Revenge Is Not Best Served Cold: A Conversation on Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45

Abel Ferrara’s still-controversial 1981 rape-revenge fantasy Ms. 45 was re-released again by Drafthouse Films a couple of years ago. A woman is raped twice in one day. We have already seen her at her job. She is so shy she never speaks (and she never does speak throughout the whole film.) Post double-rape, she goes on a rampage of murder through the slimy sleazy streets of New York City, killing unsuspecting men with a gleaming .45. These aren’t the men who assault her. These are men she meets in passing. They have done nothing, but, maybe flirt with her or cat-called her. It’s Charles Bronson in Death Wish, except it’s a mute wisp of a woman taking the law into her own hands, irrespective of collateral damage. She is a cipher, a projector-screen for revenge-fantasies, and, finally, a moving portrait of madness and desire. Violent and sick, Ms. 45 still somehow feels ahead of its time. It’s a film that understands that sexual violence is in the air for women as a constant possibility, and that shit can GET to you, man. You want to fight back. You want to shut those men up. For good. Ms. 45 is about a woman who never speaks prowling the city streets denying men the right to speak, too.

A couple of years ago, Christy Lemire, Susan Wloszczyna and I chatted about Ms. 45 (which all three of us love). Our conversation here.

The three of us will be chatting about another landmark film this week, in honor of its 25th anniversary this year. I’ll post the link when it’s live.