David S.E. Zapanta Jun 26, 2017
Charles Bukowski sheds some light on Fear The Walking Dead’s post-apocalyptic world...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Twin Peaks season 3 episode 7 review: There’s A Body All Right Twin Peaks season 3 episode 6 review: Don’t Die Twin Peaks season 3 episode 5 review: Case Files
3.5 Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame
Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame is a very busy episode, intercutting between four storylines. Each story is replete with its own odd character pairings, of which first and foremost is Daniel and Strand. These are two people who shouldn’t be in a car together, much less road-tripping their way through Mexico’s apocalyptic wasteland. Theirs is the least effective pairing, if only because Strand is just so unlikable. Remember when Strand was the very definition of cool in season one, a mellifluous patter wrapped in an expensive suit? His fall from...
Charles Bukowski sheds some light on Fear The Walking Dead’s post-apocalyptic world...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Twin Peaks season 3 episode 7 review: There’s A Body All Right Twin Peaks season 3 episode 6 review: Don’t Die Twin Peaks season 3 episode 5 review: Case Files
3.5 Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame
Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame is a very busy episode, intercutting between four storylines. Each story is replete with its own odd character pairings, of which first and foremost is Daniel and Strand. These are two people who shouldn’t be in a car together, much less road-tripping their way through Mexico’s apocalyptic wasteland. Theirs is the least effective pairing, if only because Strand is just so unlikable. Remember when Strand was the very definition of cool in season one, a mellifluous patter wrapped in an expensive suit? His fall from...
- 6/26/2017
- Den of Geek
Chicago – There ain’t nothing like Dame Helen Mirren, international star and Oscar winner for “The Queen.” She, along with her husband Taylor Hackford (director of “Ray” and “An Officer and a Gentleman”), were honored at the Cinema/Chicago Spring Gala on May 24, 2017.
Cinema/Chicago, the presenting organization of the Chicago International Film Festival, is a non-profit arts and education organization dedicated to fostering communication between people of diverse cultures through the art of film and the moving image. Their programs include the Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago International Television Festival, the CineYouth Festival, international screenings, and a year-round education program. Celebrating its 53rd edition October 12-26, 2017, the Chicago International Film Festival is North America’s longest running competitive film fest.
Helen Mirren at the Cinema/Chicago Spring Gala, May 24th, 2017
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com
Dame Helen Lydia Mirren was born in London, and...
Cinema/Chicago, the presenting organization of the Chicago International Film Festival, is a non-profit arts and education organization dedicated to fostering communication between people of diverse cultures through the art of film and the moving image. Their programs include the Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago International Television Festival, the CineYouth Festival, international screenings, and a year-round education program. Celebrating its 53rd edition October 12-26, 2017, the Chicago International Film Festival is North America’s longest running competitive film fest.
Helen Mirren at the Cinema/Chicago Spring Gala, May 24th, 2017
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com
Dame Helen Lydia Mirren was born in London, and...
- 5/31/2017
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Six random heads are better than one of famed poet and alcoholic, Charles Bukowski ... at least according to the L.A. street artist who's suing business owners for destroying his mural. Monte Thrasher says his "Six Heads" mural was an "iconic fixture" in L.A.'s Los Feliz neighborhood. It had been there since 1992, but according to docs ... a local co-op decided 3 years ago to cover it up. He says he never got a heads-up from the co-op,...
- 4/30/2017
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Short of the DayA poem-inspired romp through misogyny.
“As I go toward the escalator/a young fellow and girl get on/ ahead of me./ her dress, her stockings are skin-/ tight./ she places one foot above the other/ upon the steps and her behind/ assumes its position./ the young man looks all/ about./ he appears worried./ he looks at me./ I look/ away.”
Thus begins “girl on the escalator” by easily the most romantic poet of the 20th century, the late great Charles Bukowski.
Okay, so maybe Buk wasn’t a romantic as much as he was a romancer, and yes, what follows in the poem is an undoubtedly misogynistic and thus controversial summarizing of a woman’s entire character based on how she wears a dress, but that’s what we expect from Bukowski, who by his own admission was a lousy drunk and only a slightly better human being. Though...
“As I go toward the escalator/a young fellow and girl get on/ ahead of me./ her dress, her stockings are skin-/ tight./ she places one foot above the other/ upon the steps and her behind/ assumes its position./ the young man looks all/ about./ he appears worried./ he looks at me./ I look/ away.”
Thus begins “girl on the escalator” by easily the most romantic poet of the 20th century, the late great Charles Bukowski.
Okay, so maybe Buk wasn’t a romantic as much as he was a romancer, and yes, what follows in the poem is an undoubtedly misogynistic and thus controversial summarizing of a woman’s entire character based on how she wears a dress, but that’s what we expect from Bukowski, who by his own admission was a lousy drunk and only a slightly better human being. Though...
