Siberia (Abel Ferrara, 2021)

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Siberia (Abel Ferrara, 2021)

#1 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:25 pm

Siberia is Abel Ferrara's experimental companion film to Tommaso's more grounded look at a man's existential crises in recovery. It's fruitless to analyze the surreal manifestations Dafoe (again playing Ferrara's surrogate) encounters as he searches the depths of his own psyche for his soul via traversing physical landscapes and various externalized stimuli, because Ferrara subverts typical allegory in favor of non sequiturs, which form a more realistic depiction of psychological haze and emotional density than any accessibly effable logic shared by an audience could. I can talk about the 12-step recovery parallels of Tommaso til the cows come home, but can't do much more than 'feel' this movie- though commonalities do transpire during several imaginary social conflicts that are clear fantastical inventions of impermanently defined ideas, existing between the bleeding phantasmagoria of abstract fears and desires desperately vying to find a secure moral identity in the middle. I don't think Siberia is quite as specific to recovery as its sister film, but it takes a certain kind of mind -weathered from persistent beaten-down sober confrontations with one's darkest, self-alienating thoughts and feelings- to meet what Ferrara is offering on its wavelength.

If you had told me two years ago that I would soon think Abel Ferrara is the most exciting filmmaker working today, I'd have rolled my eyes into the back of my head, having disliked almost all of his work prior- but now I can't wait to point those eyes at his next feature. I just hope he stays sober and continues to participate in his recovery program, because between him and Sam Levinson, I'm in esoterically-transcribed movie heaven.

dave1
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:16 am

Re: The Films of 2021

#2 Post by dave1 » Tue Jun 22, 2021 4:17 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:25 pm
Siberia
As someone who thinks Ferrara from 1993 to 2011 (with Tommaso being a nice coda) is the best US filmmaker working within a big* production system, I couldn't disagree more. I think Siberia is pretty much his worst.
* I don't mean big budget, just a "full" crew complete with professional actors and whatnot.
therewillbeblus wrote:
Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:25 pm
I just hope he stays sober and continues to participate in his recovery program
I don't know what that has to do with anything, but I believe he was already sober in the Shanyn Leigh years (2005-2014).

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Films of 2021

#3 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jun 22, 2021 10:54 am

You're free to disagree, but I've already discussed why I find his recovery program translated into screen *this time to be his peak art elsewhere, mostly in my writeup of Tommaso, but also unfavorably contrasting his earlier works to Bill Duke's Deep Cover in that thread. I recognize that I'm the outlier in finding Ferrara's work to be repelling in its docile self-indulgence, but his new works are, for me, a more accessible strain of self-dissection that acknowledges self-indulgence but also finds room for hopeful confrontations with passion towards self-betterment, rather than stewing in the throes of addiction externalized into grime. I do think his earlier work is interesting if we see this filmmaker as a deeply personal one who exhibits his own existential evolution through his films, but the earlier stuff just reminds me of the hedonistic-owning mentality of an active addict. I do really like King of New York though, and admittedly haven't seen everything from that period after the early 90s (my issues are mostly with those pre-1993 works) so I'll check more of them out. Do you have any recommendations to prioritize?

*People can "get sober" and not actually work a thorough program, or work a harder and more introspective one after a relapse. He's been sober since roughly 2014/2015, so perhaps he had a relapse then. Maybe you don't get it, and that's fine, but that has everything to do with why I find him interesting now, as mentioned in the linked writeup above.

dave1
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:16 am

Re: The Films of 2021

#4 Post by dave1 » Tue Jun 22, 2021 11:40 am

Apologies if my post came across as confrontational, it wasn't my intention (my English is not good), just curiosity.
As for the "sober" point, I just don't like the idea of taking into account a filmmaker's life to talk about their films, though I admit that's a me-thing.

