The Charles Bukowski Tapes

Bukowski (1987)

Bukowski is drunk, reads poetry, talks about life amongst other things. In all, it's interesting because Bukowski was such a good writer and you'll be pulled in.

I read all of Bukowski's work and loved the stuff, especially Post Office: A Novel by Charles Bukowski, Factotum by Charles Bukowski and Pulp by Charles Bukowski.

If you don't like Bukowski then you'll probably be bored out of your mind. Some people have trouble because he drank so much and lived in some shoddy place in L. A. Bukowski was also an admitted dipsomaniac and barfly. At least the guy was honest. I like a writer who is honest. You really do find honesty in Bukowski's work.

Bukowski is drunk, reads poetry, talks about life amongst other things.

You'll be pulled in.

Yeah.

The Charles Bukowski Tapes are an altogether more than four hours long collection of 52 short-interviews with the American cult author Charles Bukowski, sorted by topic and each between one and ten minutes long. Director Barbet Schroeder interviews Bukowski about such themes as alcohol, violence, and women, and Bukowski answers willingly, losing himself in sometimes minute-long monologues.

Michael Wilmington calls this "an outrageously stimulating and unnerving all-night drinking session with a gutter eloquent barroom philosopher. One of the most intimate, revealing and unsparing glimpses any film or video has ever given us of a writer's life and personality." I must confess I knew the name Bukowski but ha no idea who he was. Honestly, I still don't really know, though I have now seen the man, his wisdom, his alcoholism and his abuse up close. He is a cross between Hunter Thompson and William Burroughs, perhaps? I can understand how this became a cult film, because it is simply mesmerizing... like listening to your drunk uncle, if you uncle was a genius. (Maybe he is.) Shockingly, despite the cult following, it does not seem to be easily found.