Scene

Reviews / Votes

"Abel Ferrara's movies are often driven by the consequences of addictive behavior. The director's memoir confronts his own appetites with candor." -- Farran Smith Nehme * Wall Street Journal * "Scene is so full of cinematically told stories that we can only imagine what was left on the cutting room floor." * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette * "[A] veritable testament to his considerable body of uncompromising, at times devastating work, and even within a career filled with countless sublime moments, Scene is a singular accomplishment." * Filmmaker Magazine * "It's the kind of "celebrity memoir" we rarely see: one that shows its author in a brutally honest light, holding nothing back. A remarkable life story, brilliantly told." * Booklist * "[Abel Ferrara] is one of the most consistently interesting, unpredictable, and vital American filmmakers of the past half century, a model of hardheaded integrity, independence, insubordination, and never-say-die hustle for generations of cineastes and cinephiles who chafe at the confines of the decision-by-committee corporate filmmaking that has long diluted our national cinema." * Harper's Magazine * "Less a period at the end of his career than it is an ellipsis leading to whatever comes next, Scene serves as the latest entry in a body of work that remains dangerously, thrillingly alive." * Bright Wall/Dark Room * "Abel Ferrara's Scene: A Memoir isn't some sanitized vanity project; it's more like a street corner confession-or, depending on your appetite, a demonic instruction manual." * Screen Slate * "A candid portrait of a tarnished moment in film's last golden age." * Kirkus Reviews * "Frank and unflinching without curdling into cynicism ("The life force you come into the world with can be flipped from the bad back to the good, refocused and nurtured"), this offers a fascinating window into a storied career. Admirers of Ferrara's films will be rapt." * Publishers Weekly * "Abel Ferrara's movies are often driven by the consequences of addictive behavior. The director's memoir confronts his own appetites with candor." -- Farran Smith Nehme * Wall Street Journal * "Scene is so full of cinematically told stories that we can only imagine what was left on the cutting room floor." * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette * "[A] veritable testament to his considerable body of uncompromising, at times devastating work, and even within a career filled with countless sublime moments, Scene is a singular accomplishment." * Filmmaker Magazine * "It's the kind of "celebrity memoir" we rarely see: one that shows its author in a brutally honest light, holding nothing back. A remarkable life story, brilliantly told." * Booklist * "[Abel Ferrara] is one of the most consistently interesting, unpredictable, and vital American filmmakers of the past half century, a model of hardheaded integrity, independence, insubordination, and never-say-die hustle for generations of cineastes and cinephiles who chafe at the confines of the decision-by-committee corporate filmmaking that has long diluted our national cinema." * Harper's Magazine * "Less a period at the end of his career than it is an ellipsis leading to whatever comes next, Scene serves as the latest entry in a body of work that remains dangerously, thrillingly alive." * Bright Wall/Dark Room * "Abel Ferrara's Scene: A Memoir isn't some sanitized vanity project; it's more like a street corner confession-or, depending on your appetite, a demonic instruction manual." * Screen Slate * "A candid portrait of a tarnished moment in film's last golden age." * Kirkus Reviews * "Frank and unflinching without curdling into cynicism ("The life force you come into the world with can be flipped from the bad back to the good, refocused and nurtured"), this offers a fascinating window into a storied career. Admirers of Ferrara's films will be rapt." * Publishers Weekly *