Chelsea on the Rocks premiere rocky, Chelseac

Festival Director Tiziana Finzi hands Ferrara his Lifetime Achievment Award--some kind of crystal statue--and he immediately asks how much it cost

By P. Scott Cunningham

March 13, 2009

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Highlights and lowlights from last night's East Coast premiere of Abel Ferrara's documentary about the most famous hotel Leonard Cohen ever sang about, Chelsea on the Rocks:

-Festival Director Tiziana Finzi hands Ferrara his Lifetime Achievment Award--some kind of crystal statue--and he immediately asks how much it cost

-Ferrara asking the person who edited the tribute clip of his film to stand up. Twice.

-Milos Forman (in the film) telling a story about how New York City fireman drowned a woman in the hotel by over-hosing her apartment

-Ferrara's "Unsolved Mysteries"-quality reenactments of Chelsea hotel ghost stories

-Old footage of Janis Joplin jamming with the Grateful Dead

-The clips in the tribute montage of Harvey Keital in Bad Lieutenant shooting his car radio and Christopher Walken (the white Frank White) dancing with Lawrence Fishburne in King of New York. You could feel the goosebumps spread through the audience. Say what you want about Ferrara (and he's far from my favorite director) but the energy in those two films is electric.

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