- 3/15/2017
- by H. Perry Horton
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Now well into its second decade, the Slamdance Film Festival is gearing up for its 2017 edition. Mostly taking place at the Treasure Mountain Inn at top of Park City, Utah’s busting Main Street, Slamdance is dedicated to presenting a festival and a community designed “for filmmakers by filmmakers.”
In previous years, projects from directors like Christopher Nolan, Marc Forster, Jared Hess, Oren Peli, Benh Zeitlin, Seth Gordon, Lynn Shelton and Lena Dunham have bowed at the festival, and it’s become a fertile — if offbeat — proving ground for fresh talents. This year looks to be yet another banner one for the fest, and as such, we’ve gone on a little trip through the Slamdance slate to dig up some prime possibilities for must-see films (shorts and features!).
Ahead, check out 13 titles we’re...
In previous years, projects from directors like Christopher Nolan, Marc Forster, Jared Hess, Oren Peli, Benh Zeitlin, Seth Gordon, Lynn Shelton and Lena Dunham have bowed at the festival, and it’s become a fertile — if offbeat — proving ground for fresh talents. This year looks to be yet another banner one for the fest, and as such, we’ve gone on a little trip through the Slamdance slate to dig up some prime possibilities for must-see films (shorts and features!).
Ahead, check out 13 titles we’re...
- 1/17/2017
- by Chris O'Falt, David Ehrlich, Graham Winfrey, Jude Dry, Kate Erbland and Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Was it Godard or was it Truffaut who said “critics make the best directors”?
A film critic by trade and a poet in his heart, Brian D. Johnson began his film “Al Purdy Was Here” as a fundraising tool to save the A-frame cabin in the woods built by Canadian poet Al Purdy and his wife Eurithe. As making the film progressed, Johnson began to see much more in the film than merely a vehicle [piece] to raise money. “Al Purdy Was Here” soon evolved into something much greater, something deeply poetic by a writer who himself treasures poetry even as he critiques films….
Brian says, “It is about art and life and the fact that they are often in conflict as we try to make our lives. Poetry is my aim…finding poetry in cinema. But music was the reason I made the film.”
Canada's leading musicians and artists come together to tell the tale of Al Purdy.
The documentary features archival materials and first-hand accounts, including interviews with his publisher Howard White, editor Sam Solecki, widow Eurithe Purdy, poets Dennis Lee, Steven Heighton and George Bowering—and Bowering's wife Jean Baird, the powerhouse behind the campaign to save and restore Purdy's A-Frame cabin.
Read Indiewire for more about the movie here.
Gordon Pinsent (“Away from Her”), Michael Ondaatje (“The English Patient”), Leonard Cohen (“Natural Born Killers”), Margaret Atwood (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) all pay tribute to him along with other well known writers, actors, directors and singers who adapt his poetry.
This film premiered, naturally enough, at Tiff 2015 but I only caught up with it at Iff Panama this year because Brian – whom I met one year in Havana and loaned him $100 to pay his hotel bill -- was at Iff Panama where his film was screening. With him was our friend-in-common, Latinaphile, Helga Stephenson, so I tagged along as a friend to see a film about a person I had never heard of before. And I was entranced by what I saw.
Al Purdy was known to be a raucous, barroom brawling Canadian poet, something on a par with Charles Bukowski. In fact they were friends and corresponded extensively, but there is some question as to whether Purdy’s character as a barroom brawler was put on as his persona to help popularize his poetry. Was he actually such a rough person? His wife, Eurithe Purdy, who survived him and is featured in the movie said that at home he was quite a peaceable man (when he was not boozing it up with his pals). He was also a philosophical soul, enraptured by nature—Canada's Walt Whitman as well as its Bukowski.
Sl: How did you get these musicians?
I went to the pantheon of famous Canadian singer-songwriters and asked them to compose and record music inspired by Purdy's work. We paid engineers and musicians. But the artists licensed their songs to us for free, and in return they got to own the rights to the songs.
I got in touch with Neil Young through his brother. I loved Neil's music, and interviewed him for one of his films. Remember Neil Young: Heart of Gold directed by Jonathan Demme?
I sent Neil a Purdy poem called "My 48 Pontiac", written from the Pov of a car in a junk yard—knowing Neil loves old cars. He never did get around to recording an original number for us, but he loved the poem, and the project. So when we wanted to use "Journey Through the Past" (from Neil's 1971 Massey Hall concert album) on the soundtrack, he gave us the rights at no cost.
We selected half a dozen songs for the movie but commissioned and recorded six more, and we're assembling all of them on an album called "The Al Purdy Songbook".
Meanwhile, the film's score was composed by my son, Casey Johnson, who recorded it all with purely analog technology—in the spirit of Purdy's rough and raw esthetic.
