jürgen fauth’s muckworld

Ray Ruby (Willem Dafoe with slicked back hair and a lucky leisure suit) runs a New York strip club where girls wearing g-strings and glitter gyrate to Grace Jones, but beneath the sleazy exterior beats the heart of a romantic. Ray Ruby’s got a dream: he wants his club to be a place where every kid gets a chance, where people take care of each other, and everybody has a good time. Between strip acts, he croons syrupy ballads. No wonder the place is called Ray Ruby’s Paradise.

But Paradise is in a spot of trouble. Ray has to contend with “shifting demographics,” the rent is in arrears, the dancers haven’t been paid, the obnoxious landlady (Sylvia Miles) wants to let Bed Bath & Beyond take over. During one hectic night, girls confess they’re pregnant, the tanning machine in the basement goes up in flames, and the gourmet cook feels under-appreciated. Owner Johnie Ruby (Matthew Modine), a “big shot hair dresser,” threatens to pull the plug but takes a minute for a quick back room dalliance with Monroe (Asia Argento), who specializes in on-stage acts with her Rottweiler. On top of it all, Ray has a gambling problem. It looks like he may have won the lottery, but he lost the damn ticket. No wonder he’s oozing desperation, no matter how radiant his sweaty smile.

With Go Go Tales, Abel Ferrara has made his first “intentional comedy,” telling stories of a bygone New York he recalled with relish at the NYFF post-screening press conference. Go Go Tales is a joyful mess. Not every gag works, not every character convinces, and most shots of the near-naked dancers are entirely gratuitous, but the film’s sensory overload and exploitative mood seem entirely appropriate for the subject matter, and Ferrara’s evident love for the world shines through even the most haphazardly improvised scenes. Like Ray Ruby’s Paradise, Go Go Tales is far from perfect, but it’s a hell of a sleazy good time anyway.

Go Go Tales. Abel Ferrara, 2007. ***

• Official Site

Here’s my video in three parts of the press conference with Abel Ferrara, Willem Dafoe, Sylvia Miles, Shanyn Leigh, and Frankie Cee. Richard Peña leads the discussion.

With The Host about to be released in the US, I finally uploaded my footage of the NYFF press conference from October. With the help of a very enthusiastic translator, Bong talks about designing the monster, balancing satire, humor, and horror, and having made the highest-grossing movie in Korean film history. Just off-screen, Richard Peña asks the questions.

More from the NYFF:

• Almodovar and Cruz Talk Volver
• “Because I Could:” Marie Antoinette Press Conference

Liked this much better than the previous two by Zhang Yimou, Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Perhaps seeing it on the huge screen at Alice Tully Hall helped. This was the New York premiere with Gong Li and Zhang Yimou in attendance. They said a few words via an interpreter who botched Gong Li’s comments but it didn’t matter–we just wanted to gawk at her looking tall and beautiful in an amazing dress. I’d seen her once before, in Cannes, but I was much closer this time, and she looked almost superhuman. (Other celeb sightings that night: Glenn Close, Bill Nighy, Julianne Moore.) Where was I? Oh right, the movie. Like its predecessors, Curse of the Golden Flower is absolutely gorgeous–lavish rainbow-colored interiors, massive tableaux of clashing armies, ninjas descending into a valley from a hundred ropes, etc etc. But for the first time with Mr. Zhang’s wuxia pictures, the melodramatic story appealed to me, too. Opens December 22. We have a photo gallery over at About.com.

Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia. Yimou Zhang, 2006. ***

[tags]zhang yimou, gong li, 3 stars, china, historical, wuxia, film, chow yun-fat, lincoln center, glenn close, bill nighy, juliette moore[/tags]