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Abel Ferrara has made a career out of staring unflinchingly into the abyss, interrogating man’s weakness and depravity and daring his audiences to look away. Faced with the catastrophic violence of the war in Ukraine, however, which he chronicles in the Berlin-premiering documentary “Turn in the Wound,” even the iconoclastic director finds himself at a loss — for words, and for easy answers.

“Why is the violence — that’s what it’s about,” Ferrara tells Variety. “Whether it’s there, whether it’s happening in Gaza and Israel — it’s happening all over the world. It has happened, it is happening, and it’s going to happen, and the question is, Why?”

Ferrara returns to Berlin four years after competing for the Golden Bear with “Siberia,” which starred Willem Dafoe in what Variety’s Guy Lodge described as a “beautiful, unhinged, sometimes hilarious trek into geographical and psychological wilderness.” The...

Perhaps putting his Shia Labeouf-scripted Auschwitz film on hold––how you feel about that prospect is a fantastic Rorschach test––Abel Ferrara has a New Rose Hotel / Go Go Tales reunion in store. As his documentary Turn in the Wound debuts at the Berlinale, he’s well into development on American Nails, a gangster film that will star Willem Dafoe and Asia Argento and roll cameras this summer. [Variety]

Almost needless to say Ferrara wouldn’t, at this wild stage of his career, simply return to classic territory: as written by him and Rossella De Venuto, it retells Euripides’ Hippolytus “in a tale set in the gangster world of primal violence, power and revenge [that] pits Argento against the male-dominated remnants of power and entitlement, in the shadow of the Roman Empire in contemporary Italy.” Ferrara’s last time in Rome, Zeros and Ones, is among the wildest visions of the...

The Match Factory has acquired international sales rights on U.S. cinematographer and filmmaker Sean Price Williams’s feature directorial debut The Sweet East ahead of its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight in May.

Written by the film critic and programmer Nick Pinkerton, the movie is described as a picaresque journey through the cities and woods of the Eastern seaboard of the United States undertaken by Lillian, a high school senior from South Carolina who gets her first glimpse of the wider world on a class trip to Washington, D.C.

Separated from her schoolmates, she embarks on a fractured fairy tale travelogue into America, where she is granted access to a variety of the strange factions that proliferate the present-day unreality of contemporary life.

Williams’s credits as a cinematographer include Owen Kline’s Funny Pages (2022), Abel Ferrara’s Zeros and Ones (2021), Michael Almereyda’s Tesla (2020), Alex Ross Perry...

Film is directorial debut of prolific cinematographer Sean Price Williams.

The Match Factory has boarded Sean Price Williams’ The Sweet East which world premieres next month in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.

Written by the film critic and programmer Nick Pinkerton, it is the first feature film directed by cinematographer Price Williams, whose credits Owen Kline’s Funny Pages (2022), Abel Ferrara’s Zeros and Ones (2021), Michael Almereyda’s Tesla (2020), Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell (2018) and the Safdie brothers Good Time (2017).

The Sweet East is billed as picaresque journey through the cities and woods of the Eastern seaboard of the US undertaken by Lillian,...

The Match Factory has boarded Sean Price Williams’s “The Sweet East,” which has its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival in May.

It is the first feature film directed by Price Williams, the cinematographer of Owen Kline’s “Funny Pages” (2022), Abel Ferrara’s “Zeros and Ones” (2021), Michael Almereyda’s “Tesla” (2020), Alex Ross Perry’s “Her Smell” (2018) and the Safdies’ “Good Time” (2017).

The screenplay is by film critic and programmer Nick Pinkerton.

“The Sweet East” is a picaresque journey through the cities and woods of the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. undertaken by Lillian, a high school senior from South Carolina, who gets her first glimpse of the wider world on a class trip to Washington, D.C.

“Separated from her schoolmates, she embarks on a fractured fairy-tale travelogue into America, where she is granted access to a variety of the strange factions...

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight has announced the selection for its 55th edition, running May 17 to 26.

The once renegade Cannes parallel section – launched in 1969 and overseen ever since by the French Directors Guild (Société des Réalisateurs de Films) – will present 20 features and 10 shorts this year. Scroll down for the full list.

The selection is the inaugural line-up of incoming Delegate General Julien Rejl, who was announced as predecessor Paolo Moretti’s replacement last June.

This edition also marks the section’s first outing under the new French name of Quinzaine des Cinéastes.

The name change from Quinzaine des Réalisateurs was announced back in June as a move to make its French-language banner title more gender-inclusive. This year, seven of the 21 filmmakers in the 20-title feature selection are women.

Rejl and his new selection team have pulled together an eclectic line-up mixing confirmed directors, buzzed-about newcomers and a handful of off-the-radar titles.

French...

