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Charli xcx may not be in an ad campaign for Aperol, but the “Brat” hitmaker has become synonymous with the Italian apéritif. So much so that she’s hooked up with the beverage brand to promote her love of the Campari Group brand.

It’s the reason she jumped on the phone with me for a chat earlier today from overseas, where she was on her way to Oslo, Norway to perform at the Øya Festival. She not only talked about loving Aperol Spritzes, but we also got caught up on her acting career, “sad and dark” movie inspirations, “Overcompensating” and why she didn’t know she’s been nominated for five MTV VMAs.

“A couple of years ago, I spent six weeks in Italy during the summer. I rented a house and wrote some songs. I drank a lot of Aperol spritzes and they sort of became a part of my everyday life,...

Charli Xcx is a British singer and songwriter known for her mix of pop, electronic, and experimental music. She became famous with songs like “Boom Clap,” “1999,” and “Break the Rules,” and is praised for pushing pop music boundaries.

Charli is also recognized for her creative music production and her impact on today’s pop music scene, with her successful album Brat. In 2024, she’s had a big year, not just in music but also in films. Her Letterboxd account went viral after appearing online on December 27, and Charli confirmed it was hers when she updated her bio to say, “my account got leaked i guess.”

Since then, fans have eagerly explored Charli Xcx’s list of favorite films, which includes titles like Charlie’s Angels, The Addiction, Bride of Frankenstein, and Céline and Julie Go Boating. Despite her busy 2024 schedule, Charli has managed to watch an impressive 210 films so far this year.

Charli Xcx is a British singer and songwriter known for her unique blend of pop, electronic, and experimental music. She gained major recognition with hits like “Boom Clap,” “1999,” and “Break the Rules,” and has been praised for pushing the boundaries of mainstream pop music.

Charli is also known for her innovative approach to music production and her influence on the modern pop scene, including her successful album ‘Brat.’ Following an incredibly successful year, 2024 has proven to be a big one for her, not only with her music but also with films.

The British musician’s Letterboxd account, which she confirmed to be hers after it went viral, has caught the attention of her fans. The account first appeared online on December 27 and quickly gained traction. Charli confirmed it was hers when the bio was updated to read, “my account got leaked i guess.”

Since then, fans have eagerly gone through her list of favorite films,...

Stars: Jasper Jones, Jay Dunn, John R. Howley, Tori Wong, Andrew Bell | Written and Directed by Andrew Bell

Vampires and vampirism have been used as metaphors for many things over the years, one of which is drug addiction. Films as diverse as Ganja and Hess, Abel Ferrara’s The Addiction, Daybreakers, and Bliss have made that connection for various purposes. Now writer/director Andrew Bell gives us his addition to the genre, Bleeding, which made its North American Premiere at Dances With Films.

A title card bearing a warning from 2008 tells us we’re in an alternate timeline where Blood and Dust, two highly addictive opioids derived from the blood of what are refered to as “the infected” are ravaging the country. Overdoses, the message tells us, leads to death and reanimation.

One of those addicted is Sean who uses it to cope with a shitty home life that includes a drunken,...

Like Abel Ferrara’s other collaborations with screenwriter Nicholas St. John, among them Ms. 45, Dangerous Game, and The Funeral, The Addiction is rife with intense and undigested contradictions. The 1995 film loosely mixes addiction and assault metaphors, capturing the self-loathing of addicts while almost inadvertently suggesting that victims of sexual abuse have it coming.

When a vampire, Casanova (Annabella Sciorra), corners a psychology scholar, Kathleen (Lili Taylor), into a dark stairwell, she asks her victim to forcefully will her away. Kathleen pleads with Casanova and is bitten in the neck in retaliation, which is staged as a tenderly erotic suckling of the flesh. Now a vampire herself, Kathleen gains Casanova’s confidence and attacks a variety of New Yorkers, offering them a similar deal: If they ask her to go, convincingly, they will be spared. Only one person, tellingly a man and even more tellingly a demon, can rise to the occasion of these terms.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

In honor of Ken Kelsch, Abel Ferrara’s The Blackout and The Addiction screen on 35mm; prints of Douglas Buck’s Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America and the 2006 Sisters remake screen Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Film Forum

A 4K restoration of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Il Grido begins; 42 screens on Sunday.

Bam

A series of New York coming-of-age movies begins, including Crooklyn on 35mm.

Film at Lincoln Center

The new 4K restoration of Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors continues.

Museum of the Moving Image

Paul Morrissey’s Flesh for Frankenstein plays in 3D on Friday; a Frank Oz series.

Metrograph

Light Sleeper and The White Ribbon show on 35mm; Around Ludlow, The World Is a Stage, and a Jeff Wall program begins; My Crazy Uncle (or Aunt) and Insomnia continue.

