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Scene: A Memoir
A kaleidoscopic memoir by acclaimed filmmaker Abel Ferrara, director of the cult classic films Bad Lieutenant, King of New York, and Dangerous Game, offering an unflinching look at his life, career, and the gritty world of independent cinema.
Throughout his five-decade career, film director Abel Ferrara—now in his seventies—has been one of cinema’s most provocative and critically revered figures. Since beginning as an independent filmmaker in Manhattan in the early 1970s—before “indie films” were a genre—and refining his craft as a director for the TV show Miami Vice, he has directed more than twenty feature films, most notably the cult classics Bad Lieutenant, King of New York, and Dangerous Game.
His work, often controversial for its depictions of sex, violence, and drugs, has been praised for its sincerity and depth, with critics noting that his films take spirituality and morality more seriously than most films do. In Scene, Ferrara opens up about the inspiration for his creativity detailing his dramatic life journey, from his rough upbringing in the 1950s Bronx to his struggles with addiction, and his eventual path to recovery in his 1960s. This memoir is not just a recounting of his life but a manifesto on what it means to be a true artist—one who refuses to compromise and continues to create boundary-pushing work.
Scene is a profound, beautiful, and inspiring account of an artist’s relentless pursuit of creativity, making it a must-read for film fans and anyone interested in the gritty realities of the entertainment industry.
Throughout his five-decade career, film director Abel Ferrara—now in his seventies—has been one of cinema’s most provocative and critically revered figures. Since beginning as an independent filmmaker in Manhattan in the early 1970s—before “indie films” were a genre—and refining his craft as a director for the TV show Miami Vice, he has directed more than twenty feature films, most notably the cult classics Bad Lieutenant, King of New York, and Dangerous Game.
His work, often controversial for its depictions of sex, violence, and drugs, has been praised for its sincerity and depth, with critics noting that his films take spirituality and morality more seriously than most films do. In Scene, Ferrara opens up about the inspiration for his creativity detailing his dramatic life journey, from his rough upbringing in the 1950s Bronx to his struggles with addiction, and his eventual path to recovery in his 1960s. This memoir is not just a recounting of his life but a manifesto on what it means to be a true artist—one who refuses to compromise and continues to create boundary-pushing work.
Scene is a profound, beautiful, and inspiring account of an artist’s relentless pursuit of creativity, making it a must-read for film fans and anyone interested in the gritty realities of the entertainment industry.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published October 21, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
January 12, 2026
For those (like me) who have seen all his movies, it should be no surprise that Abel Ferrara writes his memoir with a blunt gritty force. He is candid about being a screwup, although he is nowhere near as confessional as, oh say, Keith Richards or Al Jourgenson. Ferrara is definitely a punk rock filmmaker who has had his own cocaine and heroin peccadilloes, as he is more than happy to report here, which accounts for my own natural comparison to noted drugs-happy rock stars. While this memoir is entertaining, there aren't all that many insights about how gritty 1970s New York shaped Ferrara's aesthetic or fuck you ethos. But we do learn the sources of some of his scrappy cinematic ideas, which include some surprises as BARRY LYNDON and Michael Moore. I would like to hear the other side of the story concerning Nancy Ferrara, Nicholas St. John, and Asia Argento. Two of Abel's dealings here ended with "I never saw them again." And if you were looking for any feisty reason why, well, you're not going to get it. Ferrara, however, is a true force of nature. And one reads this memoir realizing that some of the blunt force tactics that got him into filmmaking are no longer available to young and emerging filmmakers.
October 3, 2025
Wow, an unexpected pleasure.
I was not familiar with the name but I love films from most time periods. I also love NYC especially stories about the gritty seventies. If you’re a fan of these you’ll enjoy this book.
Ferrara gives you honesty about his life and the question to make movies; his type of movies. While the book isn’t graphic his movies are. No tiptoeing around.
He’s made several films with Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe; a plus for me. After decades of drug use he finally got clean through a rehab in Italy and practicing Buddhism.
The writing is excellent with a full flow from chapter to chapter. Nothing superfluous, just the facts. I appreciate the efficiency.
Thanks to Edelweiss and Simon and Schuster.
I was not familiar with the name but I love films from most time periods. I also love NYC especially stories about the gritty seventies. If you’re a fan of these you’ll enjoy this book.
Ferrara gives you honesty about his life and the question to make movies; his type of movies. While the book isn’t graphic his movies are. No tiptoeing around.
He’s made several films with Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe; a plus for me. After decades of drug use he finally got clean through a rehab in Italy and practicing Buddhism.
The writing is excellent with a full flow from chapter to chapter. Nothing superfluous, just the facts. I appreciate the efficiency.
