Briefly, Abel Ferrara

Onetime Occupation: Genre filmmaker. (Raw, dark, lurid films, the kind you'd see in Times Square.)

More Recent Occupation: Genre-transcending filmmaker. (Raw, dark, lurid films, the kind you'd see in Cannes.)

So, Abel, How'd It Go Over There in Cannes? "You got every lowlife in the world there. It's like Vegason-the-Sea."

Age, Provenance: Forty-one; half-Italian, half-Irish.

Survivor? Yes. Survived growing up in a tough Bronx neighborhood in the 50s. Survived unfavorable comparison to Martin Scorsese at the hands—sorry, thumbs—of Gene Siskel.

First Feature: Driller Killer (1979); banned in England.

Last Feature: Bad Lieutenant (1992), starring Harvey Keitel; banned in Ireland.

Next Feature: Body Snatchers, starring Gabrielle Anwar, Terry Kinney, Billy Wirth, Meg Tilly, Forest Whitaker. "We decided to remake a movie. Why? Who the fuck knows? Right now, it's a success. Until people see it."

Next One After That: Snake Eyes, starring Keitel,

Madonna, James Russo. "It's gonna coincide with my marriage to Madonna. Don't tell my wife that."

So, What Was It Like Working wi— "She was fine.

Harvey, on the other hand. .. Working with Keitel is

like joining the Foreign Legion."

G.K