Amazon Prime Video has popped off with plenty of new content for March 2023 with original shows and some great catches for films to stream. “Top Gun: Maverick” will arrive March 24, and Jordan Peele’s “Nope” before that on March 21. For those anticipating “Creed III,” the first two films starring and directed by Michael B. Jordan will become available at the beginning of March along with all of the “Rocky” films as well as “Cinderella Man” for the broader boxing buff community. A theatrical release from 2022, “The Silent Twins,” starring Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrence arrives March 7.

Friday March 3 will see “Daisy Jones & The Six” rock the world when the band’s epic limited series comes out. Riley Keough, Sam Claflin, Suki Waterhouse, and more will bring Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best-selling novel to life. Other shows to look forward to on the streamer are Donald Glover’s horror series...

March is still winter, no matter which animal you ask, which means it’s still completely acceptable to cancel all plans and curl up under a blanket in front of the TV. Prime Video’s movie library updates throughout the month, with most of its new additions on March 1 — including the “Rocky” saga, multiple “Carrie” adaptations, “12 Angry Men,” and more.

For Prime users who love books and TV, March means the highly-anticipated premiere of “Daisy Jones & the Six,” based on the best-selling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The eponymous Daisy (Riley Keough) and Billy Dunne’s band (Sam Claflin) make a mean match, starting with a hit single and leading to what seems like endless fame and glory. But where there is success there is peril, and both the band’s rise and an electric connection with Daisy threaten Billy’s marriage and everyone’s personal lives. James Ponsoldt,...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including an epic six-film series dedicated to the brand new restorations of the films of Nina Menkes. The slate also includes a Brian De Palma double bill with Obsession and Body Double as well as Paul Schrader’s Hardcore.

Additional highlights include the Andrea Riseborough-led Please Baby Please, three films by Eugene Kotlyarenko, a Ghost in the Shell double bill, and, ahead of their release of Passages later this year, Ira Sach’s Little Men.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

March 1 – Glass Life, directed by Sara Cwynar | Brief Encounters

March 2 – The Great Sadness of Zohara, directed by Nina Menkes | Phantom Cinema: The Films of Nina Menkes

March 3 – Please Baby Please, directed by Amanda Kramer | Mubi Spotlight

March 4 – Hardcore, directed by Paul Schrader

March 5 – Kedi, directed by Ceyda Torun

March 6 – Magdalena Viraga, directed by...

Continuing his prolific, run-and-gun style of filmmaking, we reported about a year ago that Abel Ferrara was following his pandemic thriller Zeros and Ones with a biopic of Italian saint Padre Pio. Starring none other than Shia Labeouf in casting that takes on a certain level of perverse meta context considering his recent abuse allegations, Padre Pio is now readying a premiere next week at the Venice Film Festival. Ahead of that debut, the first trailer and clip have arrived.

Ferrara, who explored Pio’s life in a 2015 documentary Searching for Padre Pio, scripted the film with Maurizio Braucci (Martin Eden), and it will follow Padre Pio’s status as a symbol of hope for the Italian people during the country’s difficult inter-war period and exhibition of stigmata.

“This is not a film about miracles, but about a man, born Francesco Forgione, in Pietralcina, a farming village outside Naples,...

Padre Pio

His insatiable appetite for the seventh art means that when Abel Ferrara ain’t making one movie in particular, he is already onto some other project. His output in the last five years includes one doc, Tommaso (2019), Siberia (2019) and Locarno winning Zeros and Ones (2021). Long in the works and the subject of his 2015 docu Searching for Padre Pio, the fiction film Padre Pio would inevitably have a part for Willem Dafoe but he also made the interesting casting choice of Shia Labeouf – rescuing him from his persona non grata status. Production would have begun last November and so this will likely target a Venice Film Festival showing – a festival that the Italian American is a recurrent guest at.…...

Despite the pandemic disruption of the film industry around the world, which impacted everything in film from production to simple moviegoing, the vibrancy of cinema culture throughout the year has felt as strong as ever, and fiercely resilient. In our small but passionate way we also have made a show of force. In 2021 alone, Notebook has published over 400 articles. Here are some highlights from the year—and we encourage you to use the "Explore" menu or dive into our archives to find even more excellent work published this year.ARTICLESTikTok meets silent cinema in Caroline Golum's witty essay. Cinematic technology used not for social celebrity but rather for criminal forensics was the focus of an article by Emerson Goo.The French New Wave's Luc Moullet, a guiding light for Notebook, was the subject of two pieces, one about the extraordinary TV show How to with John Wilson, the other...

Revisiting last year's introduction when putting together 2021's favorites, it is with a shock to realize how little has changed in the wildly disrupted world of cinema under the shroud of the pandemic. The urge to copy-and-paste the whole shebang is quite tempting indeed.What can we say about this year, 2021? We got a little more used to long-term instability. Cinemas and festivals re-opened, only for some to close again. We, like many, ventured carefully out into the world to finally see films again with audiences, all kinds: nervous ones, uproarious ones, spartan ones, and delighted ones. It was an experience both anxious and joyous. We also doubled down on the challenges, but also the pleasures, of home viewing: of virtual cinemas and virtual festivals, of straight to streaming premieres, of trying to capture a social joy in semi-isolation by connecting with others over experiences shared and disparate.The long...

