Go, Abel Ferrara, go

In the 1990s Abel Ferrara was the hardcore version of Martin Scorsese, but in the following decade he faded away and his films were rarely shown in Belgian cinemas. Five years after its premiere in Cannes, Go Go Tales has finally been released here. Time to check my notes on what he growled at me back then.

Abel Ferrara peaked in the first half of the Nineties, when the idiosyncratic New Yorker brought out a series of

penetrating indie films, of which Bad Lieutenant with Harvey Keitel is the most notorious. The Christopher Walken films King of New York, The Addiction, and The Funeral weren’t bad either. Anyone who is not afraid of cult should also enjoy Ferrara’s earlier films. Compared with Angel of Vengeance (1981), Pulp Fiction is a film for pre-school children. Things have not gone so well for the cult film-maker since the millennium, however. Mary, with Juliette Binoche as an actress who identifies with Mary Magdalen, didn’t make much of an impression.
In 2007 Ferrara was given an opportunity to present Go Go Tales, outside the competition, at the Cannes festival. Willem Dafoe plays Ray Ruby, the host and boss of an exclusive nightclub that may be on its last night. The money has run out; the strippers are threatening to go on strike. Ruby spins everyone a line and counts on winning the lottery. The show must go on. Could Ferrara recognise himself in Ruby?

Cards on the table
“Ray is the king of jive,” Ferrara told us in 2007. “He curries favour with everyone and keeps going round in circles.

But he also knows that at the end of the night he is going to have to put his cards on the table. It is all or nothing. His life is in the balance and there is only one way out left. Sure, he can close the place, but he refuses to give up. He knows what he wants. Of course, he is a gambling addict, but maybe he is addicted to gambling because he is also a gambling expert.” It was a bizarre interview. The press attaché was trying to keep him away from the bar. A hefty, older friend of Ferrara’s took up a position among the journalists; he looked like one of the grandfathers in The Sopranos: not really dangerous – until they take out a piece. During the interview, or what passed for one, the wise guy fell asleep and started snoring. There was a bigger problem: Ferrara couldn’t keep his eyes and hands off a young lady. As she had clothes on I didn’t recognise her immediately, but she had a small part in Go Go Tales as one of the strippers.
For the second time, I asked whether Ferrara identified with the nightclub boss. “This film comes straight from the heart,” he replied.

Read the full article in AGENDA, page 50-51.
Lees het Nederlandstalige artikel op brusselnieuws.be.

Go Go Tales ••
US, IT, 2007, dir.: Abel Ferrara, act.: Willem Dafoe, Bob Hoskins, Asia Argento, 96 min.