Abel Ferrara
Two weeks before the highly anticipated premiere of Go Go Tales at the Cannes Film Festival, Stuart Alson (Publisher of IFQ) interviewed long-time friend, indie guru director Abel Ferrara over the phone while he was in Rome, Italy.
IFQ: Your film is called Go Go Tales. What’s the story? How long did it take to get made?
Abel Ferrara: Man, like 10 years or 8 years. I remember saying it. I was on the Conan O’Brien show telling him it was going to be like Cheers with tits and ass. It cracked him up.
IFQ: First, it was supposed to be an HBO show, right?
AF: Yeah, it still is, you know, in my mind. The dream part of this is to do it like a Sopranos- like series. Continuing at this point, I’ve got the actors all willing to go forward with it. Like Cinecittà Studios when they did the series Rome.
IFQ: Well, Sopranos is just ending and they need something to take over.
AF: I know man, when we get there you got to help me put this together because the only thing takes place in one location in one night. I mean the film and not the series and Frankie (De Curtis), our designer, built the place.
IFQ: Where is the set? Where did you shoot it?
AF: Cinecittà – where Fellini did all of his movies.
IFQ: Oh, you shot it in Rome?
AF: It’s a great studio. We shot it in Rome.
IFQ: I ran into Burt Young in LA. He said he is in Go Go Tales.
AF: He was in Bulgaria doing another movie and then he came to Rome, but the film was not big enough for him. He thought he should have played the Willem Dafoe part because he is so handsome. He was playing Sylvia Miles’ husband.
IFQ: How old is she?
AF: However old she is, she’s got the energy of a 9-year-old.
She plays the landlady who is going to close the place down and turn it into a Bed, Bath & Beyond.
IFQ: Ok, so that’s the whole premise? They have to get up the money to pay the landlady.
AF: Yeah or otherwise they are closing the place down that night and so they take the last 25,000 bucks, the accountant and Dafoe. That’s who plays the lead, Dafoe.
IFQ: He plays the accountant, right?
AF: No, he is the owner; he is the impresario.
Dafoe plays the impresario and Roy Dotrice is this great English actor who plays the accountant. Bob Hoskins plays The Baron. The Baron is the guy who runs the place.
Then Matt Modine plays the accountant’s brother who runs best run beauty parlor in Staten Island. He usually finances the place, keeps the tab going, but this night he is closing it down. So Dafoe and the accountant on the sly, buy $25,000 worth of lottery tickets because they get a tip.
The guys at the corner store get Dafoe convinced that there is a system to win the lottery. They take the last 25,000 they got and buy tickets and they actually hit the lottery and win it. But they can’t find the ticket. They have every ticket but that one.
IFQ: What does Asia Argento do?
AF: She plays a go go dancer with a big dog, a rottweiler.
AF: My old lady Shanyn. You’ve met Shanyn (Leigh). She’s the star of the movie. She plays one of the girls, a dancer. But see, the dancers are not just dancers, they are part of The Ray of Hope Talent Agency (ran by Dafoe’s character Ray Ruby) and it’s Ray Ruby’s Paradise Club. The girls are not just go go dancers, they have other talents. He has them all convinced that they are going to Hollywood.
IFQ: So the strippers want to make it as legit actors?
AF: Like Goldie Hawn. We have Goldie Hawn’s g-string in a glass case.
IFQ: So the whole thing is that “you are going to make it, just keep stripping.”
AF: But they also, every Thursday night, put on a show and turn the place around. It’s no longer a go go club. It’s like a cabaret.
IFQ: So they are taking themselves seriously and Ray Ruby is taken himself seriously as a manager.
AF: He is their manager at The Ray of Hope Talent Agency.
IFQ: Now how did Shanyn get the part? Did she audition like everybody else?
AF: She wrote the script. If she didn’t get the part, I’d be dead.
IFQ: The part got you. What are you doing in living in Rome?
AF: We came here to do Mary. So that took a year – almost two years. Then (Giuseppe) Farrandino talked to us to go back to New York to do the Prequel to the King of New York, The Last Crew. So we spent 8 months and we didn’t make the movie. Then I came back here and we did Go Go Tales.
IFQ: How did you end up going there? Did you hear that someone had money there?
AF: Most of the films are financed from Europe. France and Italy are our base.
IFQ: Is it because they respect you more or is it business?
AF: That’s where I’m from; it’s my blood. My grandfather moved from here to America and made his fortune and I came back here.
IFQ: Why do you use the same cast over and over again?