Abel Ferrara on Ethan Hawke in Zeros And Ones: “He’s playing two characters so why not play a third? The actor who’s in the movie and to get to hear what he has to say.”

The last time I spoke with Abel Ferrara was in June of this year when he was planning the theatrical US première of Siberia, starring Willem Dafoe (Abel’s Pier Paolo Pasolini in Pasolini) and his curated program called Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village. On the eve of St. Nikolaus, Abel discussed Ethan Hawke’s prologue and epilogue in Zeros And Ones, playing brothers, quoting Abraham Lincoln, how “normal life seems so outrageous when it’s gone”, using shadows and reflections, and his upcoming project on Padre Pio.

Abel Ferrara with Anne-Katrin Titze on Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke; “In Siberia Willem played three people … Here Ethan is playing his brother again.

Abel Ferrera's "Zeros and Ones," a thriller filmed in the heart of the pandemic, is in many ways a novel beast of a film. Dark, gritty, often told in close-ups, the film sees soldier J.J. (Ethan Hawke) digging into the dark underbelly of Rome to find his revolutionary brother, Justin (also Hawke), an idealistic radical who may hold the key to stopping the deadly attack. 

It's a tense film with a singular vision from director Ferrera, and one that took full advantage of the eerie emptied streets of the early Covid-19 crisis. It also takes some bold stylistic moves, bookended by...

The post Abel Ferrera And Ethan Hawke On Going To War For Art in Zeros And Ones [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

At 70, Abel Ferrara lives with his partner Cristina Chiriac and their little daughter Anna in Rome, Italy. Far from the city that made him a legendary filmmaker, he makes fictions and documentaries with absolute creative freedom, personal works that don’t follow narrative conventions. Zeros and Ones, his most recent film and for which he won Best Direction at the Locarno Film Festival, is sure to frustrate those who expect the “political thriller” that the synopsis sells. Ethan Hawke plays an American soldier and cameraman who returns to Rome, where he learns that his revolutionary brother (also played by Hawke) is "in prison." Inquiring about his whereabouts, he’ll notice that in a world of American and Italian soldiers, and Russian agents, it’s impossible to trust...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Steve McQueen and his installation "Year 3" at Tate Britain. Steve McQueen will be unveiling a new installation, “Sunshine State,” at the International film festival Rotterdam as part of its Art Directions section, which is dedicated to "daring films, installations, exhibitions and live performance." This is McQueen's first major commission since "Year 3," which was exhibited at Tate Britain in 2019. Martin Scorsese has set his eyes on his next project with Apple: a biopic about the Grateful Dead, starring Jonah Hill as frontman Jerry Garcia. As Variety points out, Scorsese did executive produce a 2017 documentary series about the band entitled Long Strange Trip. For that series, he described the Grateful Dead as "more than just a band." Hill and Scorsese previously worked together on Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and a Coca-Cola ad for last year's Super Bowl.

Old warrior Abel Ferrara is a ronin of the cinema, and clearly loving it. Speaking over Zoom, the 70-year-old director in a snug black turtleneck stays literally on his feet for the duration of our interview, rocking restlessly back and forth and periodically massaging his temples as he considers (but never filters) the answer to a question. Living in Rome and continuing to put out feature films with collaborators like Willem Dafoe roughly once a year––often more than once––Ferrara seems to relish the freedom that comes with his elder statesman-rebel image, bouncing between subjects and genres with the same manically meditative energy he exudes from his swaying body and New York-accented croon.

His latest film, Zeros and Ones, is a prize baffler that follows no rules save for his own. Ostensibly, it is a Covid-topical war thriller about US Special Forces man Ethan Hawke pursuing a shadowy bioterrorist threat throughout the streets,...

Lionsgate has provided /Film with an exclusive clip from "Zeros and Ones," the intense new thriller from acclaimed director Abel Ferrara which is scheduled to hit select theaters, Apple TV+, VOD and digital on November 19, 2021 before it arrives on Blu-ray and DVD January 4, 2022. The film stars Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke in the dual roles of JJ and Justin, along with Cristina Chiriac ("Tommaso") as Laughing Russian agent and Valerio Mastandrea ("We All Fall Down") as Luciano.

Hawke is a fascinating actor who always makes eclectic choices...

The post Ethan Hawke Gets Intense in New Clip From Abel Ferrara's Zeros and Ones [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.

