Barfly The Movie

(1987) Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway
Directed by Barbet Schroeder
Script by Charles Bukowski

Mickey Rourke plays Henry Chinaski, Charles Bukowski's alter ego featured in all his semi-autobiographical novels, in this comic and gritty tale of a down-and-out enigmatic b_mus_i poet living in Los Angeles. Henry finds love on the skids with Wanda, played by Faye Dunaway, and gets involved with the beautiful young publisher of a literary magazine who's obsessed with "discovering"him.

Excellent performances by Rourke and Dunaway bring this quintessential hard-drinking Bukowski yarn to life. This is independent film making at its best, raw, irreverent and poignant.

Hard core Bukowski fans should check out, also by Barbet Schroeder, The Bukowski Tapes, an intimate 4 hour portrait, also featured in The Drunken Muse.