Abel Ferrara

Siberia review – Willem Dafoe and Abel Ferrara on fine freaky form

Dafoe has gravitas as a barkeep on a journey of delusion and epiphany in Ferrara’s glacial, woozy dream-odyssey

Peter Bradshaw

23, Sep, 2021 @6:00 AM

Venice film festival 2020 roundup – against all the odds, a triumph

The hot ticket was a Pedro Almodóvar short – but who will most impress Cate Blanchett’s Golden Lion jury?

Jonathan Romney

12, Sep, 2020 @3:00 PM

Pieces of a Woman director: gender neutral awards 'a logical move'

Hungarian film-maker Kornél Mundruczó backs up Tilda Swinton and Cate Blanchett, saying it was a step towards genuine equality

Lanre Bakare in Venice

05, Sep, 2020 @2:26 PM

My streaming gem: why you should watch New Rose Hotel

Continuing our series on underappreciated films available to stream is a vote for Abel Ferrara’s erotic 1998 drama

Beatrice Loayza

17, Aug, 2020 @7:20 AM

Willem Dafoe and Hillary Clinton to attend Berlin film festival

Dafoe stars in Abel Ferrara’s Siberia in a competition that beats out Cannes and Venice for female directors, while a documentary about Clinton shows outside the main lineup

Andrew Pulver

29, Jan, 2020 @3:25 PM

The Projectionist review – Abel Ferrara's wistful, indulgent ode to cinema

In a loving yet overlong documentary, the director looks back on 1970s New York and how movie-watching has changed

Charles Bramesco

29, Apr, 2019 @3:00 AM

Alive in France review – Abel Ferrara's shambolic blues jam of a music documentary

The controversial director of Bad Lieutenant and The King of New York hits the road for a music tour, but the result is more touching than you might expect

Wendy Ide

20, May, 2017 @6:01 PM

Gérard Depardieu leads Cannes Directors Fortnight that mixes politics with pop opera

The French festival strand picks provocative films about Israel, Ukraine and US society alongside a Joan of Arc electro musical, and there’s room for the debut of British director Rungano Nyoni’s film about an African girl accused of witchcraft

Andrew Pulver

20, Apr, 2017 @12:21 PM

The Driller Killer and the humanist behind the blood and sickening crunch

Far from a mere ‘video nasty’, Abel Ferrara’s gory gem shatters our complacency and forces us to confront our moral choices

Rowan Righelato

30, Nov, 2016 @1:57 PM

How dare you remake my classic! When directors attack

Woe betide the Hollywood studio that revisits a classic film without the blessing of its original creative team. Because things can get ugly ...

Ben Child

16, Sep, 2016 @3:52 PM

Pasolini review – a handsome, oblique tribute to the great director

Abel Ferrara’s account of the last days of the Italian auteur, played by Willem Dafoe, is beautiful and enigmatic

Mark Kermode, Observer film critic

13, Sep, 2015 @7:00 AM

Abel Ferrara: 'Pasolini's death is not some kind of fictional event'

The fearless champion of bad taste talks spirituality, improvisation and his shamanic approach to shooting a film about Pasolini’s fateful final hours