Zeros and Ones"The fact that we’re still making movies is a fucking miracle."—Abel FerraraAbel Ferrara has, for most of his career—most of his life, really—been more comfortable amid scum and sewage and sin, the tawdry, oil-slick sleaze of pre-Giuliani New York, than he has polite society. He was, in his youth, into middle age, even now, at 69—a family man and ten years sober after a lifetime of insalubrious activities—not one to give a fuck. He's more 42nd Street than 54th, and yet he got a nice retrospective at MoMA a couple years ago. He cut his teeth on porn and exploitation that, while just as schlocky as anything else with a similar budget and penchant for perversity, is obviously made by a mad genius, one who doesn't entirely fit in with the other weirdos of New York. Consider the ferocity of his early films,...

Science Fiction might not be the first genre that comes to mind when one thinks of Abel Ferrera. But his unique style of gritty realism has often crossed paths with musings on the future, dangers from the beyond, and the fantastical weirdness of life, in films such as Body Snatchers, Siberia, and one of my favourites of his films, 4:44 Last Night on Earth. And his new film Zeros and Ones is set in a post-apocalypse Rome (always nice to have a post-apocalypse story set in an older European city which gives such a greate scope of time). So it is fitting that the iconic New York-bred, Italy-based director receive a lifetimne achievement award from Italy's preeminant sci fi fest. Full details in the press...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)

I've watched the "Zeros and Ones" trailer multiple times and I still have so many questions, and I'm betting you do too! Don't worry, we're going to explore them together and by the end of this, both of us will probably (read: hopefully) know what's going on with the wild looking film, "Zeros and Ones," starring your favorite sad dad/train-based love interest Ethan Hawke, who sounds like he's playing a guy who loves to yell. 

"Zeros and Ones," which I...

The post Zeros and Ones: Release Date, Cast and More appeared first on /Film.

The thriller Zeros And Ones stars Academy Award winner Ethan Hawke, Cristina Chiriac and Valerio Mastandrea. It was written and directed by the critically acclaimed director, Abel Ferrara.

Here’s the trailer:

Zeros And Ones is available in Select Theaters, on Apple TV and Everywhere You Rent Movies on November 19th! Available on Blu-ray and DVD on January 4th!

Ethan Hawke (Training Day) and director Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) join forces for this gritty, tense political-thriller set on one deadly night in Rome. Called to the city to stop an imminent terrorist bombing, soldier J.J. (Hawke) desperately seeks news of his imprisoned rebel brother, Justin (also Hawke), who holds knowledge that could thwart the attack. Navigating the capital’s darkened streets, J.J. races to a series of ominous encounters, hoping to keep the Vatican from being blown to bits.

The post Watch the Trailer for Ethan Hawke in...

"You wouldn't last 10 minutes on the street knowing what he knows." Lionsgate has revealed the official trailer for Zeros and Ones, another awkward new Abel Ferrara movie releasing this year (in addition to Siberia with Willem Dafoe). This one, however, came out of nowhere and it only recently premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. An American soldier stationed in Rome watches the Vatican blown up, then embarks on a hero's journey to uncover and defend against an unknown enemy threatening the entire world. How exciting?! I mean come on, what a boring plot. Ethan Hawke stars, with Valerio Mastandrea, Cristina Chiriac, and Babak Karimi. This looks terrible. The trailer is full of grainy can't-even-see-anything close-up shots, plus tons of stock footage, and that's about it. Move along folks, there's really nothing to see here. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Abel Ferrara's Zeros and Ones, direct from Lionsgate's YouTube:...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Fox Maxy's Maat Means Land (2020) MoMA has announced the lineup and schedule for “To The Lighthouse,” a thrilling carte blanche program by curator Mark McElhatten featuring new films by Nathaniel Dorsky, Ernie Gehr, Jodie Mack, Dani and Sheilah ReStack, and more, along with older films by Rivette, Joseph H. Lewis, Claire Denis, and Marguerite Duras.An essential annual list, Filmmaker Magazine's 25 new faces of film for 2021 includes Kate Gondwe (the founder of Dezda Films), filmmaker Fox Maxy, Omnes Films (the collective behind Tyler Taormina's Ham on Rye), and others. A24 and Emma Stone’s production company, Fruit Tree Banner, have come together to back Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw The TV Glow. The film, a follow-up to Schoenbrun's debut from this year, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, follows...

The fall movie season is so packed that it’s easy to forget we have a new Abel Ferrara movie coming—a good one, to hear word. After winning Locarno’s Best Director award, his Ethan Hawke-led thriller Zeros and Ones will arrive in the U.S. on November 19, ahead of which there is a trailer.

As we said in our review, “At barely feature-length it’s somewhat a wisp of a film, but to good ends, as if the crazed artist at its helm isn’t even totally stopping to think, and like one of his greatest works, New Rose Hotel, channeling the fury of his early art into a different form of aggression. Realizing the current moment as a blur, or rather an incomprehensible stream of data (hence the title), it comes close to what you’d imagine if Ferrara’s friend Michael Mann were working on...

