Abel Ferrara has blasted out a market niche with his thinking man's action films. Films like Dangerous Game (1993), Bad Lieutenant (1992) and King of New York (1990) are latter-day revenge tragedies, fusing the spiritual anguish of Shakespeare and Webster at their darkest with the bloody violence of John Singleton's gangsters in the 'hood oeuvre.
His characters are sinners all: cops gone bad, directors gone bad and remorseless, Machiavellian drugs dealers who were always bad… His customary New York settings are their living hells, from the gutter-trawling depths of low-life crime and squalor in Bad Lieutenant, to the sky-scraping, ego-crazed highs of King Of New York. Yet, as exemplified by the bad lieutenant's battle to avenge a nun's rapists, there is always a chance to atone. 'People in my movies are nev-er completely evil,' says Ferrara. 'The most interesting characters are the ones with a conflict between good and evil within them.'
The Funeral sees Bronx-born Ferrara in his traditional, blood-soaked New York habitat. Reportedly trimmed down by seven minutes to avoid an NC-17 rating, it is set in the Depression era and was shot last summer at suitably period locations, ranging from Long Island to Harlem. The plot revolves around three mobster brothers, Ray, Chez and Johnny, played respectively by tough guys-cum-psychotics Christopher Walken (True Romance, King of New York), Chris Penn (Mulholland Falls, Reservoir Dogs) and Vincent Gallo (Palookaville, Arizona Dream).
When Johnny is gunned down by the rival Spoglia family, Ray goes on the warpath. Ray's wife, Jean (Annabella Sciorra, Innocent Sleep, The Addiction) tries to dissuade her husband from this head-on clash; Jean gets smacked in the mouth. Family friend Sali tries the same; Sali gets smacked in the mouth. So, while Jean comforts Johnny's ex-fiancée, Helen (Girl Six-debutante Gretchen Mol) - 'We should be throwing you a party to celebrate that you won't become one of their wives,' are her bitter words Ray grabs Spoglia, smacks him about and leaves him for Sali to rub out.
But Chez wants out. Sick of violence, sick of being a mobster, even sick of his wife, Isabella Rossellini (Death Becomes Her, The Innocent, countless magazine covers), the tortured Chez starts feeling guilty. Inevitably, the road to redemption is strewn with bullet-ridden corpses.
'This is very much a Ferrara film,' explains Patrick Panzarella, executive producer at C&P Capital, which fully-financed the film. 'It's edgy, gritty and beautiful,' he explains, 'and it's got a twist on the conventional mob movie. In most gangster movies the women are just dumb broads who stay with these guys because they buy them lots of gifts. But these women are intelligent, they see through all the glamour and realise the men are just a bunch of thugs.'
Nevertheless, Panzarella also sees The Funeral as Ferrara's 'most commercial movie to date'. Panzarella, whose C&P was also behind Larry Clark's Kids, points to the 'classic mob characters and storyline', explaining that the film is also about 'the Italian ethics of family and loyalty. The women might think about leaving,' he adds, 'but anyone who has seen a mob film knows they're fucked. I come from a fairly Italian family, and you ain't going anywhere.'
Mark Damon, chairman of international distributors MDP Worldwide, also believes the film could hit hard at the box office. 'People are always interested in how the Mob works,' he explains. 'I see overtones of Once Upon a Time in America or The Godfather. People liked [mob movies] then, and they'll be interested in them now. I can't say The Funeral will be released with 1500 prints, but with the good reviews it deserves, it will attract a crossover when people hear how good it is.'
But Damon admits that Ferrara's 'dark, intense stamp is still there. [The film] has a religious treatment,' he elaborates. 'Even though they're gangsters, they are for the most part God fearing - and God questioning… There is a strong art-house base.' The Funeral's selection for competition proves his point. Adam Minns
Prod co: October Films
Prod: Mary Kane
Dir: Abel Ferrara
Scr: Nicholas St John
Ph: Ken Kelsch
Prod des: Charles M Lagola
Costume: Melinda Eschelman
Music: Joe Delia
Ed: Bill Pankow, Mayin Lo
Cast: Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Chris Penn
Running time: 98 mins
International sales: MDP Worldwide
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