Museum of Modern Art

A massive...

There are some stories in the history of film that end up being repeated over and over again. Some of these are just simple categories like vampire, werewolf, and zombie films. Some of them get a little more granular and specific like the story of Dracula or Frankenstein’s monster. Finally, we can get even more granular and look at a specific title that has made the rounds a few times. I Am Legend by the wonderful and prolific Richard Matheson was made into three different movies with Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man, and finally I Am Legend. While King Kong and Phantom of the Opera probably have the most, Invasion of the Body Snatchers has the most consistent offerings. The 2007 iteration was a bust but the other 3 are all incredibly solid. With the 90s version turning 30 we thought it was worth seeing if it was a generic...

Arrow Video is gearing up for an explosive December with a line-up of iconic titles ready to captivate fans of cult classics and cinematic nostalgia. From Sylvester Stallone’s futuristic cop battles to intergalactic critters wreaking havoc, this month’s releases are an eclectic mix that promise something for everyone.

Leading the December collection is Demolition Man, starring Sylvester Stallone as the no-nonsense cop John Spartan, facing off against Wesley Snipes’ anarchic Simon Phoenix. Set in a future where crime is virtually extinct, Spartan is thawed out of CryoPrison to combat Phoenix, whose old-school brutality is wreaking havoc on a society that no longer knows how to handle him. The film, which also features Sandra Bullock in her breakout role, has been given a brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films, offering fans both the domestic “Taco Bell” and international “Pizza Hut” versions of the movie. Packed with extras—including exclusive interviews,...

Larry Fessenden’s career in horror films will be honored at the 2024 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (Bhff).

The indie filmmaker, who launched his career with a Frankenstein story in 1991’s “No Telling,” will be celebrated with the Leviathan Award to mark his cinematic achievements. A special screening of Fessenden’s 1996 film “Habit” will also be part of the ceremony. Fessenden will participate in a Q&a with Bhff alum Jenn Wexler.

The Leviathan Award, Brooklyn Horror’s first and only tribute award, was created in 2023 to honor the luminaries of horror and acknowledge their monstrous contributions to the genre.

Fessenden is credited by the festival for being an “irreplaceable” voice in filmmaking. Fessenden is the founder of Glass Eye Pix, which has sustained indie horror in New York for three decades and counting.

“Larry Fessenden is exactly the kind of trailblazing and enduring artist we want to celebrate, one whose...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (Bhff) announced today the full program for its 2024 incarnation, running October 17-24 with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. Audiences are in for an unworldly lineup of films and events, including a special screening of Larry Fessenden’s Habit with the Leviathan Award Ceremony, honoring his film career, hypes the press release.

In addition, Bloody Disgusting’s Screambox Original Series “Tales From the Void” will be screening alongside Joe Begos’s newest grindhouse horror Jimmy & Stiggs!

Here are the full deets…

The Opening Night film is the NY premiere of Dead Mail from directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy. The 2024 festival boasts the North American Premieres of exciting new films: Tiago Teixeira’s unsettling body horror film Custom; a new documentary on horror at the turn of the millennium from Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton, Generation Terror; and New...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Announces Full 2024 Program: "The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (Bhff) announces today the full program for its 2024 incarnation, running October 17-24 with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. Audiences are in for an unworldly lineup of films and events, including a special screening of Larry Fessenden’s Habit with the Leviathan Award Ceremony, honoring his film career.

The Opening Night film is the NY premiere of Dead Mail from directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy. The 2024 festival boasts the North American Premieres of exciting new films: Tiago Teixeira’s unsettling body horror film Custom; a new documentary on horror at the turn of the millennium from Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton, Generation Terror; and New Zealand director Sasha Rainbow’s film Grafted.

The festival will feature the world premieres of Izzy Lee's first feature, House Of Ashes; the atmospheric ghost story,...

Every generation has a group of vampire storylines that often span over several genres, including horror, sci-fi, and romance. Each decade of vampire movies represents the trends and themes that were popular at the time. In the '90s, technological advances such as CGI made action and horror movies particularly popular, especially when it came to special effects and visual appeal.

These '90s trends influenced the best vampire films of the time period, many of which are still widely popular and talked about today. Though many of these movies were not critically successful, their appeal won over audiences, resulting in a cult following of underrated vampire narratives. From gritty action sensations like From Dusk Till Dawn to dark romances such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, the '90s was a revolutionary time for vampire movies.

The Night Flier is a Spooky Twist On Flying Vampires

Rotten Tomatoes

41%

IMDb Score

6.0/10

Where...

