Abel Ferrara's TOMMASO (2019)

 (With Willem Dafoe in DaPerson!! Anthology Film Archives. I am something of a Q&A man myself)

Tommaso is from all accounts Ferrara's most personal film - chiefly that of Willem Dafoe, who I got to see speak at a question and answer talk after a screening lucky me etc, but I've read it elsewhere and the fact that he cast his own now-ex and their daughter in the roles of the wife and daughter for Dafoe's character says it so directly - and while I have to wonder if other films were just as personal at just different times in his life, ie when he was actively using and totally worked on drugs (Bad Lieutenant now seems like a scorched earth diary all the more), there is the danger of indulgence. More to the point with a project like this it's something that is closer to an Experiment in auto-fiction.

According to Dafoe, there's some of him as well and it's not meant to be a strict self portrait (even though hey wait are those storyboards for your next feature film "Siberia," sir?) It was helpful to hear Dafoe tell about the process since while there were scenarios and a sort of script, many/most of these episodes were improvised where there would be a direction for what to go with, ie when Tommaso goes into the kitchen and has an argument with his wife over them eating without him that was something that Ferrara had happen to him and he knew what Dafoe and Chiriac should do, but didn't dictate entirely where it would go. And when there's the yelling and conversation with the homeless Pakistani on the street at night that too, naturally, came from an incident for Ferrara where someone was yelling and disturbing his kid.

Every frame is a painting

Some of this may be all too simple as scenarios to realize - ie are you saying that an older man who has a young wife (as Ferrara did but also apparently Dafoe too, so it goes) he's going to get jealous and have imaginings that she is sleeping with a younger, more Hipster-bearded version of himself, heavens to Betsy - but what's key is what it always comes down to with any film: does it keep your attention and work as drama? The short answer is, yes, it does, in particular because Dafoe is pouring every ounce of his heart and soul and concentration (down to his body dexterity in Yoga pose moments), and they are well acted and compelling depictions of a relationship that should be better than it is.

A longer answer is more complicated and I don't know how long I can write about it before getting indulgent myself. But it does work better I think to come to this once you've seen some Ferrara films and know his addiction and recovery history, his constant search for meaning in broken sorts of narratives in his later work, and the scenes here where Tommaso is at AA telling stories and listening (I assume to real people or local actors who do great in their talks), one harrowing one from *Miami and highlight of the film and one of Dafoe's best moments of acting I've seen, are memorable and captivating.

There are also times where he is searching for things like dreams and introspection, like when there's this random bit where Tommaso is (checks notes) arrested and questioned at a station, or when he is in a random circle and pulls his **heart out of his chest and passes it around, and I still mildly enjoyed those because of the acting but less so because it just takes away from the (forgive the phrase) focus on the family.

 I think knowing the trust between actor and director makes this more worth watching than it doesn't, despite moments where it meanders and a camera will just follow Dafoe around like on a subway even as it doesn't "go" anywhere since it's all mood - closer to a free-flowing novel than a traditional narrative, which I'm sure Ferrara would piss all over.

If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea then this may not be for you. If you are open to an artist opening up his veins and revealing a lot - maybe too much, and with the kind of "art imitating life" dynamic where Tomasso yells at his wife and kid on the street and it's based on Ferrara yelling at his wife and kid and they are played by his wife and kid that is fairly unique (outside say Schizopolis) - then this will have pleasures simply by seeing how free Ferrara is and how beautifully Rome looks and everything that one of our most courageous and wonderful living actors (Chiriac and some of the other performers like the one acting student he has a thing for less so but what can you do).

PS: So... At the Q&A, the first question some young dunce asked Willem goddamn Dafoe was "So, there's a-a lot of naked women in this and I just wanted to know if it's like better than Tinder?" And after looking confused at first he just refused to answer the question and responded simply, "You started off good, but then you crashed and burned. Next question." 👏

(*was this from his time making Cat Chaser? Or his episode of Miami Vice?)

(**Jesus! Not again!! ;))