Thanks to Edelweiss and Simon and Schuster.
Read
December 13, 2025Surprisingly tender memoir from one of hollywoods most insane men
October 2, 2025
Abel Ferrara is not one of my go-to directors, but this very engaging memoir makes me respect him as a person. His early life in a rambunctious family that had a foot on the other side of the law informs his choices, but there was a lot of love there, and a move to Peerskill NY from the Bronx gave some security. He tells his own story almost cinematically, with short chapters that highlight what inspired him and what he values, also his continuing recovery from addiction is generously described. Very literate and graceful, he doesn't go into the movie making part of his life in great detail, merely the outline and most importantly, the inspirations. I must confess that Pasolini, one of his heroes, is responsible for the most traumatic movie-going experience of my life.
Read
October 29, 2025Started listening to the audiobook yesterday at work and couldn’t stop. One of my favorite directors of all time. Insane autobiography. Great book.
December 3, 2025
I could probably count on two hands the amount of filmmakers that have touched me so deeply and spiritually that I knew I was in love before it hit its run time. Abel has made at the very least two motion pictures like that for me, and now, improbably but inevitably a book.
I listened to ‘Scene’ as I knew Abel in his own words would be him at his best — telling the truth the only way he knows how: sideways, raw and poetic without trying to be. He’s my kind of people. I can’t fully explain why. As he says in the book, “it’d probably take someone like Dante to explain it.” Maybe that’s it: there’s something infernal and holy tangled up together in him, something recognisable.
There’s a kind of honour among thieves and scoundrels, and he’s very much been both, or danced close enough to the line that the distinction doesn’t matter. I’ve always admired that rawness.
The way he talks about Naples, our land of Maradona, film for the sake of film, about the boys he grew up with — it all reminds me of the way my dad would talk about the old country. That same mix of love, fatalism, and a shrug to end it all that understates how; “that’s just the way it was”.
I listened to ‘Scene’ as I knew Abel in his own words would be him at his best — telling the truth the only way he knows how: sideways, raw and poetic without trying to be. He’s my kind of people. I can’t fully explain why. As he says in the book, “it’d probably take someone like Dante to explain it.” Maybe that’s it: there’s something infernal and holy tangled up together in him, something recognisable.
There’s a kind of honour among thieves and scoundrels, and he’s very much been both, or danced close enough to the line that the distinction doesn’t matter. I’ve always admired that rawness.
The way he talks about Naples, our land of Maradona, film for the sake of film, about the boys he grew up with — it all reminds me of the way my dad would talk about the old country. That same mix of love, fatalism, and a shrug to end it all that understates how; “that’s just the way it was”.
January 14, 2026
Ferrara has always interested me. His films are a bit hit and miss for my taste, but he has made some crackers. Like many of his movies, Scene suffers from some narrative problems. It jumps around chronologically so much, and without any real guidance or signposting, that it’s hard to know at any one point what is happening in his life other than just entrenched drug abuse. But on the other hand, there are many interesting, discrete chapters about growing up in the Bronx, his almost lifelong drug addiction, the path towards the production of some of his bigger movies, and working in Hollywood and Europe. It’s a book for Ferrara-heads, starf**kers and film nerds. It’s also not for those who aren’t okay with drugs - LOTS of drugs.
November 15, 2025
Ever since my fervent cinephilia kicked off at the age of 14 after seeing Taxi Driver for the first time, I started to develop an interest in Abel Ferrara’s filmography: there is a certain rawness in his filmmaking and an eye for the grit, decay, and filth of urban life that spoke to me very deeply. Besides, one could sense immediately that the guy was most likely tussling with a nasty horde of inner demons, given his intensely troubled protagonists and the crises of faith some of them go through. It’s also quite fascinating to see how Catholicism - and later, Buddhism - inform his work: intensely personal and unapologetically sincere, almost all of his films display an acute spiritual conflict of sorts.
Scene: A Memoir retains the same attributes that pull me towards his films: together with Tommaso, which I think is his most intimate film to date, the book probes deeply into Ferrara’s obsessions and inner turmoil, providing an unvarnished account of a life in shambles. It is a dark exploration of addiction, abuse, cheating, guilt, family instability, the unsavoury side of film business and the seedy underbelly of NYC, but it is also a book about physical and spiritual healing, the all-consuming desire to create, and the search for a higher truth. I particularly enjoyed how the book is structured: there is almost a stream-of-consciousness quality in the way the freewheeling prose flows effortlessly from one chapter to another, sometimes disregarding chronology, alternating between past and present, the inward and the outward, turpitude and grace.