Remakes are always a tricky proposition. Some of the greats both in the horror genre and elsewhere are actually remakes, whether it’s a loose one or not. Be it The Magnificent Seven coming from Seven Samurai or The Thing being birthed into imitation dog from the Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks original. I talk about The Thing A Lot but obviously it’s for a reason. You could also throw The Fly in that same category too while we are here. Those are some of the examples of the good but unfortunately, things can go downhill and fast. You have harmless ones like the Friday the 13th remake or Texas Chainsaw, the annoyingly unnecessary like Halloween and Amityville Horror, or the egregiously awful like The Fog and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Like them or loathe them, or in our case both, they are here to stay, and each...

The last time our writer interviewed him, the drugged up director dozed off then asked for coke. Now sober, he reflects on #MeToo, Italian fascism and his fight for the final cut

The last time I met Abel Ferrara, he dozed off in the middle of our interview then woke up and asked me to score him some coke. It was 1996, and he was in the UK promoting his gangster drama The Funeral – which the actor Vincent Gallo alleged Ferrara had been too blitzed on crack to direct properly – and his vampire horror The Addiction. He was on a roll, his reputation fortified by King of New York, starring Christopher Walken as a flamboyant crime boss, and the gruelling Bad Lieutenant, with Harvey Keitel as a bent junkie cop. Ferrara was the scuzzball Scorsese: no matter how celebrated he became, he never shed the patina of grime from his...

Ken Kelsch, the hard-charging cinematographer and Vietnam War veteran who shot the down-and-dirty classic Bad Lieutenant and 11 other features for iconoclastic director Abel Ferrara, has died. He was 76.

Kelsch died Monday at Hackettstown Medical Center in New Jersey after a battle with Covid and pneumonia, his son, Chris Kelsch, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“If you knew him, you probably have a story about him,” Chris wrote on Facebook. “He really was a great man, loved by many. A war hero who filled every room with his presence. An artist who never stopped being himself. A caring father who would do anything for his kids and grandkids. Shared his experience, wisdom and love with all. Our family will deeply miss him and always love him, as I’m sure many of you will as well.”

Kelsch also was the director of photography on Big Night (1996), co-directed, co-written and starring Stanley Tucci,...

Consisting of five segments, Southbound (2015) is a horror anthology movie that saw direction under numerous creatives: a filmmaking collective called Radio Silence directed the first segment, and the last. Filling the void was Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner, and Patrick Horvath. And within each story, talented thespians perform to their greatest extents, emitting heartfelt screams that will echo in your head long after an initial viewing.

While there are dozens of well-known examples of filmmakers making more grounded anthology films — take Jim Jarmusch with Night on Earth (1991) and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) — most popular projects of this ilk are categorized as horror films. Just look at Tales from the Crypt (1972) and Creepshow (1982), for instance. You've undoubtedly heard of those, if you haven't seen them outright. But the same can't be said for Southbound.

The film at hand flew drastically under the public radar upon release, and its popularity has remained rather stagnant ever since.

Clockwise from top left: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Sony), Dracula (Universal), Only Lovers Left Alive (Sony), The Hunger (MGM/UA), Nosferatu The Vampyre (Shout Factory), Nosferatu (Kino Lorber) Graphic: AVClub

The vampire is cinema’s favorite monster. Ever since Nosferatu more than a century ago, bloodsuckers of every conceivable persuasion...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

’90s Horror, Art-House Horror, and Pre-Code Horror

It’s October, which means you are likely crafting an endless queue of horror films to consume. When it comes to a single streaming service to dedicate your eyes to this month, The Criterion Channel takes the cake with three different series. First up, ’90s horror brings together such films as The Rapture (1991), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), The Addiction (1995), and Ravenous (1999), while Art-House Horror features Häxan (1922), Vampyr (1932), Eyes Without a Face (1960), Carnival of Souls (1962), Onibaba (1964), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Sisters (1973), Eraserhead (1977), House (1977), Suspiria (1977), Arrebato (1979), The Brood (1979), The Vanishing (1988), Cronos (1993), Cure (1997), Donnie Darko (2001), Trouble Every Day (2001), Antichrist (2009), and more. Lastly, Pre-Code horrors brings together ’30s features such as Freaks (1932), Island of Lost Souls (1932), The Old Dark House...

These last few years the Criterion Channel have made October viewing much easier to prioritize, and in the spirit of their ’70s and ’80s horror series we’ve graduated to––you guessed it––”’90s Horror.” A couple of obvious classics stand with cult favorites and more unknown entities (When a Stranger Calls Back and Def By Temptation are new to me). Three more series continue the trend: “Technothrillers” does what it says on the tin, courtesy the likes of eXistenZ and Demonlover; “Art-House Horror” is precisely the kind of place to host Cure, Suspiria, Onibaba; and “Pre-Code Horror” is a black-and-white dream. Phantom of the Paradise, Unfriended, and John Brahm’s The Lodger are added elsewhere.