Edit: Recommendations: I guess The Addiction, since it's early-ish and has a great Arrow (or Carlotta if you're in France) blu.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Films of 2021

#5 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jun 22, 2021 11:56 am

Thanks! And no, I didn't read it that way, and likewise apologize if mine gave an equal impression- but I just simply disagree with any indication that Ferrara's sobriety is superfluous to the art in question. Since his last two films are so clearly inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous jargon and thought processes, I find his sobriety (or rather, recovery) to not only be entirely relevant but the foundation for both films. I am fully aware that non-AA folks like these films, and I'm sure they get a lot out of them on another level, but this filmmaker is intentionally taking his own life into account in these movies in a very raw way (rather than an audience taking it into account for him- which I agree can be problematic), and that idea could honestly serve as the best abstract descriptions of the narrative of each film.

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John Cope
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:40 pm
Location: where the simulacrum is true

Re: The Films of 2021

#6 Post by John Cope » Wed Jun 23, 2021 4:20 am

Siberia really did turn out to be L'intrus meets Ferrara's own New Rose Hotel (complete with participation from that film's screenwriter, Christ Zois, his new Nicholas St. John), an intensely hermetic journey into an internal (but also externalized) world of gnomic signifiers. But it's Ferrara's version of Roeg's Eureka and his Tree of Life too. It's also not quite as inexplicable as I half expected it to be going in; almost, but not quite.

The first half hour or so is all about just establishing space, place and atmosphere, specifically that of the arctic wasteland in which the Dafoe character has apparently isolated himself; but you begin to realize that space and place is a spiritual and psychic state as well as a state of mind. Ferrara only gradually, incrementally, introduces surreal elements and texture, insinuating them into the fabric of the film and opening the film out to whatever they represent. And that seems key to me as this really isn't about "figuring it out" and any effort directed toward that is doomed not only to fail but to frustrate unnecessarily and to divert unnecessarily as well. Some suggestive elements can be pieced together, at least provisionally, but the film isn't about that; it's not a puzzle to be definitively worked out. It really is a space of deep mystery to inhabit and to contemplate and that compels further engagement.

Some figures who are encountered may represent specific ones from the character's past (even that's not clear and emphasizes the elastic nature of such conceptions) but just as many are likely figurative embodiments of specific trauma, distress, disorientation, etc. Ferrara's own usual set of preoccupations and interests are very much prominent and the Dafoe character may just as well be a figurative representative for himself. As implied by the broad range of character credits (e.g. death camp prisoners, cave demons) this is less about finding a way in which all of what is here could somehow fit together within some literal narrative as it is in recognizing it all as part of a spiritual and psychic landscape, a meditative space of reflection, understanding and transformation. It seems appropriate that much of this has the style of a theatrical piece, a one man therapeutic show enacted by Dafoe (particularly given Zois' participation and his own background in both philosophy and psychiatry). Perfectly in line with this then, and with Ferrara's humanist disposition, is that the film ends on a scene not so much of resolution as of simple human communion, elemental on a pre-linguistic level, which is finally just as ephemeral as every other moment and detail experienced by the Dafoe character and by us.

Would have been great if there had been some supplemental material on the new disc as I'd love to know more about the process behind this one (what was the script like? what was Ferrara's direction like?) but there is nothing; don't know whether that's all to do with Ferrara's own disinclination or whether it's just Lionsgate not giving a damn (probably a mix of both).

kubelkind
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:42 pm

Re: The Films of 2021

#7 Post by kubelkind » Wed Jun 23, 2021 8:43 am

Yes, I thought immediately of l'intrus as well. Interestingly, Denis can be spotted at the premiere in Ferrara's recent Sportin' Life doc (also great in its own way).
Siberia certainly seems like an outlier in the Ferrara ouvre. I need to see it again. My first thoughts were mostly "now THIS I'd like to see immersed in front of a huge cinema screen". Maybe that will still happen, some day....

dave1
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:16 am

Re: The Films of 2021

#8 Post by dave1 » Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:47 am

That's interesting because I love L'intrus (it's my favorite Denis) and I love New Rose Hotel even more.
My problem with Siberia is that I felt it indifferently shot and edited, like Welcome to New York and Pasolini (two films I don't like much), but more so.

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