Scene: A Memoir retains the same attributes that pull me towards his films: together with Tommaso, which I think is his most intimate film to date, the book probes deeply into Ferrara’s obsessions and inner turmoil, providing an unvarnished account of a life in shambles. It is a dark exploration of addiction, abuse, cheating, guilt, family instability, the unsavoury side of film business and the seedy underbelly of NYC, but it is also a book about physical and spiritual healing, the all-consuming desire to create, and the search for a higher truth. I particularly enjoyed how the book is structured: there is almost a stream-of-consciousness quality in the way the freewheeling prose flows effortlessly from one chapter to another, sometimes disregarding chronology, alternating between past and present, the inward and the outward, turpitude and grace.
February 9, 2026
Abel Ferrara’s memoir is exactly what you expect it to be and that’s meant as a compliment. It’s a memoir that commits to being a memoir: direct, anecdotal, occasionally rambling, and fueled less by self-mythology than by hard-earned memory.
Ferrara gives you his beginnings, his filmmaking process, behind-the-scenes glimpses of key films, and the pressures that came with them, but the gravitational center of the book is addiction. Drugs aren’t a subplot here; they’re the throughline.
For those not in the know he is a movie director
The films he has made that have watched so far
MS. 45, KING OF NEW YORK, BAD LIEUTENANT, BODY SNATCHERS, DANGEROUS GAME, CHINA GIRL, NEW ROSE HOTEL, THE ADDITION, THE FUNERAL, THE BLACKOUT and that is barely half of his resume.
What makes the book so compelling is how little Ferrara tries to manage the reader’s sympathy. He tells his life story without flinching or varnish. He doesn’t indulge in self-pity, doesn’t frame himself as a victim of circumstance, and doesn’t bother sanitizing his worst instincts. If anything, the tone is bluntly matter-of-fact, in that distinctly New York way “this is what happened, take it or leave it.” It’s the same posture his films have always taken. You may not be getting every last horror story, but you’re getting honesty, and that counts for more.
Ferrara, the man, often feels like someone who could wander into one of his own movies and never break the spell. He’s a character, sure, but a consistent one. That consistency is what makes his self-portrait credible. Even as his films have grown more abstract with age, there’s a spiritual clarity to them now, a sense that he’s chasing truths rather than provocations. The provocations were never the point anyway.
What’s intriguing is when Ferrara discusses acting, it’s not in the book but considering recently after his recent role in MARTY SUPREME, which feels slightly adjacent to his public persona. And yet, you can see how it fits. He’s known people like that. He’s lived close enough to that life. Take one wrong turn, or one different turn and he could’ve been that guy. Ferrara has always been fascinated by the thin line between identity and fate. This book offers that insight.
This is also one of those books that makes you wish you’d listened to the audiobook instead. You can practically hear his voice in the text conversational, digressive, profane when necessary. It feels less like a literary performance and more like sitting across from him while he talks, uninterrupted, finally saying everything in his own way.
For years, Ferrara was one of those filmmakers surrounded by rumor. This was before social media flattened mystery, when artists could still have privacy, even secrets. You heard he was a drug addict. Then you heard he was clean usually right around the release of a new film. You wanted to believe it. Scene lays it out plainly: for most of his career, he wasn’t clean. Not really. That clarity alone feels like a gift, or at least a reckoning.
Ferrara has always had a vision. His films haven’t always been good, but they’ve almost always been interesting bold, abrasive, and unmistakably his. As a young viewer, it was easy to see him as a provocateur, but never a fake one. His films weren’t trying to shock; they were stating facts as he saw them. Avant-garde, yes, but street-level too. They felt free of Hollywood polish and bullshit, which is precisely why they mattered.
His career moves in phases. The early crime and exploitation films. Then KING OF NEW YORK which elevated him into a higher tier of independent filmmaking: bigger names, slightly healthier budgets, a whiff of prestige, without losing the outlaw energy. New York itself was always central: chaotic, seductive, random, and dangerous in a way that felt undeniably cool.
Once Ferrara left New York and got clean, the films shifted. They became more interior, more philosophical cinema as thought, cinema as spiritual inquiry. After his uneasy brush with studio filmmaking (BODY SNATCHERS, which I personally liked) he leaned fully into risk and abstraction. These later works haven’t been widely embraced, but they feel like the purest expressions of his artistic drive. Audience approval clearly stopped being the point.
Love the stories of working with actors, especially Christopher Walken which only adds to his legend. The Asia Argento ones shocked me but for some odd reason shouldn’t.
I’ll admit I drifted at times from the book into my own relationship with Ferrara’s work but Scene invites that. If you’re a fan, it’s essential. If you’re not, it’s still a bracing introduction to a filmmaker who has never apologized for being exactly who he is. In his own words, without an alibi.
that feels right.