James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...

The ’70s shocked you, the ’80s gored you . . . now the ’90s come in for the kill!

The Criterion Channel has announced this year’s Halloween spectacular, which “celebrates an era that saw terror undergo unsettling new transformations.”

The team previews, “In the ’90s, horror movies got bigger budgets, became playfully self-aware, and even won some Oscars—but they’re just as nasty as what came before.

“Featuring cult heroes like John Carpenter (In the Mouth of Madness) and Abel Ferrara (The Addiction) plunging the dark depths of their uncompromising visions, established auteurs like Francis Ford Coppola (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) taking on the genre, and new voices like Ernest R. Dickerson (Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight) and Antonia Bird (Ravenous) offering fresh perspectives on familiar tropes, this selection curated by Clyde Folley offers a hair-raising tour through an oft-overlooked decade in horror that’s ripe for rediscovery.”

The full...

One of Catholicism's most iconic figures is getting their story told on the big screen with Padre Pio. Helmed by provocateur Abel Ferrara, well-known for the likes of Bad Lieutenant and The Addiction, the biographical drama will chronicle the early days of the eponymous priest's ministry at a remote Capuchin monastery in Italy's San Giovanni Rotondo post-World War I, and his efforts to help the Italian soldiers returning to the village. Shia Labeouf is leading the cast of Padre Pio alongside Marco Leonardi, Salvatore Ruocco, Luca Lionello, and Asia Argento.

In time for its theatrical release, Screen Rant can exclusively present a new Padre Pio clip.

The video, as seen above, finds Labeouf's eponymous priest being confronted by his personal demons with a listing of the various actions he feels guilty over, which he vehemently argues against and calls upon the Lord to make the unseen figure stop.

Will Padre Pio Launch Another Labeouf Resurgence?...

Director Abel Ferrara is one of the undisputed greats of American cinema. Yet, for whatever reason, he seems to be embraced by (and embraces) other cultures more than this one. Maybe it's his iconoclastic behavior, the enfant terrible turned dangerous drug user turned streetwise sober Buddhist. Maybe it's the raw violence and gritty humanity of his films, like an early Martin Scorsese who never got a bigger budget and wouldn't to compromise if he did. Maybe it's karma, or maybe it's God — either way, most cinephiles wouldn't change a thing.

That's because Ferrara's extensive filmography is so uniquely his. He's perfectly himself, whether he's directing a vampiric allegory about dependence (The Addiction), a gangster epic with Christopher Walken (King of New York), the greatest corrupt cop film ever made (Bad Lieutenant), or a brilliant Gulf War-era remake of '50s sci-fi (Body Snatchers). Now, a veritable ex-pat and sober septuagenarian,...

Genre films have often utilized the depiction of vampirism as a powerful metaphor for addiction, as seen in films like The Hunger (1983), The Addiction (19995), and Habit (1997). More recently, My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To (2020) used vampirism as a potent allegory not only for addiction, but also for people living with chronic illness and the toll it takes on their caregivers. In his new film Blood, written by Will Honley (Bloodline), director Brad Anderson adeptly blends motherhood, vampirism, and chronic illness, emphasized by the need for blood, to present a compelling story of a family torn apart.

Blood stars Michelle Monaghan as Jess, a caring nurse and mother, who is also a recovering addict going through a nasty divorce and a battle for custody of her children. Jess’ ex-husband, played by Skeet Ulrich, got the house, the babysitter, and a new baby, and is using Jess’ previous struggles...

Click here to read the full article.

Of the many questions one might ask when watching Abel Ferrara’s clunky portrayal of the legendary and controversial early 20th-century Italian friar, Padre Pio, the main one has to be: Why, oh why Abel, did you decide to make the movie in English?

Granted, Ferrara probably felt more comfortable working in his native tongue — as likely did Shia Labeouf, who seems fully committed to his pious role, sporting a beard that’s bigger than the Book of Psalms itself. But the Bronx-born director has been living in Rome for a while now, and had he chosen Italian for this story of a priest caught between his alleged healing powers and his visions of Lucifer, between the rise of fascism and a growing communist revolt in a small village, this bungled drama may have seemed a little more credible.

Instead, Ferrera surrounded Labeouf...

(Welcome to Year of the Vampire, a series examining the greatest, strangest, and sometimes overlooked vampire movies of all time in honor of "Nosferatu," which turns 100 this year.)