The other two acquisitions are ‘Shattered’ and ‘The Fall’.

Signature has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to three new titles, including Abel Ferrara’s Zeros And Ones starring Ethan Hawke.

Zeros And Ones premiered in the international competition at Locarno Film Festival in August, with Ferrara winning the best director prize.

Set near Vatican City in Rome, Ferrara’s thriller follows a US soldier, played by Hawke, in the aftermath of an apocalyptic siege as he navigates a world of fear and paranoia. Signature plans to release the title in the first quarter of 2022.

The distributor has also boarded Luis Prieto’s Shattered,...

“Bad Lieutenant” director Abel Ferrara wasn’t about to sit still during the pandemic. He found his temptation to venture into an eerily empty Rome to film the Ethan Hawke-starrer, “Zeros and Ones,” in December. “I don’t need permission to do anything,” he jokes although he did apply for some permits. He’s lived in Rome for the best part of seven years.

In Ferrara’s new espionage film, featuring a plot to blow up the Vatican, Hawke plays an American soldier sent to patrol the city and a revolutionary.

Continue reading Abel Ferrara Talks ‘Zeros & Ones,’ Shooting During A Pandemic & Why He Prefers Making Films In Europe [Locarno Interview] at The Playlist.

Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay CashINTERNATIONAL Competition(Jury: Eliza Hittman, Kevin Jerome Everson, Philippe Lacôte, Leonor Silveira, Isabelle Ferrari)Golden Leopard: Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (Edwin) | Read our reviewSpecial Jury Prize: A New Old Play (Jiongjiong Qiu) | Read our reviewBest Direction: Abel Ferrara (Zeros and Ones) | Read our reviewBest Actress: Anastasiya Krasovskaya (Gerda)Best Actor: Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar (The Odd-Job Men)Special Mention: Soul of a Beast (Lorenz Merz) and The Sacred Spirit (Chema García Ibarra) | Read our reviewFILMMAKERS Of The Present( Jury: Agathe Bonitzer, Mattie Do, Vanja Kaludjercic)Golden Leopard: Brotherhood (Francesco Montagner)Special Jury Prize: L'Été l'éternité (Émilie Aussel)Prize for Best Emerging Director: Hleb Papou (The Legionnaire) Best Actress: Saskia Rosendahl (No One's with the Calves) | Read our reviewBest Actor: Gia Agumava (Wet Sand)First Feature(Jury: Amjad Abu Alala, Karina Ressler, Katharina Wyss)Best First Feature: She Will (Charlotte Colbert...

Locarno 2021 Golden Leopard Winner

The 74th edition of the Locarno Film Festival came to a close over the weekend, with Indonesian film director Edwin scooping the Golden Leopard in the International Competition with Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash. Elsewhere in the International Competition, the Golden Leopard for Best Direction went to Abel Ferrara for Zeroes And Ones, while Qiu Jiongjiong’s A New Old Play won the Special Jury Prize. Best Actress went to Anastasiya Krasovskaya for Gerda, while Best Actor was shared by Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar from The Odd-Job Men. Special mentions went to Soul Of A Beast and Espiritu Sagrado.

Venice Completes Line-Up

Venice Film Festival finalized its line-up today with the addition of three titles. They are: Graziano Conversano’s 52-minute documentary Ricostruire insieme – Biennale Architettura, which looks at the themes, works and figures of the 2021 Biennale architecture festival; Nastia Korkia’s docGes – 2, a visual reflection upon the project by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop to renovate a former power plant in the centre of Moscow; and finally, Antonello Sarno’s Pietro Il Grande, a tribute to photojournalist Pietro Coccia, who died in 2018.

Golden Leopard goes to filmmaker from Indonesia for first time.

Indonesia’s Edwin has received Locarno Film Festival’s top honour, the Golden Leopard, for his latest feature Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s International Competition.

The Indonesia-Singapore-Germany co-production – adapted and based on a literary work by Eka Kurniawan – is being handled internationally by The Match Factory.

It is also the first time in Locarno’s 74-year history that the Golden Leopard has gone to a filmmaker from Indonesia.

Accepting the award on behalf of Edwin, who had already...

Given that, after its shuttered 2020 edition, the 74th Locarno Film Festival’s ident features a prowling, growling, resurgent leopard and the distinctly tumescent tagline “Cinema is Back” it’s somewhat ironic that the festival’s top prize should go to a film about erectile dysfunction.

In other ways, however, Indonesian director Edwin’s fabulously if nonsensically titled “Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash” is perhaps the ideal Golden Leopard winner, in what is a strange year for the world, and a strange year for the Swiss festival, which is finding its footing under the new artistic direction of Giona A. Nazzaro.

As an admixture of several distinctly populist genres that still, as Variety critic Jay Weissberg noted, uses impotence as a metaphor “to make a broader critique of a toxic culture that puts so much emphasis on virility,” the film is among the best exemplars of Nazzaro’s avowed...

