Overview

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).

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Reviews

Brenez does the best job to date in defending an underappreciated American director not only in terms of aesthetics, but also for his ethical reflections on the crimes and abuses of the past century. A truly remarkable achievement. Jonathan Rosenbaum

Author Information

Nicole Brenez is a prominent film critic and curator for the experimental cinema programs at the CinÉmathÈque franÇaise in Paris. She teaches cinema studies at UniversitÉ Paris 3 and is the author of Shadows de John Cassavetes and other books. Adrian Martin is an associate professor in film culture and theory at Monash University. His books include Mysteries of Cinema: Reflections on Film Theory, History and Culture 1982-2016.

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