Though it sounds like the key to unlocking the whole movie, the title of "The Addiction" is not necessarily as straightforward as it seems. Filmed in crisp black-and-white, Abel Ferrera's 1995 indie vampire film stars Lili Taylor as Kathleen Conklin, an NYU philosophy student who gets cornered and assaulted in a dark alley one night by a bloodsucking "Casanova" with the face of Annabella Sciorra.

Two other future "Sopranos" stars, Edie Falco and Michael Imperioli,...

The post Year of the Vampire: The Addiction Bites into Dependency and the Problem of Evil appeared first on /Film.

Vampirism has been used as a metaphor for various kinds of addiction in several films over the years, like The Addiction (1995) and Larry Fessenden’s Habit (1995). There are just so many ways to compare creatures of the night who need to drink blood to survive to humans’ many unhealthy addictions. What would happen if a vampire decided to try and kick their habit of drinking blood? Filmmaker Blaine Thurier (Teen Lust) poses this question in his new film Kicking Blood and the answer is captivating.

Written by Thurier and Leonard Farlinger, and directed by Thurier, Kicking Blood premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2021. The film stars Alanna Bale as Anna, a vampire who likes to read books and works the overnight shift in a library, and Luke Bilyk (Adams Testament) as Robbie, a messy alcoholic whose life is falling apart.

Kicking Blood introduces the mysterious Anna, working her late-night...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSDario Argento's Dark GlassesFollowing his appearance in Gaspar Noé's Vortex, Dario Argento returns to directing with Dark Glasses, his first feature since Dracula 3D (2012). Starring Asia Argento and Andrea Zhang, the thriller follows a serial killer, a blind sex worker, and a 10-year-old Chinese boy in Rome's Chinese community. John Woo is also set to make a return to Hollywood with Silent Night, a "no dialogue" action film about a father (played by Joel Kinnaman) who seeks to avenge his son's death. Film Labs, a "worldwide network of artist-run film laboratories," now has a new website! The website includes more than 500 films made at artist-run film labs from Vancouver to South Korea, as well as technical resources and distribution information. Dancer, choreographer, theatrical director, and filmmaker Wakefield Poole has died. A pioneer of the gay pornography industry,...

Alamo Drafthouse, the movie theater du jour of cinephiles, is finally ready to open the doors to its first Manhattan location.

Starting on Oct. 18, customers will be able to visit the Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan to get their fix of popcorn, buffalo cauliflower and beer while watching the latest blockbuster unfold on the big screen. The soft launch period will run through Oct. 21, a time during which guests will receive special discounts on select food and non-alcoholic beverages while staff members train and find their bearings. Located in the Financial District at 28 Liberty Street, the 14-screen multiplex and 598-seat theater is the company’s third New York-based operation following Yonkers and Brooklyn.

“The last 18 months have been a rollercoaster for our industry, but through it all we’ve believed in the future of this industry,” says Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor. “Opening our Lower Manhattan theater is an expression of...

Some readers might remember when, in 2013, Abel Ferrara’s third feature film, Ms. 45 (1981) was once again released in theaters, reinvigorated by a brand-new, state-of-the-art restoration and with its sound remastered in HD. This re-release, with its first screening held fittingly in New York on Friday, December 13th, demonstrated to audiences the extent to which Ferrara’s controversial and hastily labelled “rape and revenge” film had maintained its aggressive spleen.

While walking home from work, Thana, a mute young woman working as a seamstress in New York City's Garment District, is raped at gunpoint in an alley by a mysterious, masked attacker. She survives and makes her way back to her apartment, where she encounters a burglar and is raped a second time. Thana—her name an allusion to Greek god of death Thanatos—manages to knock her second assailant out, then bludgeons him to death with an iron and carries his body to the bathtub.

Illustration by Jeff CashvanMovie-lovers!Welcome back to The Deuce Notebook, a collaboration between Mubi Notebook and The Deuce Film Series, our monthly event at Nitehawk Williamsburg that excavates the facts and fantasies of cinema's most infamous block in the world: 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. For each screening, my co-hosts and I pick a flick that we think embodies the era of all-night moviegoing down the “Flamboyant Floodway,” and present the theater at which it premiered.Back in October 2013, for our second screening at Nitehawk, we presented Abel Ferrara’s second feature—so, we thought for our second Mubi column we would feature the film a second time. You dig?Every screening concludes with our 'famous' raffle, the grand prize of which is always an original poster by the 'Maestro’ Jeff Cashvan. Enter for your chance to win Jeff’s one-sheet above by shooting us an email and saying ciao: thedeucefilmseries@gmail.

A man of many talents, Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state, speaks French fluently and even tweeted this fall that his hands know how to handle a guitar.

