Yeah I don't think Ferrara had any intention of sabotaging Madonna or butchering her performance in the editing room. One thing he did, though, was use lots of rehearsal footage, shot on a grainy old digital camera -- or just generally footage that the actors thought would never be in the actual film. So there is a violation of trust there, perhaps. Especially considering the scene where Madonna's character tells a story about being raped, and it turns out this was Madonna herself, out of character, just telling Keitel something very sensitive and personal. She may have seen that it was being taped, but she probably thought there was no way it'd be in the movie. I'm guessing most if not all of the actors had no clue the approach Ferrara was going for: a film within a film within a film, where just as there are scenes of the actors/crew of Mother of Mirrors in their offstage, "real" personalities, there is also footage of the REAL actors/crew, as they pass time in between shooting Dangerous Game! At one point you even see a clapboard with Snake Eyes as the title (personally I always preferred that to the generic Dangerous Game), Abel Ferrara as the director and Ken Kelsch as DP, instead of the fictional characters. This was surely no mistake, but rather part of the film's whole formal strategy. Wheels within wheels... Anyway, I'm not sure if the use of such "private" or personal footage is one of the reasons why Madonna hates the film, but I'd think so.
It's too bad, because her dismissal of Dangerous Game was one of the reasons why it was ignored or dismissed by others and ended up tanking at the box office (Although I suppose the film is too abrasive and non-commercial to be terribly successful even with Madonna in it, word of mouth would just get out so quickly about how "boring" or "ugly" or "offensive" etc. it was). But this is a really interesting and powerful film, one of Ferrara's better works if not among his absolute best (he's just made so many masterpieces). It also may be the most difficult Ferrara picture to watch -- yes, even more than Bad Lt. or Ms. 45, though nearly ALL Ferrara films make for "difficult" or disturbing viewing -- it's just pitched at such a harsh level for the entirety of the thing and there's so many uncomfortable, visceral and disturbing scenes.
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elayman-88657
9 years ago
Ferarra is on record that Russo and Madonna were the only ones that didn't realize their scripted lines would be used. He goes further in this Sex & Guts interview arguing that he believes she did feel betrayed but that the amount of salary involved should have been an incentive to stay quiet. It is difficult to say who is more in the wrong without hearing both sides but at least the director has sounded softer and more forgiving of the whole escapade in the last couple years. There was such mutual admiration on both sides before this all went down, maybe there is a chance they can get together in some capacity again.
http://zoelund.com/docs/Abel_SexAndGuts/abel_ferrara_int.html
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