Abel Ferrara

Abel Ferrara 2010

Abel Ferrara (born July 19, 1951 in New York ) is an American screenwriter and director .

Life

Abel Ferrara was born in the Bronx , New York. He made his first amateur films as a teenager on Super 8 . He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Purchase .

He earned his reputation with his relentless portraits of Bronx street life. In 1979 he made The Driller Killer . The focus of the plot is a painter who goes on a murder tour. This film, in which he also starred under the pseudonym Jimmy Laine, became his first commercial success. Good reviews for Ms. 45 , a film about a silent woman who resorted to vigilante justice after being raped , helped him achieve cult status. With larger budgets and the support of the film industry, he has now succeeded in hiring well-known actors. Nevertheless, he took his camera on with in the depths of New York, as his by Robert Bresson influenced low-budget film Bad Lieutenant ( 1992 ) showed. According to his own statements, the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder also had a great influence on Ferrara .

Often the film director, known in the media as a “doubting Catholic ” , takes on his faith or religious questions. "In my films, religion is more than a metaphor, " said Ferrara, who worked for a long time with screenwriter Nicholas St. John , a devout Catholic. In Bad Lieutenant (co-author: Zoë Lund), Harvey Keitel reveals the rape of a nun as the title character , while the wake of Johnny Tempio, the youngest of the Catholic Tempio clan, takes center stage in The Funeral . In 2005 Ferrara moved to Rome , where he cast Juliette Binoche the role of a Maria Magdalena obsessed actress in the award-winning drama Mary . In 2013 he filmed the Strauss-Kahn affair and won Gérard Depardieu as Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Jacqueline Bisset as his wife for the leading roles . The film did not go to the cinema in many countries, but was distributed via streaming services because people feared the “voyeurism of the film pirates”. The film and with it Ferrara were accused of anti-Semitic tendencies in various media, especially in the fictionalized representation of the real Anne Sinclair .

In 2020 Ferrara received an invitation to compete at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival for the feature film Siberia .

Filmography

Abel Ferrara 2008

• 1971: Nicky's film
• 1972: The Hold Up
• 1973: Could This Be Love?
• 1976: Nine Lives of a Wet Pussy
• 1977: Not Guilty: For Keith Richards
• 1979: The Driller Killer - The drill killer
• 1981: The woman with the 45 magnum (Ms. 45)
• 1984: Fear City - Manhattan 2 a.m. (Fear City)
• 1984: Miami Vice (episodes "The Dutch Oven" and "The Home Invaders")
• 1987: War in Chinatown (China Girl)
• 1989: Cat Chaser
• 1990: King of New York - King between day and night (King of New York)
• 1992: Bad Lieutenant
• 1993: Body Snatchers - Attack of the Body Eaters (Body Snatchers)
• 1993: Dangerous Game (Snake Eyes)
• 1995: The Addiction
• 1996: California
• 1996: The Funeral (The Funeral)
• 1997: The Blackout
• 1997: Subway Stories (episode film with the participation of Abel Ferrara)
• 1998: New Rose Hotel
• 2001: R Xmas (with Drea de Matteo, Lillo Brancato, Lisa Valens, Ice-T)
• 2005: Mary
• 2007: Go Go Tales
• 2008: Chelsea on the Rocks (documentary)
• 2009: Napoli, Napoli, Napoli
• 2010: Mulberry St.
• 2011: 4:44 - Last Day On Earth
• 2014: Welcome to New York
• 2014: Pasolini
• 2017: Alive in France
• 2017: Piazza Vittorio
• 2019: The Projectionist
• 2019: Tommaso and the dance of the spirits (Tommaso)
• 2020: Siberia

