USA,
1995, 86 min
Shown in 1995
CREDITS
- dir
-
Abel Ferrara
- prod
-
Denis Hann, Fernando Sulchin
- scr
-
Nicholas St. John
- cam
-
Ken Kelsch
- editor
-
Mayin Lo
- cast
-
Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra
- source
-
Fast Films
-
COMMENTS
Presented at the Festival with live music by Schooly D and Joe Delia. Abel Ferrara in person.
OTHER
Abel Ferrara’s film is a dark Manhattan odyssey of corruption and redemption, as well as an invigorating riff on the old vampire yarn. “The Addiction was written by my friend and screenwriter Nicky St. John soon after the death of his first son,” writes director Abel Ferrara. “At perhaps the saddest time of his life he found a way to express that relentless search for truth and light in a world that often paralyzes us with its anger and darkness. When I read it, I recognized many of my own feelings and fears regarding the human condition.” Bitten by a vampiric street walker, philosophy student Lili Taylor checks herself into a hospital, checks out of school and begins a daunting descent into the depths of addiction as a strung-out blood junkie. With stunning black-and-white cinematography, a heart-pounding soundtrack and Taylor’s tour-de-force display of swooning vampire ennui and shocking adrenaline aggression, “I never thought of it as a vampire movie,” says Ferrara. “I related to the addiction I see we all share in our fascination with evil and violence. It seems to run through our blood.” The Addiction is a thrilling cinematic fix.
—Adrian Curry
FACTOID #232
Our first seminar at the Festival was entitled Censorship and the Actor’s Art: A Symposium, featuring panelists Michael Mayer and Lou Greenspan at Grace Cathedral, October 24, 1966.
