Dangerous Game (1993) Directed by Abel Ferrara
Ironically, Abel Ferrara’s cogitative self-referential decadent Hollywood meta-therapy opens with a domestic tableau that conjures up the mood of an epicurean utopia where moderate pleasures – good wine, delicious pasta, nice sex and placid family life – are present with the same moral hypocrisy inherent in the façade of the film industry to which NYC-based filmmaker Eddie (Harvey Keitel), a father and husband, is part of. Having this spurious reflection of the idyllic portrayal of the American family as an introduction to one of the most inimical, darkly ugly storylines ever seen in 90’s cinema is disturbingly effective, and all the more unsettling considering that everything that comes after it is the very antithesis of those ideals. Dangerous Game is self-destructive hedonism as seen through the videographic filmic duality of a movie within a movie; the purest multidimensional emotional venue for Abel Ferrara to flirt with his immoral inner demons.
Not much of an epic nature takes place in Ferrara’s bleak meta-cinematic manifestation, the entire plot revolves around the banal. Harvey Keitel playing the flawed libertine filmmaker directing a movie about the marital crisis of a kinky couple (Madonna and James Russo) in L.A. is the unromantic routine that Dangerous Game has to render its cinematic ontology as a kind of abreaction therapy. But it is in this banal routine that a disruptive existentialism overwhelms our incorrigible protagonist. Having already actorly explored the narcotic potency of Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, Keitel’s performance here is far more visceral than it was when he played the sleazy lieutenant in 1992. It’s as if Keitel intuitively senses what Ferrara’s perilous camera demands of his acting chops. And flawlessly, Keitel delivers a powerhouse performance as Eddie, fulfilling the demanding metaphysical acuity of Ferrara’s camera.
The whole exercise may err on the side of being pedantic and masturbatory for Ferrara’s very individualistic dramatized take on the artistry of moviemaking and its intricacies, but if witnessing Ferrara’s sins in action means it’s an egocentric pursuit, then I embrace it for what it is, because watching Dangerous Game was a major eye-opener for me. There are many directors who utilize the medium as a confessional, yet Ferrara, as opposed to them, is unapologetic about it. He clearly seeks to sublimate his innermost immorality by filming stories that mimic his underlying darkness as a justification for his sins. I mean it’s nothing unusual for artists to romanticize destructive behavior, Hollywood spawned many such artists. And Ferrara is no exception in the notorious mythology of politically incorrect artists. The movie-within-a-movie plot is great at doing its own thing, but it’s the director’s mimetic relationship with his characters and his visuals that makes this reality/fiction intersection so thrilling. Madonna delivers an evocative emotional vulnerability with her subtle yet poignant performance, and James Russo as the violent contrast is simply impactful.
The film that Harvey Keitel’s Eddie directs is a grotesque dichotomy of his actual life. When the cameras are rolling his real persona materializes within the compulsive passions of the character played by James Russo. When he says cut and the cameras go off, his life reverts to the dull fake matter of a repressed existence. With this Ferrara wants to tell us that the cinematic apparatus allows Eddie a chance to be who he really is, no matter how monstrous he may be, it is a necessary exorcism, metaphorically speaking. Let’s say that Dangerous Game may seem like a mean-spirited indictment of the dubious morality of Hollywood filmmaking, however I feel it is the exact opposite, as provocative as it may seem, Ferrara’s film dabbles with its corrosive duplicity and exalts its speculative capacity for self-expression, for in it he can indulge in his wildest darkest fantasies without any fear of being judged, after all one rarely judges something that is fictitious, right? That is why Dangerous Game is indeed one of cinema’s most dangerous games.