“Mostly blues and rock. Not good enough for bluegrass,” he posted Oct. 18. But the former deputy secretary of state has yet to comment on another notch on his résumé: associate producer of Abel Ferrara’s experimental black-and-white vampire film The Addiction.

Starring Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Anabella Sciorra, Edie Falco and Michael Imperioli, the story centers on a New York philosophy graduate student turned vampire ...

A man of many talents, Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state, speaks French fluently and even tweeted this fall that his hands know how to handle a guitar.

“Mostly blues and rock. Not good enough for bluegrass,” he posted Oct. 18. But the former deputy secretary of state has yet to comment on another notch on his résumé: associate producer of Abel Ferrara’s experimental black-and-white vampire film The Addiction.

Starring Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Anabella Sciorra, Edie Falco and Michael Imperioli, the story centers on a New York philosophy graduate student turned vampire ...

Ethan Hawke, Cristina Chiriac and Phil Neilson will star in the upcoming war thriller “Zeros and Ones,” with Abel Ferrara directing from his own script.

Filming begins in Italy later this month. Hawke will portray an American soldier stationed in Rome as it’s under siege, with the Vatican blown up. He embarks on a hero’s journey to uncover and defend against an unknown enemy threatening the entire world.

Christian Mercuri’s Capstone Group will launch sales at the virtual American Film Market this week under its Blue Box International label and will co-rep domestic with CAA Media Finance.

“Zeros and Ones” is produced by Diana Phillips of Rimsky Productions, and Philipp Kreuzer from Maze Pictures. Sean Price Williams, who most recently lensed “Good Time” — starring Robert Pattinson, and directed by Benny and Josh Safdie — is heading the production team. Executive producers are Danny Chan of Almost Never Films,...

CAA Media Finance, Capstone to jointly represent US rights.

In one of the most tantalising projects to come together for AFM 2020 Online, Ethan Hawke will star for Abel Ferrara in the contemporary thriller Zeros And Ones, which Capstone’s Blue Box International is introducing to buyers today.

CAA Media Finance will jointly represent US rights with Capstone on the project, which Ferrara will direct from his original screenplay.

Ferrara, whose career includes such noted films as King Of New York, Bad Lieutenant, The Addiction, Siberia, Pasolini, and Mary, is gearing up for a production start in Italy later this month.

There is no writing credit for “Sportin’ Life,” which feels like an omission, but an apt one. On the one hand, this documentary self-portrait by rogue auteur Abel Ferrara feels wholly the product of his eccentric imagination, colored by his voice from beginning to hasty end. On the other, it’s impossible to imagine such a chaotic, clashing assemblage of half-thoughts and impulses being “written” per se: A video diary of the filmmaker’s travels and stasis from February to August of this year, edited with nary a moment to reflect ahead of its premiere at the Venice Film Festival this month, it gives every appearance of having been downloaded directly from his brain in its full antic, distracted form. Whose 2020 has been a year of tidy ideas, after all?

On the one hand, then, “Sportin’ Life” mostly captures the spirit of an enervating, dislocated time, as Ferrara touches on...

The unexamined life is not worth living. The half-examined life isn’t worth living either or - to be more accurate - isn’t worth documenting in narrative film, let alone a character study with a two-hour running time and a loose, unfocused structure that suggests a filmmaker, Abel Ferrera wrestling to find meaning in or meaningfully engage with half-formed, underdeveloped ideas in a lightly fictionalized meta-drama about a filmmaker at a personal, figurative, ultimately spiritual crossroads. That Ferrara’s latest film, Tommaso, succeeds as a tour-de-force for Willem Dafoe, an oft-underused, underutilized performer, while failing as a character study or meta-drama, comes less as surprise or disappointment then as the not an entirely unwelcome price...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Following his role in Tommaso, the actor is once again playing the Us director’s alter-ego as Ferrara returns to compete in the Berlin Film Festival 25 years after The Addiction. After bagging a starring role in the intimate and self-reflective Tommaso (shown in a Special Screening in Cannes 2019), Willem Dafoe is returning as Abel Ferrara’s alter-ego in the director’s new project Siberia. The film tells the story of Clint, a broken man who lives alone in the heart of a frozen tundra. But despite his isolation, he can neither escape from the world nor find peace. One evening, he embarks upon a journey, travelling through his dreams, memories and imagination, trying to make his way through the darkness and into the light. Starring in the cast alongside Dafoe are Cristina Chiriac and the director’s real-life daughter Anna Ferrara - who also appeared in Tommaso - as well as Dounia.