Ferrara gives you his beginnings, his filmmaking process, behind-the-scenes glimpses of key films, and the pressures that came with them, but the gravitational center of the book is addiction. Drugs aren’t a subplot here; they’re the throughline.
For those not in the know he is a movie director
The films he has made that have watched so far
MS. 45, KING OF NEW YORK, BAD LIEUTENANT, BODY SNATCHERS, DANGEROUS GAME, CHINA GIRL, NEW ROSE HOTEL, THE ADDITION, THE FUNERAL, THE BLACKOUT and that is barely half of his resume.
What makes the book so compelling is how little Ferrara tries to manage the reader’s sympathy. He tells his life story without flinching or varnish. He doesn’t indulge in self-pity, doesn’t frame himself as a victim of circumstance, and doesn’t bother sanitizing his worst instincts. If anything, the tone is bluntly matter-of-fact, in that distinctly New York way “this is what happened, take it or leave it.” It’s the same posture his films have always taken. You may not be getting every last horror story, but you’re getting honesty, and that counts for more.
Ferrara, the man, often feels like someone who could wander into one of his own movies and never break the spell. He’s a character, sure, but a consistent one. That consistency is what makes his self-portrait credible. Even as his films have grown more abstract with age, there’s a spiritual clarity to them now, a sense that he’s chasing truths rather than provocations. The provocations were never the point anyway.
What’s intriguing is when Ferrara discusses acting, it’s not in the book but considering recently after his recent role in MARTY SUPREME, which feels slightly adjacent to his public persona. And yet, you can see how it fits. He’s known people like that. He’s lived close enough to that life. Take one wrong turn, or one different turn and he could’ve been that guy. Ferrara has always been fascinated by the thin line between identity and fate. This book offers that insight.
This is also one of those books that makes you wish you’d listened to the audiobook instead. You can practically hear his voice in the text conversational, digressive, profane when necessary. It feels less like a literary performance and more like sitting across from him while he talks, uninterrupted, finally saying everything in his own way.
For years, Ferrara was one of those filmmakers surrounded by rumor. This was before social media flattened mystery, when artists could still have privacy, even secrets. You heard he was a drug addict. Then you heard he was clean usually right around the release of a new film. You wanted to believe it. Scene lays it out plainly: for most of his career, he wasn’t clean. Not really. That clarity alone feels like a gift, or at least a reckoning.
Ferrara has always had a vision. His films haven’t always been good, but they’ve almost always been interesting bold, abrasive, and unmistakably his. As a young viewer, it was easy to see him as a provocateur, but never a fake one. His films weren’t trying to shock; they were stating facts as he saw them. Avant-garde, yes, but street-level too. They felt free of Hollywood polish and bullshit, which is precisely why they mattered.
His career moves in phases. The early crime and exploitation films. Then KING OF NEW YORK which elevated him into a higher tier of independent filmmaking: bigger names, slightly healthier budgets, a whiff of prestige, without losing the outlaw energy. New York itself was always central: chaotic, seductive, random, and dangerous in a way that felt undeniably cool.
Once Ferrara left New York and got clean, the films shifted. They became more interior, more philosophical cinema as thought, cinema as spiritual inquiry. After his uneasy brush with studio filmmaking (BODY SNATCHERS, which I personally liked) he leaned fully into risk and abstraction. These later works haven’t been widely embraced, but they feel like the purest expressions of his artistic drive. Audience approval clearly stopped being the point.
Love the stories of working with actors, especially Christopher Walken which only adds to his legend. The Asia Argento ones shocked me but for some odd reason shouldn’t.
I’ll admit I drifted at times from the book into my own relationship with Ferrara’s work but Scene invites that. If you’re a fan, it’s essential. If you’re not, it’s still a bracing introduction to a filmmaker who has never apologized for being exactly who he is. In his own words, without an alibi.
that feels right.
September 16, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this memoir from one of the most fascinating directors working, detailing his life, struggles, loves, disappointments, his work, his art, and most importantly what keeps drives and inspires him still.
I had always thought I would have a life in the creative arts. Books, comics, maybe even films. Not starring I have a face for radio, not even directing but a part of the film industry. And as a person whose life is kind of boring, I have always wished for a little excitement in many ways. Those thoughts are far behind me, and frankly reading the way this country is going is far more excitement than I want. I have found a lot of comfort in memoirs, especially in those whose works are not as well known, but reflect much about the creator and not what a test audience might enjoy. I few times I have been envious, some I have thanked god my life is quiet. Only Abel Ferrara could make want to be his boon companion in his jaunts, a man I would cross the planet to avoid, and a human who brought me to tears quite a few times while reading. Usually in the same paragraph. Scene:A Memoir by Abel Ferrara is a memoir, a paean to a lost New York, making of and in in some cases the sabotaging of many of his films, and the primal scream of a man who has been through much, and is still here, kicking, screaming and creating.
The book is a memoir, but is told in many ways like a film. The is foreshadowing, flashbacks, editing tricks, maybe even the same take or two, but written differently. All edited together to tell the story of a man who loves art, dealt with his addictions, but might still have a problem shaking the drama that seems to follow him around. The book moves in time and space, from the Bronx, to Manhattan, to Peekskill, NY and other locals. Ferrara details his life, his mother who he loved, his father who he had a difficult relationship with, who later took his own life. His father arranged for his first movie with a group of well Italian financiers who controlled most of the movies in New York, while also arranging a deal for himself. Addiction followed the director for almost 40 years, influencing his work, his family and relationship, many with actresses who enjoyed drama both in their performance, and their personal lives. There are stories of Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, Al Pacino and a group of oddly named people on the borders of the law. Ferrara talks about his movies, what he wanted, what was taken away by studios and survey groups, and the stories that got away. A life in full, that is both sad and funny, sometimes in the same sentence.
I first was introduced to Abel Ferrara when I watched Driller Killer and Ms. 45 with friends, and thought nothing more of him. King of New York changed that, a movie that was so tight, so dark, I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. Ferrara is an incredible director even in things he couldn't control. The mood, the way the characters speak, there is just something unique. Even now I have been catching up and watched Pasolini last night, and was riveted for the entire run time. Ferrara is as good a writer as he is a director. One would think the book was all over the place, the past, making a movie, Italy, the past again, but one doesn't get confused. One follows the words and what they show and tell. New York as a wasteland, Italy as a place of healing. A girlfriend throwing hundred dollar bills down an air shaft. Making his first movie. Drugs. Everything fits, and tells the story of a life, one in many ways as interesting and cinematic as his films.
A book I did not expect to make me sniffle as much as I did, nor a book that I thought would make me go gosh dang it man that's awful more than a few times. A really powerful book about a man, movies, his mistakes and how he has tried to make his life as well as he makes his films. A book for film people and for those who love well written stories about life. I can't wait to see what Abel Ferrara has planned next be it book or film.
I had always thought I would have a life in the creative arts. Books, comics, maybe even films. Not starring I have a face for radio, not even directing but a part of the film industry. And as a person whose life is kind of boring, I have always wished for a little excitement in many ways. Those thoughts are far behind me, and frankly reading the way this country is going is far more excitement than I want. I have found a lot of comfort in memoirs, especially in those whose works are not as well known, but reflect much about the creator and not what a test audience might enjoy. I few times I have been envious, some I have thanked god my life is quiet. Only Abel Ferrara could make want to be his boon companion in his jaunts, a man I would cross the planet to avoid, and a human who brought me to tears quite a few times while reading. Usually in the same paragraph. Scene:A Memoir by Abel Ferrara is a memoir, a paean to a lost New York, making of and in in some cases the sabotaging of many of his films, and the primal scream of a man who has been through much, and is still here, kicking, screaming and creating.
The book is a memoir, but is told in many ways like a film. The is foreshadowing, flashbacks, editing tricks, maybe even the same take or two, but written differently. All edited together to tell the story of a man who loves art, dealt with his addictions, but might still have a problem shaking the drama that seems to follow him around. The book moves in time and space, from the Bronx, to Manhattan, to Peekskill, NY and other locals. Ferrara details his life, his mother who he loved, his father who he had a difficult relationship with, who later took his own life. His father arranged for his first movie with a group of well Italian financiers who controlled most of the movies in New York, while also arranging a deal for himself. Addiction followed the director for almost 40 years, influencing his work, his family and relationship, many with actresses who enjoyed drama both in their performance, and their personal lives. There are stories of Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, Al Pacino and a group of oddly named people on the borders of the law. Ferrara talks about his movies, what he wanted, what was taken away by studios and survey groups, and the stories that got away. A life in full, that is both sad and funny, sometimes in the same sentence.
I first was introduced to Abel Ferrara when I watched Driller Killer and Ms. 45 with friends, and thought nothing more of him. King of New York changed that, a movie that was so tight, so dark, I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. Ferrara is an incredible director even in things he couldn't control. The mood, the way the characters speak, there is just something unique. Even now I have been catching up and watched Pasolini last night, and was riveted for the entire run time. Ferrara is as good a writer as he is a director. One would think the book was all over the place, the past, making a movie, Italy, the past again, but one doesn't get confused. One follows the words and what they show and tell. New York as a wasteland, Italy as a place of healing. A girlfriend throwing hundred dollar bills down an air shaft. Making his first movie. Drugs. Everything fits, and tells the story of a life, one in many ways as interesting and cinematic as his films.
A book I did not expect to make me sniffle as much as I did, nor a book that I thought would make me go gosh dang it man that's awful more than a few times. A really powerful book about a man, movies, his mistakes and how he has tried to make his life as well as he makes his films. A book for film people and for those who love well written stories about life. I can't wait to see what Abel Ferrara has planned next be it book or film.
August 27, 2025
First off, I will tell you that I am a huge film fan. So much so, that I have hundreds of biographies of Hollywood, the Golden Era, actors, directors, studios, etc. There isn't much that I haven't researched and read up to this point. I will also tell you that I own thousands of films, most from the Golden Era of Hollywood.
Now I will tell you that occasionally I watch films that are from a later era, (anything past 1960) but not often. I have heard very little of Mr. Ferrara, but being a fan of Christopher Walken, I have seen King of New York. Giving you what I know (or did know before reading this) of Mr. Ferrara. While this isn't the most fascinating memoir that I've read, it is the grittiest, digging deep into the soul of this director and who he is.
I don't believe in drugs and I don't drink, so my view may be skewed somewhat, but I never judge others on what they do in their private lives. That's not for me to do. Yet I felt something while reading this; something akin to empathy for him. Struggling with addictions is always difficult; people don't always make it. But surrounding yourself with others doing the same thing perhaps isn't the best thing to do, so I couldn't feel sorry for him (Empathy and sorrow are two different things).
This memoir is raw, giving us everything from his being born and raised in the Bronx; living with a father who had addictions of his own; his family members, and people he knew along the way. Some you won't like, others you might. His upbringing wasn't easy. But his journey to making films was never tempered, he always knew what he wanted to do. He is not by any means a part of Hollywood, but the Indie scene captivated him in the fact that it allowed him to make the type of films he wants to.
Lastly, I will say that this memoir was definitely intriguing the more I read, and while his films might never be my favorites (as I stated above, I love the Golden Age of Hollywood), I know what part of his soul he put into making them, and that makes all the difference. Recommended.
I was given an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
Now I will tell you that occasionally I watch films that are from a later era, (anything past 1960) but not often. I have heard very little of Mr. Ferrara, but being a fan of Christopher Walken, I have seen King of New York. Giving you what I know (or did know before reading this) of Mr. Ferrara. While this isn't the most fascinating memoir that I've read, it is the grittiest, digging deep into the soul of this director and who he is.
I don't believe in drugs and I don't drink, so my view may be skewed somewhat, but I never judge others on what they do in their private lives. That's not for me to do. Yet I felt something while reading this; something akin to empathy for him. Struggling with addictions is always difficult; people don't always make it. But surrounding yourself with others doing the same thing perhaps isn't the best thing to do, so I couldn't feel sorry for him (Empathy and sorrow are two different things).
This memoir is raw, giving us everything from his being born and raised in the Bronx; living with a father who had addictions of his own; his family members, and people he knew along the way. Some you won't like, others you might. His upbringing wasn't easy. But his journey to making films was never tempered, he always knew what he wanted to do. He is not by any means a part of Hollywood, but the Indie scene captivated him in the fact that it allowed him to make the type of films he wants to.
Lastly, I will say that this memoir was definitely intriguing the more I read, and while his films might never be my favorites (as I stated above, I love the Golden Age of Hollywood), I know what part of his soul he put into making them, and that makes all the difference. Recommended.
I was given an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
January 15, 2026
Always a great sign when you're thinking "dang, I wish this book were longer". Listened to the audiobook with this one, which is the way to go because Ferrara narrates it himself. You can hear him spit / froth a little bit while he talks. Like William Friedkin's memoir (The Friedkin Connection), you can decide how much of this you want to believe. He's a true character, like a Samuel Taylor Coleridge -- I suspect that if he were born in the 1800s, he would have been a poet. He's a true romantic who loves art, and he needs it as much as he needed drugs. For example, when he talks about the Cannes Film Festival, he mostly talks about how much of a privilege it is because they really care about the film presentation / technical details, rather than some kind of reputational boost. At the end, he says that he never goes into a movie looking for something HE wants, but rather, he wants you to blow him away with "what ya got." It's a great attitude, and even though you can't say he's a good role model, he's a fascinating mind to spend time with.
It's too bad it's so short (he addresses this) and that it ends before his work with Josh Safdie in Daddy Longlegs and Marty Supreme.
What I appreciated about the book is that Ferrara is sober now, and even though he made his best films while he was drugged out, he never (ever) credits those artistic successes to his drug use. Instead, he frequently credits his collaborators, particularly his DPs, screenwriter Nicky, and composer.
Great book!
It's too bad it's so short (he addresses this) and that it ends before his work with Josh Safdie in Daddy Longlegs and Marty Supreme.
What I appreciated about the book is that Ferrara is sober now, and even though he made his best films while he was drugged out, he never (ever) credits those artistic successes to his drug use. Instead, he frequently credits his collaborators, particularly his DPs, screenwriter Nicky, and composer.
Great book!
October 27, 2025
This book is phenomenal. Ferrara grew up in a working class Italian-American family in the Bronx but fell in love with the films of Godard and Pasolini and followed his heart’s desire, going on to become one of the best and most iconoclastic independent American filmmakers of the past half-century. If you’ve ever seen an interview with him, or heard any of his amazing DVD audio commentaries, then you know what to expect: Ferrara is a wild man - confrontational, brutally honest, and funny as fuck. Reading this book is a lot like watching his movies: it’s fragmented and non-linear, jumping from anecdote to anecdote, but it’s also well edited and it all hangs together. There are passages where he rhapsodizes about watching certain movies for the first time (Kubrick’s 2001, FULL METAL JACKET and THE SHINING, Pasolini’s DECAMERON) and the passion with which he writes about these experiences is infectious. The only other director memoir that captures the spirit of the author’s filmmaking work to this extent is Sam Fuller’s A THIRD FACE (also phenomenal). Finally, this is also about addiction as much as it’s about filmmaking and is full of all sorts of good life advice. After reading it, I feel inspired to make another 10 movies.
October 22, 2025
Abel Ferrara’s Scene: A Memoir is a raw, electrifying dive into the life and mind of one of cinema’s most uncompromising visionaries. With the same fearless energy that defines his films, Ferrara recounts a five-decade journey through the underbelly of independent filmmaking revealing the grit, chaos, and redemption that shaped his artistry.
From the streets of the Bronx to the heights of cult fame, Scene traces a life spent chasing truth through art, no matter the cost. Ferrara’s voice is both defiant and introspective, painting vivid portraits of his creative highs and personal lows. It’s not just a memoir; it’s a confession, a celebration, and a masterclass in surviving both Hollywood and oneself.
Candid, intense, and deeply human, Scene is a portrait of an artist who never stopped creating—even when the world misunderstood him. It’s a brutally honest reminder that real art demands not perfection, but persistence.
From the streets of the Bronx to the heights of cult fame, Scene traces a life spent chasing truth through art, no matter the cost. Ferrara’s voice is both defiant and introspective, painting vivid portraits of his creative highs and personal lows. It’s not just a memoir; it’s a confession, a celebration, and a masterclass in surviving both Hollywood and oneself.
Candid, intense, and deeply human, Scene is a portrait of an artist who never stopped creating—even when the world misunderstood him. It’s a brutally honest reminder that real art demands not perfection, but persistence.
Read
December 19, 2025I can’t see Ferrara having the patience to sit and write a linear, full-bodied memoir, kind of feels like he wrote about the experiences and people he wanted you to know about and left a lot off the page and then just said whatever I’m done. Which is kind of cool, leaves more mystery and makes one wonder why he left out people and movies you’d think he would’ve included. And it’s all written through the prism of recovery so you’re not going to get any bitter gossip or trash talk on anyone. Reads like a conversation you might have with someone after an AA meeting. Funny, embarrassing, sad, triumphant. Which I found endearing. Liked that he read Moby-Dick and Tolstoy in rehab. I’ve only seen a handful of his films over the years so now have a good excuse to go through some more of them.
October 28, 2025
Sped through Abel’s new autobiography over the weekend- couldn’t put it down. Essential reading for fans of his work.
The book dives deep into his career and lifelong drug addiction. Ferrara speaks bluntly and candidly on it all- pulling 0 punches whatsoever.
It shows an introspective, self-critical side of him that his infamous commentary tracks do not.
Very impressed. His work means so much to me and has greatly influenced the type of stories I want to tell.
If you get the chance, listen to the audiobook like I did.
It’s self-narrated so it adds a whole new dimension to the text. “Ya dig?”’
The book dives deep into his career and lifelong drug addiction. Ferrara speaks bluntly and candidly on it all- pulling 0 punches whatsoever.
It shows an introspective, self-critical side of him that his infamous commentary tracks do not.
Very impressed. His work means so much to me and has greatly influenced the type of stories I want to tell.
If you get the chance, listen to the audiobook like I did.
It’s self-narrated so it adds a whole new dimension to the text. “Ya dig?”’
November 7, 2025
Found myself completely charmed by this frank and superbly written memoir that deals with art, crime, love, addiction and all the regrets, successes and failures that make up a life.
