Raise your glass to a classic... (Barfly (DVD))

Member Name: Rumblefish

Product:	Barfly (DVD)
Date:	06/10/00 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rourke, Dunaway, humour, atmosphere, cinematography.

Disadvantages: Makes you wonder how Rourke has wasted half of his career.

This comedy-drama was written by Charles Bukowski, the novelist and poet (who sadly died in 1994), whose semi-autobiographical tales of drunken cynicism drew admirers as diverse as Sartre and Bono.

Mickey Rourke plays Henry Chinaski, an alcoholic writer who spends his days in a filthy downtown Los Angeles bar. When he isn't drinking, he is fighting (and getting battered by) one of the bartenders, and exchanging insults with the other derelict individuals who frequent the establishment. When he staggers home he writes poetry and short stories and posts them to publishers without any real expectation of success. He meets a soulmate in Wanda (Faye Dunaway), who is on a similarly self-destructive path, and the two form a trusting but entirely unsentimental relationship. Then an awestruck young female publisher, Tully Sorensen (Alice Krige), tracks him down and offers both herself and riches to Henry, whom she regards as a genius. But he is unsure if he wants to give up his life of hopeless destitution...

Give Mickey Rourke the right film (he is no less outstanding in RUMBLE FISH and ANGEL HEART), and he can perform with a charisma no other actor of his generation can match. As Henry, he delivers a sensational, bravado performance, perfectly portraying the writer's shameless degeneracy and uncompromising talent. Faye Dunaway is also whole-heartedly excellent in an extremely difficult and unflattering role.

Director Barbet Schroeder imaginatively creates a Los Angeles of seedy neon-lit bars where the inhabitants survive on booze and sarcasm. Bukowski's screenplay (he can also be briefly spotted on a barstool) contains barbed humour, unique protagonists, and astute insight into the mind and soul of a tortured genius. When Tully offers Henry a luxury uptown apartment in which he can "write in peace", Henry retorts "No writer worth a damn could ever write in peace!"

Although BARFLY deals with the cynical, ma
rginalised section of society, it is not a cold or uncomfortable film. Indeed, its unfailing humour and warm characterisation make it finally uplifting. This film is for everyone who has ever written a story or needed a drink...

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