><strong><i>Driller Killer<\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1979) and <\/span><strong><i>Ms. 45<\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1981) to the penthouse views of <\/span><strong><i>King of New York<\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Ferrara\u2019s camera trawls every corner of the city. One can imagine a feature-length edit of establishing shots and cityscape b-roll from his filmography alone. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though he departed NYC for Rome after the attacks on September 11<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 2001, New York remains the heart of Ferrara\u2019s work. Far and away a different view than the romanticized Big Apple you get in most films, Ferrara\u2019s New York feels like home. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z4bprq-BYi0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h4>King of New York (1990)<\/h4>\n<p><i>\u201cFrom now on, nothing goes down unless I&#8217;m involved. No blackjack, no dope deals, no nothing. A nickel bag gets sold in the park, I want in. You guys got fat while everybody starved on the street. Now it&#8217;s my turn.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Backed by an infinitely quotable script (\u201cRoom service, motherfucker!\u201d), an unstoppable cast that includes Christopher Walken, Larry Fishburne, Steve Buscemi, Wesley Snipes, and David Caruso, and a Schoolly D soundtrack that weaves together hip-hop and classical, the third installment of the Territorial Trilogy (following 1987\u2019s <strong><i>China Girl<\/i><\/strong> and 1989\u2019s <strong><i>Cat Chaser<\/i><\/strong>) <i>King Of New York<\/i> is Ferrara\u2019s vision crystalized.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The film begins with Frank White (Walken) being released from Sing Sing and heading immediately to his suite at the Plaza Hotel. Frank is born anew as a long tracking shot follows him out of the endless parade of prison doors, into the light of day, and into the back of a limo. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frank is another one of Ferrara\u2019s anti-heroes, a benevolent gangster who wants to make his mark by saving a hospital. A bizarro Robin Hood whose dope-dealing robs from the poor to impress the rich.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But while he was away, rival gangs took over the turf that Frank worked hard and paid dearly to acquire, and he means to take it back. Frank and his crew go scorched earth across the boroughs, a walking tour of violence against his rivals, only to end up back at the Plaza with the city laid out before him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_kkr0IB2_E8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h4>\u2019R Xmas (2001)<\/h4>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis is the best Christmas ever!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>The last film Ferrara would make before leaving NYC for Rome, <i>\u2019R Xmas<\/i> premiered <i>Un Certain Regard<\/i> at Cannes but made only $850 at the box office opening weekend. It\u2019s another gangster with a heart of gold tale, told this time as a renegade Santa Claus story starring Lillio Brancato Jr. (credited only as \u2018the Husband\u2019) and Drea De Matteo (\u2018the Wife\u2019).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After opening with an intimate portrait of a seemingly well-to-do Upper East Side family, the Husband and Wife get in their car and drive across the city to a stash house where they divvy up a shipment of heroin for distribution on the street. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is where much of the film takes place: on the streets, on corners and basketball courts \u2014 a zoomed-in vision of the sprawl seen in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">King of New York<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The couple knows that New York is too big to take all for themselves, so they stick to their own turf and try to not step on anyone\u2019s toes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the Wife knows there\u2019s a risk in dealing drugs, there\u2019s also money to be made and people in their community to take care of, including their daughter Lisa. With Christmas around the corner, Lisa has her eye on a hot-ticket item: a \u2018Party Girl\u2019 doll. After failing to bribe a toy store employee for the doll, the couple goes to a pawn shop to purchase one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the Wife makes the purchase, the Husband is kidnapped by a rival crew (led by Ice-T) and held for a hefty ransom. The Wife hits up her corners, gathering funds to free her husband. Then she\u2019s back in the car \u2014 the city reflecting in its windshield, off its hood \u2014 back on streets both familiar and daunting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SR4Hz_72c1s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h4>Welcome to New York (2014)<\/h4>\n<p><i>\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit dark, but it seems to be perfect.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>While <i>\u2019R Xmas<\/i> and <i>King of New York<\/i> revel in the city\u2019s sprawl, <i>Welcome to New York<\/i> represents the flipside: tight and claustrophobic. [Ed. note: <i>Welcome To New York<\/i> used <a href=\"https:\/\/endcrawl.com\/\"><strong>Endcrawl<\/strong><\/a>, which publishes this site.]<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of the film takes place in various interiors \u2014 an office, a hotel, the cabin of a plane, jail, a dimly-lit apartment \u2014 and even when we do venture outside, the camera never looks above street level: no skylines, no bridges, no room to stretch your legs. Here, New York is reduced to what little personal space it affords its residents, emphasizing the paranoia and loneliness of city life. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This can be especially frustrating as the viewer longs to escape from the wretched Devereaux, portrayed pitch-perfectly by Gerard Depardieu, with labored breathing and wet grunts punctuating every scene.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The film is a fictionalized account of 2011\u2019s arrest and trial of Dominique Strauss-Kahn (then head of the International Monetary Fund) for the sexual assault of a 32-year-old maid at the Sofitel New York Hotel. Though a disclaimer mentions that the case was thrown out due to lack of evidence, Ferrara makes no bones about how he thinks it went down. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Devereaux spends the first third of the film indulging in debauchery. Immediately after the assault, he\u2019s at a restaurant with his daughter and her boyfriend, and compares his bouillabaisse to a \u201csex party\u201d. Later in the film, he squirms and mumbles his way through a brief stint in jail until he\u2019s released on house arrest to a $60,000-a-month apartment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here, he whiles away the hours, chomping soggy cigars and laughing alone at Truffaut\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Room &amp; Board<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. When confronted about the assault by his wife Simone (Jacqueline Bisset), Devereaux claims all he did was \u201cjerk off on her mouth\u201d and whines about his \u201csickness\u201d. The audience is being punished along with Devereaux, locked up with him as it were, with the city Ferrara usually so lovingly depicts completely of reach, if not out of sight altogether.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Abel Ferrara Unrated<\/i><\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moma.org\/calendar\/film\/5065\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">screens at MoMA through May 31st<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the gutter to the stars, a filmmaker stays true to his roots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,98],"tags":[149,92,127],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2840"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2854,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions\/2854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}