Nicky's Film (1971) User Reviews

The Cinema of Abel Ferrara: Nicky's Film

[Captain_Couth · 5/10 · 9 March 2009]

Nicky's Film (1971) was the debut film from filmmaker Abel Ferrara. Written by a long time collaborator Nicholas St. John, Nicky's Film is about a paranoid man (Nicholas St. John) who's up into his eyeballs in some shady stuff, or is he? All day long, he watches from his window a mysterious man (Abel Ferrara) and the strange sleeping woman. What can Nicky do or why is he in this predicament? A strange debut for Abel Ferrara.

I saw this film on the two disc special edition of Driller Killer. The short movie was transfered onto video tape from Abel Ferrara's own collection. I guess the original is lost. Not a great piece of work, but a strange and weird paranoid film from a young filmmaker who has years of brilliant work in the future.

Early Short from Ferrara

[Michael_Elliott · 26 June 2010]

Nicky's Film (1971)

** (out of 4)

Ferrara's first film is a six-minute, silent short about a man threatening to be killed by a couple gangsters or are they just something in his imagination? These early films from famous directors are always interesting to watch because sometimes you can see glimpses of what the future has to hold. I wouldn't say you can watch this film and see future movies from the director but there are a couple interesting touches here. The film really comes off like those pre-1910 silents that feature no title cards and you're trying to figure out what's going on. I had that going on early in the film but I think what Ferrara was trying to do was create a paranoid world where the man keeps looking outside his home not knowing what the men are doing or if they mean him harm. This really doesn't come off while watching the film as you're pretty much left to make your own story so this here is certainly for die-hards of the director only.