Appearing online for the first time, here is Scott Macaulay’s report on Abel Ferrara’s The Addiction, from our Winter, 1995 edition. It appears here in newly revised form. ***“Addiction will be our question: a certain type of ‘Being-on-drugs’ that has everything to do with the bad conscious of our era.” — Avital Ronell, Crack Wars “Look at this,” Abel Ferrara says, tracing his finger across the video monitor in his Manhattan office/editing room. On the screen: black-and-white images of blood-streaked, bullet-ridden Bosnian casualties. “This is the real thing.” These images, and others of Nazi concentration camp victims from Ferrara’s new […]...

Appearing online for the first time, here is Scott Macaulay’s report on Abel Ferrara’s The Addiction, from our Winter, 1995 edition. It appears here in newly revised form. ***“Addiction will be our question: a certain type of ‘Being-on-drugs’ that has everything to do with the bad conscious of our era.” — Avital Ronell, Crack Wars “Look at this,” Abel Ferrara says, tracing his finger across the video monitor in his Manhattan office/editing room. On the screen: black-and-white images of blood-streaked, bullet-ridden Bosnian casualties. “This is the real thing.” These images, and others of Nazi concentration camp victims from Ferrara’s new […]...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGThe official trailer for Peter Strickland's In Fabric, which stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a woman who purchases a haunted dress from a sinister boutique. The long awaited trailer to Hideo Kojima's new boundary-pushing video game Death Stranding, which by way of motion capture stars the likes of Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Guillermo del Toro.Alien: The Play, a North Bergen High School production that features handmade costumes made of recycled materials, is now available online in its entirety. In the latest edition of the Museum of Modern Art's "How To See" series, curator Dave Kehr discusses how the nitrate prints and negatives of cinema's early days inspired audiences by expanding their perception of the world. Miranda July directs the music video for Sleater-Kinney's "Hurry On Home,...

Born in Brooklyn, Ken Kelsch enlisted to fight in Vietnam when he was still a teenager. He became a decorated officer in the Army Special Forces, and with over four decades as a cinematographer, has amassed more than 50 credits in film and television. His work alongside Abel Ferrara, with whom he has collaborated over 15 times, includes Bad Lieutenant, Dangerous Game, The Addiction, The Funeral, and recent Tribeca Film Festival entry, The Projectionist. Along with actor Annabella Sciorra and composer Joe Delia, Kelsch will be doing a Q&A at MoMA during the screening of The Funeral on Thursday, May […]...

Born in Brooklyn, Ken Kelsch enlisted to fight in Vietnam when he was still a teenager. He became a decorated officer in the Army Special Forces, and with over four decades as a cinematographer, has amassed more than 50 credits in film and television. His work alongside Abel Ferrara, with whom he has collaborated over 15 times, includes Bad Lieutenant, Dangerous Game, The Addiction, The Funeral, and recent Tribeca Film Festival entry, The Projectionist. Along with actor Annabella Sciorra and composer Joe Delia, Kelsch will be doing a Q&A at MoMA during the screening of The Funeral on Thursday, May […]...

For the first three decades of his career, Abel Ferrara was a seminal New York filmmaker whose gritty tales of furious pariahs, addicts, and rebels made Martin Scorsese’s “Mean Streets” look like “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.” But Ferrara fled New York after 9/11 and found a new life abroad. On a recent evening in Rome, he stood on the porch of his home, thousands of miles from the city that put him on the map, and contemplated his history of battling for final cut.

“You can’t paint a mustache on a Mona Lisa just because you fucking buy it,” he said, wearing a pair of scruffy headphones as he stared into a Skype session on his laptop. His leathery features and wisps of long white hair gleamed against a shadowy backdrop. “You dig what I mean? I’m working in my own language.”

With Ferrara, meaning can be an elusive thing.

It’s been nearly five years since Abel Ferrara’s “Pasolini,” starring Willem Dafoe as murdered Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, made its debut at the Venice and Toronto International film festivals in 2014. Now, at last, it’s getting U.S. distribution: Kino Lorber has picked up North American rights to the film and has set its premiere for New York City’s Metrograph on May 10.

Ferrara will be showing a new documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival this April called “The Projectionist,” but his films have barely been seen in the U.S. over the past decade. In the ’90s, Ferrara established himself as a bad-boy auteur with “King of New York,” “Bad Lieutenant,” and “The Addiction.” But a reputation for being difficult has made it harder and harder for his films to get released.

A particular flashpoint in Ferrera’s career was “Welcome to New York,” his film...

