Werner Herzog Sells Out; Betrays an Abel Ferrara Masterpiece
– May 27, 2009Posted in: ferrara-abel, Film
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (Bat Segundo interview with Murphy)
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (Bat Segundo interview with McClear)
Looks like the producer of the original, who owns the righs, wants to make a franchise out of this. But what has Herzog done wrong?
—
MK: So, Werner, are you making Bad Lieutenant?
WH: No, because I’ve done it.
MK: But it’s not a remake, is it?
WH: No, it’s not, although I cannot fully verify it because I have never seen Bad Lieutenant made by Abel Ferrara. I do not know who the man is, although he has made a lot of noise about this. Only the producer, Ed Pressman, who owns the rights to the title and was apparently planning to do some sort of franchise out of it, named it Bad Lieutenant. I added the subtitle, Port of Call New Orleans, because it takes place in New Orleans. And the leading actor in this is Nicolas Cage, with whom I had a wonderful working relationship. I took him where he has not been before.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jan/26/werner-herzog-interview
This does not look like it was directed by Herzog. It looks like it was directed by Tyler Perry. Cage is a joke.
Q: Have you talked to him?
Herzog: No. I have no idea who Abel Ferrara is. But let him fight the windmills, like Don Quixote.
http://defamer.gawker.com/395038/defiant-werner-herzog-to-defamer-who-is-abel-ferrara
Yeah, fighting the windmills in the same way that Herzog once did.
In that interview Herzog doesn’t come across like a nice person, but what is he really doing wrong? I have sympathy for Abel Ferrara, but sadly this is how movies work. They’re not purely artistic endeavors. They’re collaborative projects, almost always made in order to make money, with a strong artistic component. If Herzog were a more generous person, he’d probably have talked with Ferrara or chosen a different project, but to say he’s “selling out” just seems like silly reductionism. Does that term really mean anything?
The 8-word line of dialog that Keitel’s character utters while standing on the driver’s of the young woman’s car, while onanizing, has entered the pantheon of catchphrases I use with my chums (along with the trivia, true or not, that the young woman with the open mouth was played by Harvey’s daughter). The orig BL was a lumpy masterpiece (until that sentimental bit at the end, with those gang thugs improbably weeping)… Herzog sold whatever was left of his to sell when he did that Hollywood war flick with Bale and he will, without a doubt, mess this up.
I just watched the trailer. Let me re-phrase that: he did, without a doubt, mess this up.