The Funeral (1996 film)
The Funeral | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Abel Ferrara |
Produced by | Mary Kane |
Written by | Nicholas St. John |
Starring |
Christopher Walken Chris Penn Annabella Sciorra Isabella Rossellini Vincent Gallo Benicio del Toro Gretchen Mol Paul Hipp Paul Perri Robert Miano |
Music by | Joe Delia |
Cinematography | Ken Kelsch |
Editing by |
Mayin Lo Jim Mol Bill Pankow |
Distributed by | October Films |
Release dates |
August 28, 1996 November 1, 1996 |
Running time | 99 min. |
Country | United States |
Language |
English Italian |
Budget | $12,500,000[1] |
Box office | $1,412,799 (worldwide) |
The Funeral is a 1996 American crime-drama film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Christopher Walken, Chris Penn, Annabella Sciorra, Isabella Rossellini, Vincent Gallo, Benicio del Toro and Gretchen Mol.
The story concerns the funeral of one of three brothers in a family of gangsters that lived in New York in 1930s. It is a film that details the past of the brothers and their families through a series of flashbacks. The film is most notable for its shocking climax.
Chris Penn won the best supporting actor award at the 1996 Venice Film Festival for his performance.
Plot
The film begins with the funeral of one of the three Tempio brothers. These men are violent criminals. Mourning the passage of their beloved brother Johnny are Chez and Ray. Ray is cold and calculating. Chez is hot tempered. Flashbacks show us that Johnny was more sensitive. Exposure to Communist meetings as a spy sway Johnny's opinions.
The chief suspect in Johnny's murder is rival gangster Gaspare Spoglia.
Ray and Chez swear revenge. Ray's wife, Jeanette, opposes the campaign of retribution and the violence it will bring, while Chez' wife, Clara, struggles to deal with her husband's obsessive nature.
As it turns out, Johnny was not murdered by rival gangsters, but by a man who first claimed Johnny had raped his girlfriend, but who later admits, just before Ray kills him, that he wanted revenge because Johnny had beaten him up in front of his girlfriend and friends.
As he buries the dead murderer, Chez reflects on his brothers' lives before the tragedy. He then returns to Ray's house and shoots Ray's bodyguards, shoots his dead brother Johnny lying in the casket, shoots Ray, and then puts the gun in his own mouth and commits suicide as the family women wail over Ray as he too dies.
Cast
- Christopher Walken as Raimundo "Ray" Tempio
- Chris Penn as Cesarino "Chez" Tempio
- Annabella Sciorra as Jean
- Isabella Rossellini as Clara Tempio
- Vincent Gallo as Giovanni "Johnny" Tempio
- Benicio del Toro as Gaspare Spoglia
- Gretchen Mol as Helen
- John Ventimiglia as Sali
- Paul Hipp as Ghouly
- David Patrick Kelly as Michael Stein
- Frank John Hughes as Bacco
- Victor Argo as Julius
- Robert Miano as Enrico
- Andrew Fiscella as Murder Witness
- Paul Perri as Young Ray
References
External links
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