Thursday 25 April 2013

Barfly

It's not often that what I scribble about on Knifed in Venice can be applicable here but I recently watched Barbet Schroeder & Charles Bukowski's Barfly.  Here's the start of the review for anyone interested and if you want to read more you can drop over to KiV and check it out.


Certificate: 18
Running time: 100 mins
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway, Alice Krige, Frank Stallone
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA

Henry Chinaski is a barfly.  He spends his time drinking, fighting and dancing with words in the twilight hours of 1980’s Los Angeles.  Legendary writer Charles Bukowski lends his incredibly distinctive voice to the screen in the roman รก clef styled narrative of his alter ego and the life one lives in the pursuit of something more than the consumer ideal.

Barfly is a film we’ve been wanting to feature on Knifed in Venice for some time now.  The trouble was figuring out how to confine discussion of someone like Bukowski into a few thousand words.  There comes a time though when you have to let go and decide to commit, Hank of all people would appreciate that.  There are few writers in history, and even the future of history that have or will ever have the kind of effect that Charles Bukowski had.  Barfly coming from his typer is the closest, and most honest, thing you’ll ever see with regards to addiction and adaptation.  Granted it is not based on any of his novels, short stories or even poems but it is based on the man, and like all of his work it shines with humour and a matter of factness that can’t help but be endearing... [Click here for full review]