A candid and insightful look into Ferrara’s creative process….
I can fondly recall the days of the indie new wave of the 1990s. One of the filmmakers, closely associated with this renaissance of filmmaking is Abel Ferrara. When I think of an Abel Ferrara film, I usually think Bad Lieutenant (1992), Ms. 45 (1981), and King of New York (1993). In Danny Stewart’s new book, The Greatest Gangster Movie You’ve Never Seen: Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral (Bear Manor Media), Stewart draws the reader’s attention to one of the underappreciated gems in Ferrara’s oeuvre, The Funeral (1996). Stewart’s book is full of interesting interviews and keen insights into what makes The Funeral an underappreciated classic.
The Greatest Gangster Movie You’ve Never Seen includes a candid and insightful look into Ferrara’s creative process with behind-the-scenes access to Ferrara’s collaboration with Director of Photography, Ken Kelsch whom Stewart has dedicated the book to. There is also a very rare interview with Isabella Rossellini and a discussion of her family’s legacy on film. Production Designer Charlie M. Lagola shares more production details about the film, which is a period piece with a larger budget than previous Ferrara films.
Stewart’s book is not only an analysis and thoughtful evaluation of The Funeral’s relevance to film culture, but it also serves as a sort of scrapbook with excellent photos and various inside snippets of Ferrara in action and other related cinematic images. The author traces the significance of the gangster film and its relationship to film history. Furthermore, it connects The Funeral to other timeless classics of the genre. Stewart establishes that The Funeral at once embraces traditional gangster genre conventions and also rejects them in way that only Ferarra can do.
The Funeral boasts an all-star cast including frequent Ferrara collaborator, Christopher Walken and also included Chris Penn and Vincent Gallo. At first glance, Ferrara’s film may seem a minor entry into the genre, and scattershot, like several of other of his works. However, upon reading Stewart’s book, the reader can gain new appreciation for the nuanced direction, writing, and photography of the film. Of particular note was the discussion of the influence of Nicholas St. John’s writing of the film. St. John penned several of Ferrara’s most iconic films including the groundbreaking, punk-slasher classic Driller Killer (1979).
Stewart exclaims that “Abel Ferrara’s body of work represents a bold and uncompromising exploration of the human condition, characterized by its raw authenticity, provocative subject matter, and unflinching portrayal of violence and depravity.” Indeed, Stewart illuminates Ferrara’s grotesque aesthetics in this book. In The Funeral, Stewart says that, “Ferrara presents morally flawed protagonists who grapple with their own demons and struggle to find redemption in a world devoid of morality.” The crux of Stewart’s scholarship in this book is that
The Funeral is not just another gangster film. It is uniquely distinct in that it is a “Ferrara” gangster film, and one that has been tragically overlooked. This will mean that it contains many idiosyncratic imagery and themes specific to Ferrara.
The elements of the gangster film are there, and as Stewart points out, Ferrara, along with Chris Walken and Ferrara’s frequent collaborators, “created a body of work that stands out for its emotional depth, philosophical weight, and striking visuals.”
As aforementioned, I have often found Ferrara’s body of work to be scattered at times with hit-or-miss theatrics. It was refreshing to read The Greatest Gangster Movie You’ve Never Seen, and to see how Stewart connects the dots of The Funeral as a high-point in Ferrara’s creativity. Too often, we’ve heard and seen analysis and repeated retrospectives of Ferrara’s most popular work. Therefore, Stewart’s analysis of Ferrara’s contribution to the gangster genre with The Funeral is an excellent addition to film scholarship and, as one other critic stated, to “Ferrara studies.”
William Blick is a film and literary/crime fiction critic; a librarian; and an academic scholar. His work has been featured in Film International, Senses of Cinema, Film Threat, Cineaction, and CinemaRetro, and he is a frequent contributor to Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of Noircon. His crime fiction has been featured in Close to the Bone, Pulp Metal Magazine, Out of the Gutter, and others. He is an Assistant Professor/Librarian for the City University of New York.
Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon 