Smoreni Zmaj
"Barfly" is a semi-autobiography of legendary Charles Bukowski, directed by Barbet Schroeder. Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway are fantastic in roles of Bukowski's alter-ego Henry Chinaski and his lover Wanda, two people with a soul, but soaked in alcohol. This, at times comical drama represents the bottom of society in all its glory. The movie does not have an original soundtrack, but most of the time characters listen to music in bars and on the radio. There are big names such as Booker T. & The M.G.s, The Nighthawks and John Coltrane, and at the initiative of Mickey Rourke, several pieces of great classical composers were included. There is no plot, culmination and denouement, but we look at a few days of bohemian life of Henry and Wanda, in a film where accent is not so much on the story as on the construction of the specific atmosphere. The main assets of this film are wacky, but essentially deep dialogues and the brilliant one-liners by Bukowski.10/10Do you hate them? - No, but I seem to feel better when they're not around.Hey baby, nobody suffers like the poor.Anybody can be a non-drunk. It takes a special talent to be a drunk. It takes endurance. Endurance is more important than truth.No money, no job, no rent. Hey, I'm back to normal.And as my hands drop the last desperate pen, in some cheap room, they will find me there and never know my name, my meaning, nor the treasure of my escape.Nobody who ever wrote anything worth a damn could ever write in peace... Jesus.So you hired a dick to find an asshole?Growth's for plants. I hate roots.Oh, I had an idea that I'd be discovered after my death.
Uncle Marvin
Take a drink of Barfly, for a heady cocktail of the low life. Take a walk through the gutter and soak up the smells. Welcome to the world of Henry Chinaski, the alter ego of social realist writer Charles Bukowski. If you're a Bukowski fan, this is the ultimate picture for you!Barfly is a love story in the light drama genre. It follows the trials and tribulations of a true drunken barfly, as he floats from place to place in the streets of East Hollywood. Chinaski is played by Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, Angel Heart). Back in the '80s, Mickey Rourke was like a poor man's Bogart and he shines as the alcoholic writer. He's a flop and a loser starving artist type but despite all this, he has two women in his life. One is a high class publisher, the other is a depressed lush. They represent the two sides of Chinaski and his two lives. He would define himself by his habits: drinking and writing, but the world would remember him for his voice. The story behind the story is told in the pages of Hollywood, Bukowski's recounting of the making of Barfly. Legend has it director Barbet Shroeder (Single White Female, Murder by Numbers) threatened to cut off his own finger to make this picture. It was hard to get funding for what was considered to be an art house picture. One of the producers was Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now). Barfly tells a small story. The plot is thin but it is more of a character study. Barfly has style. It's based on the eponymous book by Bukowski. If you can't get enough of Chinaski, he's back in Factotum, as well as many of the novels of Charles Bukowski--the real life Barfly.
moonspinner55
Poet and author Charles Bukowski's autobiographical account of being a destitute drunk in modern-day Los Angeles. Henry Chinaski staggers into bars and willfully gets into fights, rubs everyone the wrong way, but eventually meets a lonely wreck of a woman--a possible kindred spirit, though one without dreams to write about--who needs a man to drink with. Bukowski had mixed feelings about Mickey Rourke's lead portrayal and, indeed, the actor gives a very flamboyant performance that takes some time adjusting to. Rourke is obviously giving director Barbet Schroeder what he wants, but there's a touch of self-amused grandstanding in Rourke's delivery that works against the licking-the-gutters scenario (it's too 'show biz'). Faye Dunaway is excellent in support, and Schroeder's eye for gritty detail is intriguing, but this character portrait seems stretched to the breaking point. Still, one of the highlights of the Cannon Film Group's legacy, although the movie was a box-office disappointment. **1/2 from ****
ssunter
Regardless the fact that Mickey Rourke is a great actor in my opinion and appreciate his acting in many movies, he was just not the right person to be in this movie.. If you know nothing about the writer and the lead character of the movie, Charles Bukowski you may like the performance of the actor and praise him. There is a scene in the movie where Charles Bukowski himself sits in the bar drinking his beer and smoking his cigarette staring at his silhouette.. In that scene it is obvious that the movie needed someone more heavy and charismatic at least as much as that man sitting in the bar... Actors should be the exaggerated forms of real people. So it is not a surprise of Charles Bukowski's condemnation of Mickey Rourke's portrayal of him (Chinaski) in the movie.
AD
