Could This Be Love (Abel Ferrara, 1973; photographed by Jon Rosen)

Tender sleaze. This shot's from the lesbian threesome scene in Could This Be Love, a little bit of softcore "to wake up the audience," scored to the Stones' "She Smiled Sweetly." If you look really closely, you can see that it's a woman kissing another woman's back.

Since the beginning, Ferrara has been getting his art and his exploitation mixed up. Or, even more accurately: in the beginning, Ferrara thought that he could prove that exploitation could be "art," or at least arty (Ms. 45), but then he realized that art itself was exploitation (Dangerous Game).

Late Night with Conan O'Brien, episode dated 10/23/96

Ferrara's Caruso

You can say that there aren't any bad actors -- just poorly directed ones. And half of good acting is good directing. For instance, there's something about Abel Ferrara's direction that brings out the violence in David Caruso.

The same's true of Matthew Modine; even Kubrick got just a passive violence out the guy, but with Ferrara Modine seems like he's screaming even when he whispers. But Caruso -- he's not a terribly interesting actor elsewhere, usually just floating by on a few good tricks even if he's in the lead, but when Ferrara casts him, even if it's in just a supporting role (and in fact, that's the only way he's ever cast him: in China Girl, King of New York and the Crime Story pilot), he's a monster. With that red hair, he stands out in a crowd, but even without it, that viper look would still overpower anyone else in the frame. He can be in the background, out of focus, and still, every second, you're aware of how he's reacting, what's he doing, how he's fidgeting with his hands or turning his head to the side. A real punk.