One of the great collaborations in recent cinema is that of Willem Dafoe and Abel Ferrara, including 4:44 Last Day on Earth, Pasolini, Go Go Tales, and New Rose Hotel. They’ve recently reteamed for two more projects: Siberia, which recently wrapped production, and Tommaso, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. The latter project finds them going more meta than ever before, with Dafoe’s character playing a North American director living in Rome with his younger wife and their 3-year-old daughter (played, notably, by Ferrara’s own wife and daughter, Christina and Anna Ferrara). While the film is still seeking U.S. distribution, an international trailer has now arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in our review, “Most of this is a mirror of Ferrara’s own life: his move to Rome after U.S. funders stopped backing his movies following the 9/11 attacks; his struggles with addiction; his multiple marriages; his conversion to Buddhism and so on. Ferrara, a New York native, was raised Roman Catholic and religion is naturally key here once again, both narratively and formally. It’s fitting then that Tommaso feels so confessional and thus so resonant, especially given the scarcely believable casting of Christina and Anna. Indeed, mother and child both feature in scenes that one can only presume must have been painfully close to the bone.”
See the trailer below via Cinemaldito and our recent interview with Ferrara here.
Tommaso is seeking U.S. distribution.