Abel Ferrara has never been much for salvation, at least not in the sense that it might be handed to us on a silver platter by someone who died more than 2,000 years ago; his “Bad Lieutenant” wasn’t exactly a self-portrait, but Harvey Keitel referring to Jesus Christ as a “rat fuck” didn’t come out of nowhere. In recent years, however, the grindhouse nihilism of Ferrara’s earlier work has been tempered by the personal acceptance of impending doom.

The scraggly Bronx-born filmmaker traded Catholicism for Buddhism around the same time as he relocated from New York to Rome, and movies like “4:44 Last Day on Earth,” “Tommaso,” and “Pasolini” — while still rank with the raw sewage that stops up human civilization — began to look inward for answers even as they confronted the end of the world. It’s as if the now-70-year-old Ferrara was steeling himself for...

The pandemic has slowed some of us down, but Abel Ferrara isn’t a guy to let an opportunity go to waste, even if it’s not clear what he’s actually doing with it. After his Covid-era documentary self-portrait “Sportin’ Life” last September comes “Zeros and Ones,” a murky — in every sense — apocalyptic spy thriller shot at night during the strict lockdown in his adopted city of Rome. Starring Ethan Hawke in dual roles as a military man of uncertain allegiance and his revolutionist brother, the film will have viewers grasping for Ferraraesque judgments on the politics of pandemic protocols, though the director’s own statements clearly place him among the sane.

His acolytes know best not to struggle too hard to parse a story that’s designed more as sensory mind play than straightforward (or even meandering) narrative. St. Peter’s Basilica gets blown up, but this is hardly “Angels and Demons.

The city of Rome certainly means something to Abel Ferrara. A new home after being priced-out and disgusted by the “new” New York, it’s served in recent films as both a liberating and confining environment for tortured artists. Yet in his latest film, Zeros and Ones, we’re plunged into a land outside whatever Ferrara’s probably even imagined. Beyond just the grainy, handheld photography provided by Alex Ross Perry and Safdie Brothers veteran Sean Price Williams, drones map out the vacant night, providing glimpses of its extreme 2020 lockdown—a city symphony of the world’s deadest metropolis.

Yet even with the eerily deserted streets, virtually every onscreen character wearing a mask, and hand sanitizer being dispensed throughout, Covid-19 is never directly mentioned in Zeros and Ones. As future films likely dart away from the pandemic, overlooking the rich dramatic potential of what it meant to live through riots,...

Abel Ferrara has made a career as one of the industry’s leading provocateurs.

While his latest film, “Zeros and Ones,” may not shock quite like “Driller Killer” or “Ms .45,” it still stands out for being very deliberately set during the pandemic.

“Zeros and Ones” stars Ethan Hawke as an American soldier stationed in Rome, caught in the midst of an apocalyptic siege, wandering empty streets that feel eerily familiar. In between the action, sex and drug deals, Hawke’s JJ sanitizes his hands, changes masks, and seems far from amused when two other characters reassure him, “Don’t worry, we’re negative.”

Variety sat down with the maverick director ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival to discuss taking a Willem Dafoe break in working with Hawke, and his “need” to make a film during the pandemic.

Ethan introduced the film as “Abel...

Lockdown affected us all in peculiar ways, and given that veteran provocateur Abel Ferrara was pretty damn peculiar to begin with, it’s no surprise that “Zeros And Ones” — a fiction that makes use of the non-fictional pandemic in ways both fascinating and frustrating — should turn out to be such a conundrum, equal parts confounding and intriguing, repellent and rewarding. Ostensibly a more genre-based exercise than Ferrara’s last few films – there are explosions, soldiers, guns, spycams, and foot chases through the livid Rome night — in fact, this new dystopian drama may be more difficult and inaccessible than his 2020 Berlin mindfuck “Siberia,” which at least had a fish quoting Nietzsche to signal that perhaps it wasn’t all meant entirely seriously.

Read More: Abel Ferrara Talks ‘Siberia,’ Working With Dennis Hopper, Staying Sober & Much More [Deep Focus Podcast]

“Zeros and Ones,” by contrast, is profoundly serious — possibly to the detriment of understanding its...

Decades of shooting indie movies under guerilla conditions and heavy budget restrictions served art-house pulp auteur Abel Ferrara well when the Covid-19 lockdown hit. Seizing on the dramatic potential of pandemic paranoia and spookily empty city streets, the veteran New York sleaze maestro made Zeros and Ones in his adopted home city of Rome under strict viral curfew rules, with cast and crew wearing masks and sharing social bubbles. Face coverings, antiseptic hand wash and Zoom calls all feature onscreen.

Ferrara’s Roger Corman-like resourcefulness should be saluted, even if Zeros and Ones is one of the 70-year-old veteran’s minor late works,...