The music played at a 2013 benefit concert to save Purdy's cabin in the woods become the impetus for me to make the movie. I remember leaving the show and telling the organizers, "The next thing you should do is an Al Purdy Songbook.") I didn't know I'd end up doing it myself. And as it turned out, it was the music that made the film possible. Musicians are more famous than poets. They have an audience. And this is a movie about a dead poet. How do you make a movie about a dead poet?
The music brings it to life . . . I suppose I could have made a zombie movie instead.
Sl: How did you cast the movie?
You get the most famous people lined up and then the rest follow. I’m friends with Michael Ondaatje. I know Margaret Atwood. I know Leonard Cohen. So I started there.
Sl: How did you finance the film?
The CBC Documentary Channel gave us 25% of the budget and that triggered the rest of the financing. The Rogers Documentary Fund and the Rogers Cable Fund became the other principal contributors.
But Ron Mann, who exec produced, got the ball rolling, and his company, Films We Like, came onboard as the Canadian distributor. We're still looking for international distribution.
The movie felt like a barn-raising, with everyone pitching in to help make it work.
Brian D. Johnson is former film critic for Maclean's, Canada's weekly newsmagazine, is the current president of the Toronto Film Critics Association. Over the years, he also worked as a musician and published poetry, a novel, and several works of non-fiction, including a 25th-anniversary history of Tiff, "Brave Films, Wild Nights, 25 Years of Festival Fever. "Al Purdy was Here” (2015) is his first feature documentary. Once again he'll be writing about film for Maclean's in May at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
A film critic by trade and a poet in his heart, Brian D. Johnson began his film “Al Purdy Was Here” as a fundraising tool to save the A-frame cabin in the woods built by Canadian poet Al Purdy and his wife Eurithe. As making the film progressed, Johnson began to see much more in the film than merely a vehicle [piece] to raise money. “Al Purdy Was Here” soon evolved into something much greater, something deeply poetic by a writer who himself treasures poetry even as he critiques films….
Brian says, “It is about art and life and the fact that they are often in conflict as we try to make our lives. Poetry is my aim…finding poetry in cinema. But music was the reason I made the film.”
Canada's leading musicians and artists come together to tell the tale of Al Purdy.
The documentary features archival materials and first-hand accounts, including interviews with his publisher Howard White, editor Sam Solecki, widow Eurithe Purdy, poets Dennis Lee, Steven Heighton and George Bowering—and Bowering's wife Jean Baird, the powerhouse behind the campaign to save and restore Purdy's A-Frame cabin.
Read Indiewire for more about the movie here.
Gordon Pinsent (“Away from Her”), Michael Ondaatje (“The English Patient”), Leonard Cohen (“Natural Born Killers”), Margaret Atwood (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) all pay tribute to him along with other well known writers, actors, directors and singers who adapt his poetry.
This film premiered, naturally enough, at Tiff 2015 but I only caught up with it at Iff Panama this year because Brian – whom I met one year in Havana and loaned him $100 to pay his hotel bill -- was at Iff Panama where his film was screening. With him was our friend-in-common, Latinaphile, Helga Stephenson, so I tagged along as a friend to see a film about a person I had never heard of before. And I was entranced by what I saw.
Al Purdy was known to be a raucous, barroom brawling Canadian poet, something on a par with Charles Bukowski. In fact they were friends and corresponded extensively, but there is some question as to whether Purdy’s character as a barroom brawler was put on as his persona to help popularize his poetry. Was he actually such a rough person? His wife, Eurithe Purdy, who survived him and is featured in the movie said that at home he was quite a peaceable man (when he was not boozing it up with his pals). He was also a philosophical soul, enraptured by nature—Canada's Walt Whitman as well as its Bukowski.
Sl: How did you get these musicians?
I went to the pantheon of famous Canadian singer-songwriters and asked them to compose and record music inspired by Purdy's work. We paid engineers and musicians. But the artists licensed their songs to us for free, and in return they got to own the rights to the songs.
I got in touch with Neil Young through his brother. I loved Neil's music, and interviewed him for one of his films. Remember Neil Young: Heart of Gold directed by Jonathan Demme?
I sent Neil a Purdy poem called "My 48 Pontiac", written from the Pov of a car in a junk yard—knowing Neil loves old cars. He never did get around to recording an original number for us, but he loved the poem, and the project. So when we wanted to use "Journey Through the Past" (from Neil's 1971 Massey Hall concert album) on the soundtrack, he gave us the rights at no cost.
We selected half a dozen songs for the movie but commissioned and recorded six more, and we're assembling all of them on an album called "The Al Purdy Songbook".
Meanwhile, the film's score was composed by my son, Casey Johnson, who recorded it all with purely analog technology—in the spirit of Purdy's rough and raw esthetic.
