FREE ON YOUTUBE Barfly

Charles Bukowski is the poet of the Skid Row. Almost hopeless to bring his art closer to those who do not want to understand him. Until he was 50, Bukowski moved through L.A., staying in countless bars with countless women. They were all cheap, expensive, bad or good - depending on and in any variations. Barfly invites us for the length of a feature film to take a seat in his universe. At least for a few days, which according to Bukowski's standards belong to his better ones. So here we are in a run-down bar. The same drinkers take their places every day and stay there. Nobody seems to be interested in the other and yet everyone knows everything about everyone. Regular guest is also Henry (Mickey Rourke), Bukowski's alter ego. A drinker and sometimes also a poet. The bartender hates Henry for the same reason why every bartender in such a dive hates his customers: He has to serve such a loser without the prospect of a significant tip. Herny and the bartender go out into the yard for a fistfight. Herny pockets, spits blood and takes another drink. For him everything is quite normal. One day Wanda (Faye Dunaway) is sitting at the other end of the bar. She looks like a woman with class, who belongs exactly in this bar - and yet not. A drinker with style. Herny and Wanda talk. It quickly turns out that Henry is broke. She invites him to her home. All the dialogues of Rourke and Dunaway in Barfly are pure pleasure; but the exchange of blows this night - pure poetry! She explains that she always makes the worst decisions when she's drunk. Of course. The next day a beautiful girl (Alice Krige) comes to the bar Henry is looking for. She writes for a literary magazine. Both go to her home, drink, flirt, just live side by side. When the beautiful girl visits the bar again, Wanda is already there. This time they don't live next to each other. Basically that's what Barfly is about, a film that doesn't need a plot worth mentioning. Barfly springs from the world of the drinkers, in which one step does not necessarily lead to the next. Between the hangover afterwards and before the next booze everything can happen. Barbet Schroeder made the film after one (the only one!) of Bukowski's original screenplays. For eight years Schroeder worked on it, according to Bukowski's Hollywood (not the "novel to the film", but a kind of genesis) Schroeder even walked into the office of his producer to cut off a finger with a carving knife. Or maybe even the producer? Schroeder never tries to impress us with his artistic finesse. Instead, he simply films the script - but with a lot of love for every detail! The result: A very American film, although one like no other! Barfly shows the people we never notice, with whom we never come into contact. That alone makes him a little classic!