Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame

Barfly Starring: Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway, Frank Stallone, Jack Nance Director: Barbet Schroeder Rating: !!! Similar to: A Streetcar Named Desire, The Hustler, The Big Lebowski Where you can find it: Most Video Stores The story behind Barfly goes something like this. Barbet Schroeder calls up poet/author/drunk Charles Bukowski. The phone rings for a loooong time before Bukowski picks up. “What the f--- do you want?” “Is this Charles Bukowski?” “Maybe, who’s this?” “Barbet Schroeder. I’d like you to write a script for a movie”. Click. He calls him again. Again, it rings for a loooong time. “It pays $10,000.” “I’ll do it.” For Charles Bukowski, $10,000 must have lasted about a month at the California bars while on set for the filming of the movie…if it even made it that long. But the audience clearly got the better end of the deal. In Barfly, Bukowski developed a collection of hilarious anecdotes from his experiences in the dark alleys of our great country. To tie these snippets together, he recalled a heartbreaking romance from his younger, tenderer years. Here’s the breakdown. Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke), alter-ego to Charles Bukowski himself, is an up and coming poet/author/drunk living in the slums and bars of Los Angeles. The narrative follows Chinaski as he hops from drink to drink, finding trouble in the form of bartender Eddie (played by Sylvester Stallone’s brother, Frank), companionship in the form of Wanda Wilcox (Faye Dunaway), and temptation in the form of Tully Sorenson (Alice Krige). There’s really not much more to it than that. And yet, what Bukowski and director Barbet Schroeder achieve with so little is a divine caricature of romantic alcoholism. As Henry and Wanda swim through bottles, trying desperately to connect the strings of a fragile relationship, their apprehensive dialogue lets us understand exactly where it hurts most: the heart. One of the greatest scenes in the film is the first meeting between the star-crossed imbibers. As Henry sits next to her on his barstool, finishing a scotch on the rocks, Wanda waxes openly, “I don’t want to fall in love. I don’t ever want to go through that again.” Because Henry has accepted that he feels better when people are not around, the two connect on a level that only those who have plumbed the depths of drunkenness can truly appreciate. Under the auspices of magazine editor Tully Sorenson, a strange detective (played by David Lynch’s bread and butter actor, Jack Nance) follows Chinaski around the city, journaling the poet’s life. Because Sorenson believes he has a rare gift for poetry, she gives him an advance on some material and invites him back to her house, a Beverly Hills mansion. Like a tiger in his cage, Chinaski quickly denounces the lifestyle to which Sorenson wishes to elevate him. Still, the check cashed just fine. Two reasons to watch this movie: Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway. With the DVD release of Barfly, we are able to see a featurette about the making of the film. In it, Bukowski stands side-by-side with Rourke talking about how good he is in the role. Later, Rourke would speak negatively about both Bukowski and Barbet Schroeder. But on camera, he and Dunaway do a bang-up job. These two performances hold their own against the classic dialogue pictures A Streetcar Named Desire (Brando & Leigh), and The Hustler (Newman & Piper Laurie). The dialogue is sharp, and their connection seems so deep that it’s hard not to believe that the actors themselves were battling an impulse of love. Watch for Rourke’s bravado. Though he claims to hate macho energy, Chinaski is his own form of macho. Watch him hurl repartee at Eddie the bartender on the heels of spitting blood in the streets. Watch the bags under Dunaway’s eyes, and how good her legs look in nylons. Listen to her raspy voice as she realizes that green corn is all there was between them. Watch it all. The warning stands: If you’ve never touched a drop, you’re probably not going to enjoy this one. However, if you’ve ever given love a chance and lost, if you’ve ever sat on a barstool before 4, if you’ve ever lost your mind (even for a moment) or been burning in water, drowning in flame…give Barfly a chance. Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead. –Charles Bukowki/Henry Chinaski Discussion question: Bukowski, genius or overrated hack? Also, what is better, his poetry or his prose?