KING OF NEW YORK, BAD LIEUTENANT, DRILLER KILLER, THE ADDICTION — all indelible classics from Abel Ferrara, whom we proudly call one of America’s greatest and most unique living filmmakers.
One of Ferrara’s earliest jams, MS. 45 knocked the DEATH WISH-ripoff subgenre off its axis with a novel spin: its avenging gun-packer is beautiful, young, mute, female and cleaning up the streets. Thana (a haunting Zoë Tamerlis) is a diligent garment worker who’s had the ultimate bad day as she’s assaulted not once, but twice in visceral fashion. Shocked to her core, her nights become consumed by seductive prowls through the city — resulting in male pigs winding up on the wrong end of a bullet.
Tamerlis offers a compelling silent performance that eerily echoes Catherine Deneuve in REPULSION, while Ferrara displays an amazing command of the medium on very limited means. Eerie, fiery, unforgettable.
Restoration courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive
ONE NIGHT ONLY - Sat, 9/18: 8:00 pm |