The Abel Ferrara movie Quentin Tarantino said “blew his socks off”
Throughout the course of his remarkable career, Quentin Tarantino has proven himself to be as much of a fan of cinema as he has been a significant artistic contributor to it. The director has gone on record several times over the years to express his admiration for his fellow filmmakers and once gave high praise to Abel Ferrara.
There’s a sense in the work of Ferrara of provocation and controversy, although the same could be said for Tarantino. There’s no doubt that Quentin has found deep inspiration within the likes of King of New York, Bad Lieutenant and The Funeral, all of which use a neo-noir aesthetic while telling tales of criminal enterprise.
Tarantino remembers his early admiration for Ferrera, noting on The Rewatchables, “I was a huge Abel Ferrara fan, thinking, ‘Well, this guy’s gonna be the new Scorsese’, and I actually believed that, and so I followed Abel Ferrara with all of his movies that played at the theatre. He made all those exploitation movies that blew your socks off.”
Of all Ferrara’s films, though, it looks as though his favourite was his 1981 movie Ms. 45, which stars Zoe Tamerlis in a revenge story about a mute woman who goes on a killing spree after she is raped twice on the way home from work. The film was critically panned by some when it was initially released, although one critic in particularly gave it a solid review, which Tarantino read.
“It had that fantastic Kevin Thomas review in the LA Times, and you went and saw it, and it was just like ‘Wow! This guy is fucking amazing. This guy could be like another Scorsese.’ That’s what you’re thinking, that’s what you’re absolutely thinking,” Tarantino continued, giving his most profound respect for Ferrara’s movie.
Ferrara later followed up with The King of New York, starring Christopher Walken in the lead role, and Tarantino admitted that “if you were on its vibe, it sent out a shockwave”. The director also noted that Ferrara had at the time felt that The King of New York would be his “magnum opus”, the movie he’d always been trying to make.
The 1990 film tells of a New York City drug crime boss who attempts to rebuild his empire after serving time in prison and features an “explosion of style”, according to Tarantino, that is typical of Ferrara’s methods. It was also with that film that audiences realised that Ferrara wasn’t trying to be Scorsese but was crafting a mood and aesthetic all of his own.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.