"This is our first intentional comedy," quipped the freewheeling filmmaker Abel Ferrara on Monday afternoon at the New York Film Festival press conference for his odd fest entry, "Go Go Tales." Pictured above is an iPhone photo snapped after the Q & A session with Ferrara, and his cast. Officially described as a screwball comedy, the film is a rather strange cabaret film set amidst the impending closure of a strip club and the potentially dangerous addiction afflicting the club's manager (Willem Dafoe). The press conference was an occasionally hilarious dialogue about the film that offered a glimpse into the sort of tug-of-war of personalities that must have made for a lively movie set. Asked whether the club was based on a real venue, Abel joked, "you start talking about your inspiration and you end up in a courtroom..." saying that movie might be based on a favorite bar of his that may have existed somewhere between 19th and 21st Street's in Manhattan. After telling an odd story about Leonardo DiCaprio frequenting the nightspot, Ferrara was contradicted by Dafoe who said plainly, "I don't think the place existed..."

Pictured (left to right): co-stars Shanyn Leigh, and Sylvia Miles, Ferrara, a woman who joined him on-stage after the press conference, and co-stars Dafoe and Frankie Cee.

UPDATE: over at Spout, Karina offers a full report on Ferrara's press conference...