That would be Chuck Berry, Charles Bronson and Charles Bukowski. Then Bronson started making crappy "Death Wish" sequels and the whole Chuck thing sort of vaporized. But not my love of Berry and his "School Day," the greatest rock 'n' roll song ever put to plastic.
And certainly not my love of Bukowski, the L.A. skid row poet, short-story author and novelist who came up from the underground to become regarded as one of the post-War era's most important writers.
Charles Bukowski and his boozy, profanity-laced prose would horrify most good Americans, who'd never read the stuff anyway. His writing was barroom conversational, short and punchy, in your face, and usually a lot of fun — although he could break your heart just like that. A poor man's Hemingway, perhaps. They have about the same number of posthumous books, anyway.
When I started in with Bukowski about 30 years ago, he wasn't much of name anywhere but in the underground. You had to buy these cool indie Black Sparrow books that felt like contraband — like smuggled-in editions of "The Tropic of Cancer." The ink came off on your hands and the words would rattle around in your brain.
He wrote while listening to classical music. He died in 1994.
The U.S. never really appreciated this Chuck B., but the Europeans loved him and his musings on the hairy underbelly of American life. So it's no surprise that the three major films based on Bukowski's works were made by overseas directors.
Hollywood managed to go a few rounds with the champ, chiefly Schroeder's deadbeat drama "
Barfly" (1987) with Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway. Most recently, "
Factotum," with Matt Dillon playing Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski.
In 1980, the Italian director Marco Ferreri turned Ben Gazzara into the Bukowski surrogate in "
Tales of Ordinary Madness
." The English-language movie was just released to DVD by Koch Lorber, which last summer included it in a comprehensive
Ferreri box set.
The poet Bukowski was a legendarily ugly man, scarred for life from acne. Gazzara, hidden behind a beard, seems far too pretty to have played him, but pulls it off. Except for when he sits down at the typewriter. At least Gazzara sells Bukowski's fascination with women and their fascination with him. (Rourke would now be the perfect Bukowski, should he ever return to the role.)
Ferreri, like Bukowski, had a love-hate obsession with women. "I'm 50% misogynist and 50% feminist," the oddball director says. (He's seen in an excerpt from a documentary that serves as the DVD extra.)
"Ordinary Madness" comes from Bukowski's first book of stories, "Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness."
It begins with Charles Serking (Bukowski/Gazzara) irritating his college audience at a reading. "Style is the answer to everything," he tells them, drinking from something cheap in a paper bag. (Bukowski loved to heckle his audiences.) Backstage, a baby-doll female fan screws him, then steals the great man's airline ticket after he passes out.
"Ordinary Madness" has a trio of women at its center, notably a gorgeous hooker driven to deface herself. "The whore of an angel who flew too close to the ground and crashed."
After clanging around in his crappy east Hollywood apartment, the writer decides he's had enough of himself and everybody else. He heads downtown to L.A.'s skid row, where he hangs with "the defeated, the demented and the damned." Serking explains: "They are the real people of this world and I was proud to be in their company."
The movie ends far from the grime, on a deserted stretch of beach, with cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli capturing the beauty that the drunken writer beholds, on his knees and looking up.
"Ordinary Madness" should please fans. It also works as a low-friction introduction to Bukowski's world. "Barfly" would be another way to go, if you can get your hands on a copy. (Warner owes us a fresh edition.) Video and audio on "Madness" are OK.
* * * * *
Marco Ferreri explored an even more acute form of madness seven years before with "
La Grande Bouffe
," the story of four middle-aged pals who decide to eat themselves to death. It too has been rereleased by Koch Lorber.
The black comedy uses the actors' real first names for the characters: Marcello (Mastroianni), Philippe (Noriet), Michel (Piccolo) and Ugo (Tognazzi). Adding some sex to the mix is a local schoolteacher, busty Andrea (Ferreol).
The men, longtime friends, are collectively bored and dissatisfied with their successful lives (a judge, a pilot, etc.) They retreat to a country home, where they prepare mass quantities of gourmet food. A trio of prostitutes show up for a day, but Andrea ends up servicing all four men after the hookers exit.
"Bouffe" (also known as "Blow Out"), plays like an R-rated "Salo," that perverse piece of moviemaking which no doubt influenced filmmaker Ferreri. Instead of sadists, we have goofy suicidal existentialists.
"Bouffe's" underlying commentary about the self-obsessed and the capitalist consumer society remains fresh, long after the pate has turned.
After starring in James Cameron’s 3D blockbuster Avatar, alongside Terminator Salvation and Clash of the Titans, Sam Worthington entered the usual over-the-top Hollywood fervor. If there was a big-screen action project that didn’t need a little Lautner pubescence, the Aussie actor’s (English-born) name was thrown into the mix. He took many of the gigs on, and while he’s already got The Debt, Last Night, and The Fields on the way — plus seven more In-Development titles — Worthington is ready to add another.
It’s unfortunate that more American audiences aren’t familiar with Australian cinema. The problem isn’t one of apathy or indifference; it’s more a case of access. Many Aussie films never make it to America, meaning only the most devoted cinephiles — who go to extraordinary lengths and cost to import DVDs — get a chance to see them. Luckily, that seems to be changing now and American audiences are about to get a firsthand opportunity to check out some of the best titles coming from the land down under. Here are three that you should keep an eye on. 
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After he shot to fame in “The Lord of the Rings,” it seemed like Orlando Bloom was in starring in every other big-budget film. His star dimmed a bit, and he hasn’t really been attached to any blockbuster projects in the last year. But it looks like 2009 is set to be a bit of a comeback for him, as .jpg)
How do you spice up the Academy Awards this year? How about adding more 
