The career of Abel Ferrara is a bit of an enigma. As a director who started with gnarly exploitation flicks before moving into more philosophical tales of sin and redemption, Ferrara is barely a presence in the U.S. outside his native New York City, and he hasn't had a hit with either critics or the public for arguably two decades. Yet somehow he keeps plugging away, consistently scoring name actors and finding champions among the ranks of critics at French film journal Cahiers du Cinema.