Barfly

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Movie
German title Barfly
Original title Barfly
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1987
length 97 minutes
Rod
Director Barbet Schroeder
script Charles Bukowski
production Barbet Schroeder,
Jack Baran,
Yoram Globus ,
Menahem Golan ,
Tom Luddy,
Fred Roos
music Jack Baran
camera Robby Muller
cut Éva Gárdos
occupation

Barfly (alternative title: Scenes of a Desolate Life ) is an American drama film directed by Barbet Schroeder from 1987 . The screenplay for the film was written by the writer Charles Bukowski , who has become a cult author in the United States, in keeping with his writing style with many autobiographical borrowings. Mickey Rourke took over the role of his alter ego Henry Chinaski .

action

In Los Angeles live alcohol-addicted Hank Chinaski spends his days drinking and sometimes short stories or poems to listen writing, classical music from the radio. In the evening he goes to bars where he gets drunk and usually starts a fight. He regularly clashes with the bartender Eddie, who, in his opinion, is too prominent.

After he emerged victorious for once from a fight with Eddie, his buddy Jim, who bet on him, slipped him some money. With that he goes to another bar, where he meets Wanda, who is also alcoholic, and he buys him a drink with his last money. She thanks for this by taking it with her and buying alcohol and cigars for both of them at a gas station at the expense of her patron Wilbur. Eventually they move in together and Henry takes his rent for a month on his income tax refund.

While Henry is looking for work, Wanda is having fun with Eddie and a bottle of bourbon, of all places. When she returns to the apartment, they argue and Wanda leaves after cutting Henry's head with her handbag. Paramedics called by a private investigator move away when they find no one except the bloodied Henry.

The private detective has visited the poet for the magazine publisher Tully Sorenson, who wants to publish one of Henry's short stories. She pays him $ 500 for the publication . When he accompanies her to her house, he ends up in bed with her after plenty of whiskey. However, he does not last long in her golden cage and returns to Wanda.

Now it is Wanda who is jealous and pretends to be dying, whereupon Henry calls an ambulance. Again the paramedics leave without having achieved anything when they discover that Wanda is just drunk.

Tully sees something special in Henry and looks for him again soon after in his regular bar, where Henry spends a few rounds on his friends. Wanda gets violent and a scuffle breaks out with Tully, in which Wanda has the upper hand. In the end Eddie demands revenge for the last lost fight and goes out into the courtyard with Henry, accompanied by all the guests.

Reviews

Desson Howe wrote in the Washington Post on November 20, 1987 that there was only one thing that worried him about Barfly - it might be too fun to look at. ("There's only one worry about 'Barfly' - it might be too much fun."). As Henry Chinaski, Rourke is less of a loser, but rather a new edition of Chaplins Landstreicher ("As Henry Chinaski, he's not so much a loser as an update of Chaplin's Tramp [...]"), and Mickey Rourke, who thus his best role found ("[...] Rourke certainly has found his best role [...]") would instill a boastful pathos ("[...] infuses the character with swaggering pathos"). Even if Faye Dunaway doesn't play her best role in this film, be it her bravest ("If this isn't her best role, it's Dunaway's gutsiest").

Uli Hübsch wrote in the tz : "Not exactly an overwhelming story, but the terrific performance by Dunaway / Rourke and the dense staging make this film conjure up intoxicated nights."

Awards

The film ran in the competition for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival . Faye Dunaway was nominated for a Golden Globe , Mickey Rourke and cinematographer Robby Müller for the Independent Spirit Award .

background

Bukowski wrote the script in collaboration with Barbet Schroeder in the early 1980s . The realization then dragged on for a few years because Schroeder could not find any financial backers at first.

According to Bukowski, Sean Penn and Madonna were also very interested in the two main roles. The two were married in the 1980s and visited Bukowski several times at his home in San Pedro. But the collaboration did not come about because they wanted Dennis Hopper as a director. However, Bukowski felt he had a duty to Barbet Schroeder.

In one scene of the film, the camera pans over Faye Dunaway's legs. She herself insisted on this attitude, which some fans consider to be inappropriate to the less glamorous rest of the film.

Bukowski himself can be seen in the film as an extra and plays a drinker (i.e. himself) who sits at a counter in a bar and watches Mickey Rourke, who is walking past him.

In the book Hollywood , published two years later, Bukowski talks about his experiences with the film industry and how he sees himself on screen again as a young man. The book describes the production of Barfly from his point of view on an alienated level .

Two members of the team led by cameraman Robby Müller developed the Flo cinema , a particularly space-saving and light lighting option, to illuminate a scene taking place in a narrow space .

The American punk rock band NOFX wrote the song Green Corn , which is based on the film drama Barfly and is the first track on the 1991 album Ribbed .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A film review by Desson Howe in the Washington Post, November 20, 1987
  2. ↑ Uli Hübsch; quoted according to Just: Film-Jahrbuch 1989, p. 41 f.
  3. ↑ The book Hollywood is dedicated to him.
  4. ↑ Glamor, Interrupted: Ten Gorgeous Actresses Who Shed Their Beauty for the Sake of “Art” March 12, 2006
  5. ↑ NOFX : The hepatitis bathtub and other stories . Autobiography of the punk rock band NOFX written with co-author Jeff Alulis, Verlag Edel (Optimal Media GmbH), Röbel / Müritz , 1st edition, February 2017. p. 154