Seems to blend truth with touches of self-mythologising in a similar way to Dylan and Herzog's memoirs. It also reminded me of another memoir I read not too long ago, John Lurie's The History of Bones, in its depiction of an underground New York art scene in the 80s and 90s.
"This is what it is to be human. Questioning, going for things, doing things, thinking about crazy shit, thinking about blind fucking Italian fucking painters, thinking about fucking poets that died 150 years ago. Ya dig?"
Seems to blend truth with touches of self-mythologising in a similar way to Dylan and Herzog's memoirs. It also reminded me of another memoir I read not too long ago, John Lurie's The History of Bones, in its depiction of an underground New York art scene in the 80s and 90s.
"This is what it is to be human. Questioning, going for things, doing things, thinking about crazy shit, thinking about blind fucking Italian fucking painters, thinking about fucking poets that died 150 years ago. Ya dig?"
October 15, 2025
Sparse and no bs, just like Abel’s films.
Funny to read this after Bruce’s long-winded Born to Run. This is really just the facts in a spartan, tough kind of way. If I had any issue, it’s that I wish there were more stories from Ferrara’s most famous productions like King of New York and Bad Lieutenant, but in all likelihood (and he’d be the first to tell you) he was gacked out of his melon.
The writing about addiction was both intoxicating and harrowing and the evocation of downtown NYC in the 70s and 80s is similarly compelling.
Funny to read this after Bruce’s long-winded Born to Run. This is really just the facts in a spartan, tough kind of way. If I had any issue, it’s that I wish there were more stories from Ferrara’s most famous productions like King of New York and Bad Lieutenant, but in all likelihood (and he’d be the first to tell you) he was gacked out of his melon.
The writing about addiction was both intoxicating and harrowing and the evocation of downtown NYC in the 70s and 80s is similarly compelling.
November 11, 2025
This director's work is definitely an acquired taste, but there is a certain mangy integrity to his willingness to follow his own path and make the movies he wants. For a while, this book follows a similar path, starting with an accounting of a porn movie shoot that ends with a horrid choice faced by Ferrara. After a while, though, the book gets too repetitive with stories about serial drug use and cheating taking the place of actual stories about making movies. There is a horrid fascination to the text that keeps you going.
November 15, 2025
Abel Ferrara’s movies have always felt like they were made specifically for me so it’s natural that his book felt more like I was hearing stories directly from a friend. I align with the New York way of living with the southern Italian way of thinking and to see how he has grown to view everything placed in front of him from the lens of a person in recovery, it hit very close to home and felt so relatable. He truly speaks my language. Loved it!
November 23, 2025
I would have maybe liked some more details about the making of some of the films (and that Conan interview), but with the amount of crack and heroin Ferrara did it’s a miracle he remembers anything. There’s also a drive by, gut punch quality in his writing that I’ve always appreciated in the movies. I recommend listening to the audiobook, read by the madman himself.
Now I just need a Nicky St. John memoir and that King of New York prequel.
Now I just need a Nicky St. John memoir and that King of New York prequel.
January 25, 2026
Excellent memoir of a suitably wild life. Ferrara is refreshing candid, as you’d expect, and doesn’t shy away from or sugarcoat his own struggles with addiction. Has made me want to visit his filmography more deeply. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in independent filmmaking and a unique auteur.
February 4, 2026
This book is really good. Love Abel. I don’t like all of his films, but I do appreciate his ethic and artistic creed. He is an iconoclast in every sense of the word. This book is close to 4 stars, but decisions must be made. The book is funny, interesting and enlightening. You know what, I am gonna give this book 4 stars. Why the hell not.
February 9, 2026
after having just watched all of Abel's movies this past month, ending that binge with this was great. I loved the way Abel gave you just enough insight in his brutal honesty about who he was during his lifetime as well as navigating making movies. i wish it was longer as there's more id like to know Abel's thoughts on his movies, especially Zero's and Ones, lol.
November 29, 2025
Raw, systematically chaotic, redemptive, not for the squeamish. Like his films. Loved his early work, lost touch post New Rose Hotel. SCENE fills some gaps, vividly. I crossed his path briefly in Cannes '92, that era particularly resonated. Heavy, well-written.
January 24, 2026
Great reading all the way through. With every chapter I finished I thought to myself, 'this motherfucker's life would make a great movie. He should make it', but then it hit me: he already did. He's been making that movie since The Driller Killer.
February 8, 2026
I expected greater details about the making of some absolute classics - but 30 years of hammering your brain with drugs will probably kill the smaller memories. But there’s a great uncompromising attitude throughout.
October 7, 2025
In it for love of the game. Am into the disjointedness. Pure Abel.
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