AF: The funny thing is Dafoe is living in Rome also. He married this Italian director. So he’s like an expatriate. People do not realize that after 9/11, New York became…
IFQ: Everything changed except the rent?
AF: (Laughs) Yeah, that went up unless you lived near the World Trade Center.
IFQ: How did you get the film into Cannes?
AF: We screened it for them and they wanted to show it. We were in Cannes with The Blackout and Bad Lieutenant and we were in competition with Body Snatchers.
But this year, they are all going to be there – going to have Tarantino, The Coen Brothers, Scorsese. It’s going to be unbelievable.
IFQ: Who is going to be selling Go Go Tales?
AF: Fucking Wildbunch, as always.
IFQ: How do they always get it?
AF: I don’t know how they get it. They got it.
IFQ: You made New Rose Hotel with Dafoe. He didn’t think it was going to be finished and now he is back for more.
AF: (Laughs) You talking about Dafoe? So (Ed) Pressman buys the book for ¾ of a million dollars and it’s a brilliant story, a masterpiece. So for a few years, they tried turning it into an action piece with Arnold Schwarzenegger. So when that did not work out, I said to them if you want to do it like (William) Gibson’s story, and the story ended with a flashback of the first half of the movie being repeated so when we did it everyone thought that we were just showing the same footage twice because we ran out of money. What made it worse was that we did finish it in time, but we did not have the end credits, so I told the editor just put the end credits from The Funeral on it. You know, when the film ended we would just turn the lights on and it would look normal. But they thought I was crazy. You know what they did instead? The film ends and they run three minutes of black leader with the end credit music and no end credits.
AF: We had the screening in Cannes and Venice. And then Pressman, the fucking courageous leader he is, turns around the next day and says, well the film is not finished anyway. It’s just a rough cut.
IFQ: Oh, well. You did get it released. You’ve got great actors in your new film.
AF: Yeah, I’ve got Bob Hoskins, Modine, Anita Pallenberg, who was Keith Richards’ first wife. Cannes will be great. The Stones are going to be there and our other buddy Bono will be there. They did an Imax version of a concert. They are showing his at midnight so it’s going to be wild. Then we have Grace Jones doing the music.
IFQ: How do you get all the big actors to work for you for not much money.
AF: They always get paid; it’s not like they don’t get paid. I think they feel sorry for us.
IFQ: What else are you planning?
AF: We are doing a short for Gore on global warming, destruction of the atmosphere. A bunch of directors are going to do it. They have this big event in July around the world. We are doing a short starring Shanyn Leigh. Next week, we are going to do a music video for Timbaland, the guy who plays with Justin Timberlake.
IFQ: Where are they going to make it?
AF: They are making it in Rome, Cinecittà.
IFQ: So that’s your place? You are the main guy at that studio now?
AF: It’s great shooting at the studio. Remember we were going to make Go Go Tales in New York and we built the set and then we couldn’t pay the fucking rent on the place and they tossed the fucking set out in the street. Anyway, everything happens for a reason.
IFQ: So you are saying forget New York and just stay in Europe for awhile and make the movies where they have the financing.
AF: No, we make it where we make it, you know, wherever it goes. For this one, it’s a studio piece and we had it all under control. We shot it with this Italian crew, Fabio Cianchetti. He shot (Bernardo) Bertolucci’s movie. These guys are fantastic. Then we brought over Frankie – he designed it and part produced it.
IFQ: You did Driller Killer, Ms. 45 and then there is Tarantino’s Grindhouse. What’s up, anything?
AF: That’s right from our time.
IFQ: Is he a big fan of yours?
AF: He’s our guy. We got together. We did Bad Lieutenant when he was doing Reservoir Dogs. He’s Italian. He did all of this and didn’t have a father growing up. We will see him over there, so we will see what he has to say.
IFQ: Why do you always show your films at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival?
AF: Because it’s the best film festival in the world, especially compared to the New York Film Festival, which is the worst film festival ever made.
IFQ: What is so great about the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival?
AF: Everyone has a chance to show their work. It’s an equal opportunity situation. There’s no bluenose; there is no bullshit.
IFQ: When are you going to be in Cannes? What date are you getting there?
AF: We are going to be there on the 23rd at midnight. I will get there as soon as possible. We are working around the clock to get our final cut ready.
Cannes Film Festival: Abel Ferrara
2007 Go Go Tales
2001 R XMAS Director Un certain regard
Screenplay
1997 THE BLACKOUT Director Hors compétition
Script and Dialogue
1993 BODY SNATCHERS Director En compétition
1992 BAD LIEUTENANT Director Un certain regard
Script and Dialogue