Awards

• 1987: Deauville Film Festival - Critics Award (nomination) for War in Chinatown (China Girl)
• 1998: Mystfest - Best Film (nomination) for Cat Chaser
• 1991: Mystfest - Best Direction for King of New York - King between Day and Night (King of New York)
• 1991: Mystfest - Best Film (nomination) for King of New York - King between Day and Night (King of New York)
• 1993: Cannes Film Festival - Palme d'Or (nomination) for Body Snatchers
• 1993: Intern. Fantasy Film Award - Fantasproto (nomination) for Bad Lieutenant
• 1993: Independent Spirit Awards - Independent Spirit Award (nomination) for Bad Lieutenant
• 1995: Berlinale - Golden Bear (nomination) for The Addiction
• 1995: Gotham Awards - Filmmaker Award
• 1995: Mystfest - Critics Award for The Addiction
• 1995: Mystfest - Best Film (nomination) for The Addiction
• 1996: Independent Spirit Awards - Nomination Independent Spirit Award - Best Film for The Addiction
• 1996: Venice Film Festival - OCIC Award for The Funeral
• 1996: Venice Film Festival - Golden Lion (nomination) for The Funeral
• 1997: Independent Spirit Awards - Independent Spirit Award (nomination) for The Funeral
• 1997: Málaga Fantastic Cinema - Best Film for The Addiction
• 1998: New York Intern. Film Festival - Feature Film Award for The Blackout
• 1998: Sitges, Catalonian Filmfest - Best Film (nomination) for New Rose Hotel
• 1998: Venice Film Festival - Elvira Notari Prize - Special Mention for New Rose Hotel
• 1998: Venice Film Festival - Filmcritica “Bastone Bianco” Award for New Rose Hotel
• 1998: Venice Film Festival - Golden Lion (nomination) for New Rose Hotel
• 2002: New York Intern. Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize for ´R Xmas
• 2004: Flaiano International Prizes - Career Award
• 2005: Venice Film Festival - Special Jury Prize for Mary
• 2005: Venice Film Festival - Mimmo Rotella Foundation Award for Mary
• 2005: Venice Film Festival - SIGNIS Award for Mary
• 2005: Venice Film Festival - Serio Trasatti Award for Mary
• 2005: Venice Film Festival - Golden Lion (nomination) for Mary
• 2007: Montréal World Film Festival - Grand Prix des Amériques (nomination) for Go Go Tales
• 2007: eDIT Filmmakers´s Festival - honorary award for his complete works
• 2008: Sitges, Catalonian Filmfest - Time-Machine Honorary Award
• 2009: Miami Film Festival - Career Achievement Tribute
• 2011: Locarno Film Festival - Leopard of Honor for his complete works
• 2011: Venice Film Festival - Golden Lion (nomination) for 4:44 - Last Day On Earth
• 2011: New York Film Festival - 4:44 - Last Day On Earth (Main Slate)
• 2014: Venice Film Festival - Golden Lion (nomination) for Pasolini
• 2019: Film Festival Cologne - Hollywood Reporter Award for Tommaso

literature

• [Article] Abel Ferrara. In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Film directors. Biographies, descriptions of works, filmographies. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008 [1. Ed. 1999], ISBN 978-3-15-010662-4 , pp. 239-242 [with references].
• Angela Oster: “This is just a fucking movie. So take it off! ”A review journey through Abel Ferrara's film 'Pasolini', on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Pier Paolo Pasolini's death, in: Romanische Studien , Nr. 2 (2015), pp. 233–250, online: http: // romanischestudien.de/index.php/rst/article/view/61

Web links

• Abel Ferrara in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Biography on film-zeit.de
• Video interview with Abel Ferrara at critic.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. French, Philip: Art (Cinema): Casting a fly to catch a frontier Wasp In: The Observer , February 21, 1993, p. 58
2. ↑ ^{a b} cf. Daniel Kothenschulte : Under the ice cover . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , September 8, 2005, features section, p. 18
3. ↑ ^{a b} cf. Self destruction keeps me alive. A conversation with the New York director Abel Ferrara . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 24, 1996, features section
4. ↑ We're working on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn story, with Gerard Depardieu playing Strauss-Kahn and Isabelle Adjani playing his wife. ( Memento from March 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
5. ^ Sueddeutsche.de scandal film "Welcome to New York" - monsters in us
6. ↑ jungle-world.com , accessed June 10, 2014
7. ↑ Angela Oster: “This is just a fucking movie. So take it off! ”A review journey through Abel Ferrara's film 'Pasolini', on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Pier Paolo Pasolini's death, in: Romanische Studien , Nr. 2 (2015), pp. 233–250, online: http: // romanischestudien.de/index.php/rst/article/view/61