Pages tagged “abel ferrara”

[Above: William Burroughs and Andy Warhol in Chelsea on the Rocks]

Within the “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere” mythology of New York City, the Chelsea Hotel has always held a unique spot as a haven for misfits, bohemians and vagabond geniuses. Even as the rest of Manhattan gentrified and Disneyfied, the 12-story building at 222 East 23rd Street—a hotel since 1905—held its ground, its rooms occupied by everyone from Dylan Thomas to Bob Dylan, Sid Vicious to Julian Schnabel, Arthur Miller to Courtney Love. It’s a cultural landmark of the feverish demimonde that has made the city what it is. Or was. Not so long ago, Stanley Bard, who had managed the hotel for 45 years, was ousted, in favor of corporate interests that may succeed in turning the hotel into a boutique enterprise.

Director: Abel Ferrara
Writers: Abel Ferrara, Mario Isabella, Simone Lageoles, Scott Pardo
Cinematography: Stefano Falivene, Abel Ferrara
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Forest Whitaker, Matthew Modine, Heather Graham
Studio info: Surreel, 83 mins.

Over-the-top Biblical mess intrigues as only Abel Ferrara can

Louder and more chaotic than its material seems to warrant, Abel Ferrara’s Mary seems like the condensed version of a much larger movie. It includes scenes from a religious epic, TV interviews, street fights, limo rides, infidelity, hypocrisy, apostasy and conversion, but at a mere 83 minutes it’s over before it really begins.

Forest Whitaker plays a TV host examining the historical Jesus on a nightly broadcast, and Matthew Modine is the director and star of an unconventional Biblical film. Modine agrees to appear on Whitaker’s show, boosting both their careers, but one person they can’t yoke to their PR efforts is Juliette Binoche who plays Mary Magdalene in Modine’s movie. She’s been so transformed by the experience that at the shoot’s end she drops everything and heads to Jerusalem.

Very little of this mess works in any conventional sense, but as the performances begin to redline—as Whitaker bottoms out and begs God to save his child and Binoche takes to the water like a fisher of men—the movie examines the relationship between performance and contrition. All the characters are actors; some are trying to open a channel to God while others are putting on a show intended to earn some grace. It’s a fitting topic for Ferrara, whose movies frequently embrace the same contradictions. They’re all here in Mary—the excess, the guilt and the search for truth. Intriguingly jumbled with some assembly required.