Review
"This is a provocative book. It is also a work of great originality. Brenez's energetic intellect and passion for her subject are evident on every page. . . . It makes you want to go back to the films, to see them as Brenez has seen them. In fact, this was the very first thing that I did when I finished reading this book. I started watching the films of Abel Ferrara again."--Screening The Past
[Brenez's] book illuminates a director whom American critics have too often overlooked. Its mixture of fannish enthusiasm and academic erudition is a new, welcome voice."--Cineaste
Product Description
In this concise study, Nicole Brenez argues for Abel Ferrara’s place in a line of grand inventors who have blurred distinctions between industry and avant-garde film, including Orson Welles, Monte Hellman, and Nicholas Ray. Rather than merely reworking genre film, Brenez understands Ferrara’s oeuvre as formulating new archetypes that depict the evil of the modern world. Focusing as much on the human figure as on elements of storytelling, she argues that films such as Bad Lieutenant express this evil through visionary characters struggling against the inadmissible (inadmissible behavior, morality, images, and narratives).
See all Editorial Reviews