Directed by: Marco Ferreri
Stars: Ben Gazzara, Ornella Muti, Susan Tyrrell
Language: English
Country: Italy
Also known as: Storie di ordinaria follia
Description: Poet/lecturer Charles Serking awakens from his alcoholic haze long enough to take a bus back to L.A. and plunge into an orgy of drink and sexual depravity.
Spectacularly sleazy, beautiful, boisterous and sexy, this is the real Bukowski deal, a booze-fueled erotic odyssey by the adventurous Ferreri with the perfectly cast Ben Gazzara as Charles Serking (Bukowski).
Ornella Muti, as Serking’s sexual muse, is Venus incarnate and turns in a powerhouse performance as Cass, an emotionally damaged whore with a penchant for pain. The scenes of Gazzara swaggering in and out of LA’s fleapit bars, apartments and hotel rooms convey a filthy, delirious ambiance that is vividly captured by Tonino Delli Colli’s superb cinematography and Dante Ferretti’s exquisitely oily production design. This is such an amazing looking film with a thick, steamy, anything-goes atmosphere of lust-ridden anarchy.
Much grittier than the accomplished “Barfly” and more watchable than “Love Is A Dog From Hell”, the entire affair has an emotional, raw resonance that slavishly captures the Bukowski sensibility and remains consistently perverse in its singular vision of a man enslaved by alcoholic and sexual gluttony.
Phillipe Sarde’s score is moody and rich, as is Gazzara’s breathy voice-over.
A masterpiece.
Members Only Video
Film information, full movie description, and selected notes are available to all visitors. Screenshot galleries and restored uncut streaming videos are available only for active members.
Already registered? Please log in to watch this movie.
