Abel Ferrara

md99

Have we any Abel fans in here?

My personal favourite director, very underrated and often unknown, but if you ask me a master of film making...

What do you guys think?

TerrorFirmer

I'm undecided. Some good, some bad, but overall I think in many cases his reputation preceedes him.

md99

I think his films are always better with repeated viewing... applies to all I've seen of him apart from Bad Lieutenant

c - 13

I think the only fil of his I've seen was "The Driller Killer", wasnt very impressed by it to be honest.

md99

c - 13 wrote:

I think the only fil of his I've seen was "The Driller Killer", wasnt very impressed by it to be honest.

i didnt like it either, thankfully nothing else he did has resembled it...

wish more people knew ferrara!

humanji

He went downhill after "Nine Lives of a Wet Pussy"

Oh, and aparently they're remaking Driller Killer.

super_furry

The Addiction was good. That's about it for me.

Kingp35

I just watched "The Gladiator". Was an ok film, worth watching if your bored. I reckon it was a mojor influence for Tarantinos part of Grindhouse.

Karl Hungus

Looking up imdb.com now, and I've only ever seen 2 of his films. The Addiction, and Body Snatchers. The former I thought was mediocre, and the latter, god awful. Doesn't really make me want to run out and see any more of his films, but I'd give them the benifit of doubt. Wouldn't mind seeing Bad Lieutenant.

Petey2006

Driller Killer has the dubious honor of being the only film I've ever walked out of. But then, it was after 3 days of horror films and 5 other ones that day alone (Horrorthon in the IFI). Hated it. On the other hand, I really liked King of New York. But I think a large part of that was down to Christopher Walken.

MOTHERTRUCKER

Karl Hungus wrote:

Wouldn't mind seeing Bad Lieutenant.

while I don't love Abel Ferrara as a rule (run as far from "The Addiction" as you can!), I did really like Bad Lieutenant -

and I think Keitel's character does gain redemption to a certain extent - he decides to follow the nun's lead, forgive and help the two boys, and by doing so, ultimately sacrifices his life (by giving them the money and being unable to pay his debt, he knows that the bookie is going to have him killed). It would have seemed extremely Hollywood (and fake) for him to dramatically change, gives up drugs and gambling and become a "good cop". I don't know why I liked this movie, but I did.
Harvey is really good at being really bad. :cool:

lodgepole

Petey2006 wrote:

Driller Killer has the dubious honor of being the only film I've ever walked out of. But then, it was after 3 days of horror films and 5 other ones that day alone (Horrorthon in the IFI).

I think I may have been sitting behind you at that screening... Half of my group left too. Only two of us stayed because we were too stubborn to leave.

I liked The Funeral. Didn't like The Addiction. Didn't like Bad Lieutenant. King of New York was alright. Dangerous Game was awful. He's obviously a more interesting director than a lot of those working, but he hits the mark so rarely. He's a little too up his own hole.

humanji

MOTHERTRUCKER wrote:

while I don't love Abel Ferrara as a rule (run as far from "The Addiction" as you can!), I did really like Bad Lieutenant -

and I think Keitel's character does gain redemption to a certain extent - he decides to follow the nun's lead, forgive and help the two boys, and by doing so, ultimately sacrifices his life (by giving them the money and being unable to pay his debt, he knows that the bookie is going to have him killed). It would have seemed extremely Hollywood (and fake) for him to dramatically change, gives up drugs and gambling and become a "good cop". I don't know why I liked this movie, but I did.
Harvey is really good at being really bad. :cool:

SPOILER TAGS!!!!!!! Not everyone has seen it!

Karl Hungus

humanji wrote:

SPOILER TAGS!!!!!!! Not everyone has seen it!

Bah. Spoiled the film for me now... I've edited the post.

thebindles88

Bad Lieutenant...............wtf

djkeogh

I like Ferrara. Haven't seen any of his more recent films but I did like the Funeral and Fear City. Thought Body Snatchers was great and love King of New York. As was said earlier Christopher Walken is a huge reason why King of New York is so good. I wish the man could make more films like that. Couldn't stand Driller Killer as it is just pure muck, and I usually like that kind of film.

Bad Lieutenant is one I'd need to watch again but didn't think too much of it when I saw it. Most recent of the films listed on IMDB which I've seen was the Blackout and I don't have many fond memories of it.

He's a very hit and miss director but I think when he hits it's well worth the effort.