well, i finally watched it

Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
acky said:
one of the most boring films i have ever seen-no risk -no humour totally un-Bukowski.Think they were trying hard to be PC (for a so called modern audience maybe)-also whoever made the film has obvoiusly not read a great deal of Bukowski becuase it was all so un-Bukowski.Bukowski shagged a load of bored women on the boat-where was that ! Also he would normally use a typewriter-not write in long hand. I am frankly ashamed of the film which made Barfly look like a classic.No soul-no spark-just boring and dull.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Barfly is the best of the lot. By the way, Mickey Rourke is incredibly good in The Wrestler. And now he has the perfect beat to shit face to play the mature Bukowski, and the soul. I think he ought to have another look at Chinaski.
 
HiddenFormula

HiddenFormula

As I had predicted this is a grower!

I watched it two more times over the weekend and I really like it now. It has a subtle feel to it. It feels a little watered down when compared to the novel, but I kinda like the different perspective it gives. It captures the feeling of iscolation that Buk writes about and transfers this in a small, quiet but effective way. The photography is lovely and the scenes are all quite different and memorable. On second viewing it felt quite short compared to the first where I thought it dragged on.

It's by no means a perfect book to film interpretation, but they rarely are. To be honest it could just be the power of BUkowski's writing coming through that makes me like it a lot, but there is something quirky and nice in the way it is filmed and casted. It's very simple. Nothing much happens but the images stick in your brain long after.
 
Bruno Dante

Bruno Dante

I quite enjoyed the film but I think Dillon was too deadpan in his delivery. To be fair though I think it must be hard to make a film adaptation of any of Bukowski's work which compares favourably with the books.
I thought Barfly was a good effort though and I agree it would be interesting to see Rourke as an older Chinaski.
 
HiddenFormula

HiddenFormula

Yeah, I thought this at first. I kinda like it now though. Man I watched it for the 4th time last night, haha. It's one of those films that I can just put on in the background while I play my guitar. It has so many rewatchable scenes. The one where he spins round the midget at the pickle factory always cracks me up, as well as the scene when he goes back to his parents house and gets kicked out, and the constant scenes in the unemployment offices.

Actually when I think back to the film I think that Dillon's portrayal of Chinaski seems like it would fit the older Chinaski in Post Office better. I think the whole style of the film matches the feel of Post Office more than Factotum.

I have yet to see Barfly. I've seen the clips on Youtube. While it looks like a great film, it seems Micky Rourke's a acting seems a little too cartoonish and OTT. It's as if both Dillon and Rourke have gone for the two different extremes of Chinaski and not devoloped the middle ground enough.
 
bospress.net

bospress.net

www.bospress.net
Bruno Dante said:
I agree it would be interesting to see Rourke as an older Chinaski.
Click to expand...


If Chinaski spent tens of thousands on plastic surgery to make himself look more inhuman than Michael Jackson and if Chinaski walked around with a little toy dog in his arm like he was Paris Hilton...

Bill
 
HiddenFormula

HiddenFormula

Actually, I think Jack Nicholson would be much better suited to play the older Chinaski than Rourke. Looks wise he is ugly enough, he's got the same monotonous slightly cocky slur in his accent and he has the similar attitude to Chinaksi. Actually thinking about it the young Nicholson would have been so damn good at playing Chinaski. i.e Nicholson in Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, One flew over the Cuckoonest, Chinatown etc. His characters in those films remind me of Chinaski quite a lot and once again that accent! it sounds a lot like Bukowski.

Ahhh if only.
 
roni

roni

HiddenFormula said:
Actually, I think Jack Nicholson ...
Click to expand...

yes again:

3047117476_040fbbaaed_b.jpg
 
Gerard K H Love

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
Wow. They have the advance movie poster already. Man, you must really have an inside connection to get that. I am impressed.
 
strangegirl

strangegirl

I just watched factotum 2 nights ago. And I have to say I really like the book way better. Maybe it's the attention to detail in the book, i don't know. But I was thinking as I watched it that something was missing. And the end.... well it just seemed abrupt. Now I want to go and reread it again.
 
Socratease

Socratease

Finally watched Factotum last night. I didn't entirely dislike it, but then I was looking at it with a fair bit of knowledge about the subjects. I don't like Matt Dillon in the role, although for me it's more a case of miscasting than acting ability. He simply looks too scrubbed-up and healthy all of the time to be a convincing skid rower.

I think Lili Taylor is a doll and I liked her portrayal of Jan.

Story wise, I found myself concentrating more on trying to match places and events with Buk history than being "entertained". I don't think a "non-Buk" viewer would get much out of it at all, except perhaps a numb rear end for sitting through it. Bios and semi-bios can often suffer from being episodic in nature -- with no dramatic arc -- and this film is certainly episodic, but that is often the European way.

