Bukowski Comes Alive
by Levi Asher on Friday, September 30, 2005 12:47 pm
It's hard for anybody to top Mickey Rourke's interpretation of Charles Bukowski in Barfly, but a few actors are trying, and may even succeed.
For an eerie moment in this trailer, Matt Dillon is Bukowski. I like Matt Dillon, whose literary explorations have ranged from Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy to S. E. Hinton's Outsiders. Factotum is a good Bukowski book about the young author's attempts to hold down a day job. Imagine a depraved, typewriter-era Office Space -- that may be what this film will deliver.
Also courtesy of the fine Syntax of Things site, here's a notice of a live theatrical production in Long Beach, California, Love, Bukowski in which 10 different performers will portray Bukowski sitting on a toilet. Yes, for real. I had thought the bathtub was Bukowski's famous "happy place", but I guess that wouldn't offer the opportunity for all those Rodin-esque "thinker" poses. I wish I could get out to ol' Hank's home-state to see this production.
For an eerie moment in this trailer, Matt Dillon is Bukowski. I like Matt Dillon, whose literary explorations have ranged from Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy to S. E. Hinton's Outsiders. Factotum is a good Bukowski book about the young author's attempts to hold down a day job. Imagine a depraved, typewriter-era Office Space -- that may be what this film will deliver.
Also courtesy of the fine Syntax of Things site, here's a notice of a live theatrical production in Long Beach, California, Love, Bukowski in which 10 different performers will portray Bukowski sitting on a toilet. Yes, for real. I had thought the bathtub was Bukowski's famous "happy place", but I guess that wouldn't offer the opportunity for all those Rodin-esque "thinker" poses. I wish I could get out to ol' Hank's home-state to see this production.
5 reponses to "Bukowski Comes Alive"
buk dillonI love it. It's as real as I imagined.Great trailer, can't wait to see Factotum - and thanks, Levi, for bringing on the link.
Bukowski's Fame Now: Why?This guy's been dead over 10 years and only 2 people have ever mentioned him to me. I like his stuff and am glad he's getting his due but can't get over the irony and wonder who and where the uncelebrated writers are out there.
Well, a lot of excellent writers aren't appreciated until after they're dead. Fitzgerald and Melville were considered minor writers at the times of their deaths, and Thoreau was a complete unknown when he died. The Bukowski resurgence in the last few years reminds me of the Kerouac resurgence a few years before. I guess your opinion of Bukowski will determine whether you think this is a good thing or not ...
Bukowski is one of my favorites. I have read all of his novels more than once and most of his published poetry which is vast. I first discovered Buk in the very early 90's, about two years before his death in 1994. I have had the opposite experience over the years in that many people have mentioned and discussed him with me -- I lived for a number of years in an artsy college town where alternative literature was simply more popular.
I think it takes some time after someone dies to interpret their body of work and write tributes to them. To memorialize Bukowski while he was still alive would not only have probably pissed him off, but would have gone against his whole ethos. That said, Bukowski wasn't slumming it towards the end of his life. He was enjoying a definite popularity and was living comfortably in a nice house with a nice car. It took a while for him to see success, but he did get to enjoy some of it in his lifetime.