Decades of shooting indie movies under guerilla conditions and heavy budget restrictions served art-house pulp auteur Abel Ferrara well when the Covid-19 lockdown hit. Seizing on the dramatic potential of pandemic paranoia and spookily empty city streets, the veteran New York sleaze maestro made Zeros and Ones in his adopted home city of Rome under strict viral curfew rules, with cast and crew wearing masks and sharing social bubbles. Face coverings, antiseptic hand wash and Zoom calls all feature on screen.

Ferrara’s Roger Corman-like resourcefulness should be saluted, even if Zeros and Ones is one of the 70-year-old veteran’s minor late ...

Shia Labeouf could be making a comeback turn.

Legendary director Abel Ferrara has exclusively told Variety that Labeouf has come on board to play the lead role in his next feature, which centers on the younger years of Italian Saint Padre Pio. Ferrara’s regular collaborator and close friend Willem Dafoe is also circling a role in the film, according to the director.

“We’re doing a film about Padre Pio, he’s a monk from Puglia. It’s set in Italy right after World War I. He’s now a saint, he had stigmata. He was also in the middle of a very heavy political period in world history,” Ferrara said. “He was very young before he became a saint, so Shia Labeouf is going to play the monk.”

Ferrara plans to shoot the film on location in Puglia, located in Italy’s famous heel, in late October of this year.

The Locarno Film Festival, long known as a safe haven for indie cinema, is taking a turn into genre territory while remaining true to

its origins.

“People know what the mission is for Locarno,” says the fest’s new artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, referring to the prestige of the event — the 74th edition runs Aug. 4-14 — that is known worldwide as a festival of discovery.

But Nazzaro, an Italian film critic and former chief of the Venice Critics’ Week, now intends “to broaden the moral imagination of this mission,” as he puts it, by digging deeper into genre cinema, and “also into the [festival’s] relationship with the U.S. studios and what people would consider as [pure] entertainment.”

Significantly, this year’s Locarno opener is Netflix Original “Beckett,” a thriller toplining John David Washington as an American tourist who becomes the target of a political assassination while vacationing in Greece, and...

Swiss festival is gearing up for its first physical edition in two years, running August 4-14.

The Locarno Film Festival has added another two titles to the line-up of its 74th edition, which is due to unfold August 4-14 in its Swiss lakeside home.

French-British Director Charlotte Colbert’s psychological thriller She Will has been invited for an out of competition gala screening in the festival’s La Sala venue, followed by a Q&a.

It marks the first feature for filmmaker and multi-media artist Colbert. Alice Krige stars as a woman recovering from a double mastectomy who heads to...

Year after year a site par excellence for the most innovative premieres—in that respect an antithesis to the ensuing fall circuit—the Locarno Film Festival returns triumphant next month. Their 2021 lineup, per usual, mixes iconic names with complete unknowns and, admittedly, a head-scratcher or two. Abel Ferrara’s much-anticipated Zeros and Ones, sure. Gaspar Noé’s Vortex—makes sense. A new film from The Wild Boys director Bertrand Mandico? Great! But Shawn Levy and a Jennifer Hudson Aretha Franklin biopic?

However, new festival head Giona A. Nazzaro sees it as part of a steady influx, telling Variety “A festival can be quite highbrow and also entertaining at the same time. That is why for this year’s lineup we have selected several comedies and also some genre movies, as well as straightforward auteur films.” By that metric it’s more inclusive than almost any other major competition on the European circuit.

After Blue (Paradis sale)The lineup for the 2021 festival has been revealed, including new films by Bertrand Mandico, Axelle Ropert, Abel Ferrara and others, alongside retrospectives and tributes, and much more.Piazza GRANDEBeckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino)Free Guy (Shawn Levy)Heat (Michael Mann)Hinterland (Stefan Ruzowitzky)Ida Red (John Swab)Monte Verità (Stefan Jäger)National Lampoon's Animal House (John Landis)Respect (Liesl Tommy)Rose (Aurélie Saada)Sinkhole (Kim Ji-hoon)The Alleys (Bassel Ghandour)The Terminator (James Cameron)Vortex (Gaspar Noé)Yaya e Lennie — The Walking Liberty (Alessandro Rak)Tomorrow My Love (Gitanjali Rao)Lynx (Laurent Geslin)Zeros and OnesCONCORSO INTERNAZIONALEAfter Blue (Paradis sale) (Bertrand Mandico)Al Naher (The River) (Ghassan Salhab)Espíritu sagrado (The Sacred Spirit) (Chema García Ibarra)Gerda (Natalya Kudryashova)I giganti (The Giants) (Bonifacio Angius)Jiao ma teng hui (A New Old Play) (Jiongjiong Qiu)Juju StoriesLa Place d'une autre (Secret Name) (Aurélia Georges)Leynilögga (Cop Secret...