Abel Ferrara's King of New York (1990) and 4:44 Last Day on Earth(2011) are playing April – May, 2019 on Mubi in the United States.The world has shrunk around Abel Ferrara. He was once able to shoot every corner of his oft-filmed hometown in movies like Fear City, Ms. 45, RXmas, The Addiction, Bad Lieutenant and King of New York as if it were Babylon. It's darkest corners and towering skyscrapers, its crooked cops, princely dealers and bottom-feeding scum riding an unpredictable wave of fortune and misery. And fittingly Ferrara himself fell prey to that same tide and by the time he wanted to make 4:44: Last Day on Earth, he was no longer the in-demand presence he once was. King of New York and 4:44 are perfect twins, charting the disintegrating mental peace two men with storied pasts. Drug addictions, prison time, lost potential, lost time, both men have to...

Review by Roger Carpenter

Abel Ferrara has always existed on the fringe of filmmaking. The themes he tackles, the controversial content of his films, and his New York City attitude all help in keeping him on those fringes. Even when he attempted to cross over in the early 90’s to bigger-budgeted Hollywood films–with limited success– it wasn’t long until he again embraced the outsider attitude and moved right back into making no-budget films. The Addiction is a case in point. Shot for around $500,000, most of the cast and crew were employed for delayed compensation, a big gamble considering the typical earning potential of an Abel Ferrara film. But one doesn’t work with Ferrara for a big payday. One works with Ferrara because one appreciates pure cinema, the authenticity of Ferrara, and his guerrilla-style filmmaking. After dabbling with the Hollywood elite, The Addiction was a breath of fresh air for Ferrara,...

Watch out – a bloodsucking fiend is stalking the highways and by-ways of lower Manhattan… and she has a PhD! Abel Ferrara’s vampire mini-epic puts Lili Taylor through an ordeal that’s harrowing, transformational and either profound or pretentious depending on how you roll with existential philosophy. We acknowledge that Ferrara is a good judge of actor-flesh: sharing in the theory-speak and blood-soaked grue are Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco, and Kathryn Erbe.

The Addiction

Blu-ray

Arrow Video USA

1995 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 82 min. / Street Date June 26, 2018 / Available from Arrow Video

Starring: Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco, Paul Calderon, Fredro Starr, Kathryn Erbe, Michael Imperioli, Jamal Simmons, Robert W. Castle, Michael Fella.

Cinematography: Ken Kelsch

Film Editor: Mayin Lo

Production design: Charles Lagola

Original Music: Joe Delia

Written by Nicholas St. John

Produced by Denis Hann, Fernando Sulichin

Directed by Abel Ferrara

By the time Abel Ferrara’s The Addiction came along,...

For this final week of home media releases, June is closing things out on a strong note, as we have plenty of horror and sci-fi offerings to get excited about. For those who may have missed it during its theatrical run earlier this year, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s The Endless arrives on both formats (and is absolutely worth your time).

Arrow Video is keeping busy with a pair of Special Edition releases–The Addiction and Vigil–and Vinegar Syndrome is serving up a double dose of cult filmmaking with their multi-format presentations for Grave Robbers and their Blood Theatre/The Visitants double feature. Scream Factory has put together a stellar Blu for The Curse of the Cat People, and for those in the mood for more feline-themed horror, Cat Sick Blues arrives on DVD this Tuesday. And for those of you Puppet Master fans out there, you’re...

To celebrate the release of The Addiction - available on Blu-ray 25th June from Arrow Video – we have a copy to giveaway!

Starring Lili Taylor and Christopher Walken, The Addiction is one of the most powerful vampire movies ever made, with everything from its grainy black and white aesthetic to its raw central performance, combining to position vampirism as a hedonistic addiction above all else. Whether you’re already a convert or completely new to the film, Abel Ferrara’s take on vampire mythology, on a specially restored director-approved 4K Blu-ray from Arrow Video, will have you craving more.

Order today: https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/the-addiction-blu-ray/FCD1769

To win a copy of The Addiction on Arrow Video Blu-ray, just answer the following question:

Which of the following was also directed by Able Ferrara? Was it:

a) Body Snatchers

b) Communion

c) Four Rooms

Email your answer to NerdlyComps@gmail.com,...

Controversial director Abel Ferrara has blasted and confounded cinema-goers in the past with challenging but breathtaking works. His films chart religious/psychological battles with the degeneration of corrupt societies, cultures and characters, via acts of extreme violence and sexual depravity.

Ferrara’s body includes: Bad Lieutenant, King of New York, Ms. 45 and The Driller Killer. All provocative, divisive yet astounding works, widely considered cult classics. His recent two films to be released in the UK (Welcome To New York and Pasolini) are among the Bronx director’s best, revealing an artist bravely embracing new styles and concepts into his career winter years, while refusing to blunt the edge that makes his work so intoxicating.

Heyuguys caught up with Ferrara recently to talk about The Addiction. This black and white, mid-nineties allegorical vampire parable starring Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken and Annabella Sciorra, which is about to make its UK Blu-ray/ 4K restoration debut from Arrow Video.