I don't think Buk would have liked it one little bit.
 
Bruno Dante

Bruno Dante

HiddenFormula said:
Actually, I think Jack Nicholson would be much better suited to play the older Chinaski than Rourke. Looks wise he is ugly enough, he's got the same monotonous slightly cocky slur in his accent and he has the similar attitude to Chinaksi. Actually thinking about it the young Nicholson would have been so damn good at playing Chinaski. i.e Nicholson in Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, One flew over the Cuckoonest, Chinatown etc. His characters in those films remind me of Chinaski quite a lot and once again that accent! it sounds a lot like Bukowski.

Ahhh if only.
Click to expand...
I agree but you missed out The Last Detail.
 
roni

roni

Socratease said:
[...] often suffer from being episodic in nature -- with no dramatic arc -- and this film is certainly episodic [...]
Click to expand...

In THIS case the episodic character, the lack of drama, plot, etc, comes from the original model: 'Factotum' is an episodic book. That's why I'd never chosen this one to picturize a Buk-book. I'd shoot for 'Ham on Rye' or 'PO'.
 
Socratease

Socratease

Fair enough, then. I haven't read Factotum yet. Am currently reading Pulp, which is sounding more like a Hunter S Thompson plot -- sans mescaline -- by the page.

Hamer says on the DVD that he was interested in making Post Office but that the rights weren't available at that time and Factotum was his other choice.

I haven't read Post Office yet, either. I'm probably reading Buk in the wrong sequence.
 
roni

roni

There's no right or wrong sequence.
Just keep in mind, that 'Pulp' is Way different from all other Buk-novels when you start with them. All the others belong to a genre named 'autobiographic fiction', which means what it sounds like.

'Post Office', though somewhat episodic too, has much more plot/story/drama than 'Factotum' and I like it Way better.

The filming-rights for 'PO' are with Taylor Hackford, who once did the famous 'Bukowski'-documentary in the early 70s. But so far, it doesn't look like he's making something out of them.
 
Socratease

Socratease

Nonetheless, I'm beginning to think that I should get onto a chronological reading plan, which is what I would usually do with another author. So far my Buk sequence has been:

Barfly (movie)
Born Into This (on TV)
Women
Barfly (screenplay)
Factotum (movie)
The Bukowski Tapes (DVD)
Pulp

So, I'm jumping around a fair bit here.

I wonder if Hackford is intending to do anything with Post Office. Not much use to us his hanging onto the option if nothing is being developed, or there's no active intention of doing so.
 
roni

roni

maybe he is playing poker.


re your previous reading-list: if you'd like to stick to the novels at the moment, which seems a good idea to me, you'd really go for 'PO' and 'Ham' next.
From there you can go Anywhere.
(stories, poems, letters, more novels,...)

... if you liked 'Barfly' (movie AND screenplay, you may put 'Hollywood' on your list sooner than later.
 
Socratease

Socratease

Yes, that sounds like a plan.

I omitted to mention that I'm dipping into Slouching Toward Nirvana as well, between things. I tried to read it in great swathes, but found that I couldn't. Then I heard Buk say on the Buk Tapes that he can't read a whole bunch of poetry at once either, so I feel vindicated in that sense.
 
strangegirl

strangegirl

the order I read the novels was, I don't know if it matters, but what the hell...
Ham on Rye, great introduction to Bukowski, well I think anyway
Post Office
Factotum
Women

Then although I was reading various poetry books in and around the novels: You get so Alone, People look like flowers, Days Runaway like Wild Horses (my favorite title)... etc

I read Love is a Dog from Hell, After I read Women, which was really enjoyable because you get the sense that you have already been introduced to the women in Women. I liked that. I found myself reading a poem and thinking oh that's Linda King or oh that's Cupcake etc....
Then I read
Hollywood
finishing with
Pulp.
Well that worked for me. And there is still so much more.
 
Mark73

Mark73

Factotum is on 3Sat this Thursday evening at 22:25, no commercial breaks. The channel can be received in Germany definitively, and I believe in Switzerland and Austria too.
 
roni

roni

thanks for the heads up, Mark!

I can't see it as I have no TV-set, but I know the movie anyway.
 
Cowboy

Cowboy

I knew it also , but I became a call from an ex - girlfriend when I watch it . Drink wodka with orange juice and feel good and listen to the blablabla and watch Factotum and I say to her , I want to see that movie ,but she talk and talk . No way . I must canceld this call with a shut up . So I can lying in the couch and watch it to the end . Still , she call tomorrow back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top