With Cannes right around the corner, two more prominent European film festivals announced their official lineups for 2021 this week. The 2021 Locarno Film Festival (the 74th edition of the event) is taking place August 4-14 and will feature the world premiere of Abel Ferrara’s “Zeroes and Ones,” plus the Melissa Leo-Frank Grillo starring thriller “Ida Red” from director John Swab. Perhaps the most prominent U.S. title in the Locarno lineup is “Respect,” the Jennifer Hudson-starring Aretha Franklin biopic that has already caught the eye of Oscar pundits here in the states. The film will screen out of competition, as will Ryan Reynolds’ long-delayed Disney-Fox tentpole “Free Guy.”

“A festival can be quite highbrow and also entertaining at the same time,” Nazzaro told Variety in a statement. “That is why for this year’s lineup we have selected several comedies and also some genre movies, as well as straightforward auteur films.

Abel Ferrara’s contemporary thriller ’Zeros And Ones’ stars Ethan Hawke.

Abel Ferrara’s contemporary thriller Zeros And Ones and Srdjan Dragojević’s dark comedy Heavens Above are among 17 films from 12 countries having their world premiere in the international competition at the 74th Locarno Film Festival (August 4-14) under the new artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

Scroll down for full line-up

In his first collaboration with Ferrara, Zeros And Ones sees Ethan Hawke plays an American soldier stationed in Rome who pursues an unknown enemy threatening the entire world after the Vatican gets blown up.

Ahead of shooting in Italy...

Switzerland’s Locarno Film festival has unveiled its line-up ahead of a physical 2021 edition running August 4-14. Scroll down for a list of titles.

As previously announced, Ferdinando Cito Filomarino’s Beckett, starring John David Washington and Alicia Vikander, will open the festival with its world premiere on August 4.

Joining the movie for a screening at the fest’s main venue, the Piazza Grande, will be titles including John Swab’s Ida Red starring Frank Grillo, which will world premiere, Shawn Levy’s Free Guy starring Ryan Reynolds, and several U.S. classics including Michael Mann’s Heat and James Cameron’s The Terminator.

Back in November last year, Deadline interviewed new artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, who told us about his love for popular cinema and American movies. This will mark his debut edition at the helm.

Screening in the Concorso Internazionale strand, which features international works from around the world,...

The Locarno Film Festival has unveiled a promising lineup combining edgy new works by established auteurs such as Abel Ferrara alongside plenty of potential discoveries by emerging helmers and global newcomers for its upcoming 74th edition.

It will be the first one under new Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro, the former Venice Critics’ Week chief who is steering the Swiss fest known as an international incubator and indie cinema temple on a more audience-friendly course.

“A festival can be quite highbrow and also entertaining at the same time” Nazzaro told Variety. “That is why for this year’s lineup we have selected several comedies and also some genre movies, as well as straightforward auteur films,” he added.

As usual the bulk of Locarno’s crowdpleasers will launch from the Swiss lakeside town’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande square which is Europe’s largest outdoor venue and this year has been approved...

Abel Ferrara on Willem Dafoe in Siberia: “That’s so Willem! He’s the darkness and I’m the dancer.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Abel Ferrara has kept himself active over the past 16 months, after presenting the world premiere (at the 2020 Berlinale) of Siberia, co-written with Christ Zois, shot by Stefano Falivene (Pasolini), scored by Joe Delia and starring Willem Dafoe with Cristina Chiriac, Anna Ferrara, Dounia Sichov, Simon McBurney, Laurent Arnatsiaq, Phil Neilson, Valentina Rozumenko, Fabio Pagano, and Ulrike Willenbacher.

Clint (Willem Dafoe) with his Inuit friend (Laurent Arnatsiaq)

Abel has Zeros And Ones, starring Ethan Hawke, Valerio Mastandrea, and Cristina Chiriac waiting to go and his must-watch Sportin' Life, sponsored by Saint Laurent, and shot by Sean Price Williams, which intimately documents the Berlin festivities, including musical performances, with Abel singing and playing guitar in clubs. The initial tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic in...

Following the news that Jeremy Davies will star in The Black Phone (based on Joe Hill's short story of the same name), it's now been announced that Ethan Hawke has also joined the cast of the Blumhouse and Universal film, reuniting him with Sinister director/co-writer Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill:

Ethan Hawke is joining the cast of The Black Phone, Scott Derrickson’s upcoming film for Blumhouse and Universal.

The film is set to start production in North Carolina next month.

About Ethan Hawke:

Ethan Hawke is a four-time Academy Award®-nominated actor and screenwriter. He made his television debut in Showtime’s limited series, The Good Lord Bird, which he also executive produced and co-wrote, based on the National Book Award-winning novel by James McBride. The Good Lord Bird, produced by Blumhouse Television, is a seven-part limited series shot mostly in Virginia that brilliantly...