The music played at a 2013 benefit concert to save Purdy's cabin in the woods become the impetus for me to make the movie. I remember leaving the show and telling the organizers, "The next thing you should do is an Al Purdy Songbook.") I didn't know I'd end up doing it myself. And as it turned out, it was the music that made the film possible. Musicians are more famous than poets. They have an audience. And this is a movie about a dead poet. How do you make a movie about a dead poet?
The music brings it to life . . . I suppose I could have made a zombie movie instead.
Sl: How did you cast the movie?
You get the most famous people lined up and then the rest follow. I’m friends with Michael Ondaatje. I know Margaret Atwood. I know Leonard Cohen. So I started there.
Sl: How did you finance the film?
The CBC Documentary Channel gave us 25% of the budget and that triggered the rest of the financing. The Rogers Documentary Fund and the Rogers Cable Fund became the other principal contributors.
But Ron Mann, who exec produced, got the ball rolling, and his company, Films We Like, came onboard as the Canadian distributor. We're still looking for international distribution.
The movie felt like a barn-raising, with everyone pitching in to help make it work.
Brian D. Johnson is former film critic for Maclean's, Canada's weekly newsmagazine, is the current president of the Toronto Film Critics Association. Over the years, he also worked as a musician and published poetry, a novel, and several works of non-fiction, including a 25th-anniversary history of Tiff, "Brave Films, Wild Nights, 25 Years of Festival Fever. "Al Purdy was Here” (2015) is his first feature documentary. Once again he'll be writing about film for Maclean's in May at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
- 4/26/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Semi-autobigraphical tale will follow other Bukowski adaptations including 1987’s Barfly, 1983’s Tales of Ordinary Madness and 2005’s Factotum
Charles Bukowski’s semi-autobiographical novel Women is to be adapted for the big screen by the production company behind The Hurt Locker, reports The Tracking Board.
Voltage Pictures, also known for indie hits such as William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon, has obtained screen rights to the 1978 book. Women features Bukowski’s regular alter-ego Hank Chinaski, a booze-soaked La writer juggling the many women who admire him for his literary genius. The film will be based on a screenplay by Ethan Furman.
Continue reading...
Charles Bukowski’s semi-autobiographical novel Women is to be adapted for the big screen by the production company behind The Hurt Locker, reports The Tracking Board.
Voltage Pictures, also known for indie hits such as William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon, has obtained screen rights to the 1978 book. Women features Bukowski’s regular alter-ego Hank Chinaski, a booze-soaked La writer juggling the many women who admire him for his literary genius. The film will be based on a screenplay by Ethan Furman.
Continue reading...
- 6/19/2015
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
Despite the lottery-esque sounding odds, the U.S Dramatic Competition section which produces the finest American indie specimens such as Frozen River, Winter’s Bone, Blue Valentine, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station and Whiplash is fairly consistent in terms of quality. Last year’s crop of sixteen have almost all had their theatrical releases with Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter being the last one out of the gates (pegged with an early 2015 release). Last week we individually looked at our top 80 Sundance Film Fest Predictions (you’ll find 30 other titles worth considering in our intro) and below, we’ve split the list into narrative and non-fiction film items and have both identified and color-coded our picks in an AtoZ cheat sheet. You’ll find 2015′s answer to Whiplash located somewhere in the stack below. Click on the individual titles below, for the film’s profile.
- 11/19/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Feeding our curiosity for what a major transgressive adonis in future literary world might look like in the pre stench of cigarettes and booze era, I’m imagining something akin to Kill Your Darlings in term of look and feel, and a perfect drinking partner to Bent Hamer’s Factotum. Quite frankly it’s got everything you’d want in a Park City indie biopic – hence why I originally circled Bukowski as a possible 2014 Sundance selection. Little did I know that production would be tied up in legal troubles. The good news is, as of last month, whatever woes existed between right holders of “Ham on Rye” and this project have been resolved. Moving forward, we can expect to see a transformative performance from Josh Peck and peak into the man behind the method, and the madness. Shannen Doherty, Alex Kingston, Keegan Allen (see set pic above) and Tim Blake Nelson support the titular player.
- 11/11/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
James Franco has figured out a way to resolve a lawsuit over Bukowski, possibly leading to the release of the film about German-born author Charles Bukowski, once called the "laureate of American lowlife." The actor-filmmaker-artist-professor was taken to California federal court in April by Cyril Humphris, who claimed to have film rights on Bukowski's semi-autobiographical novel, Ham on Rye. Franco's film was alleged to be infringing upon those rights. In media interviews, Franco has expressed fondness for Ham on Rye, about a boy growing up in working-class Los Angeles in the 1940s who
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- 10/30/2014
- by Eriq Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There are a lot of actors who routinely find themselves in more trouble than James Franco, but I.m not sure there.s one who routinely finds himself in the middle of more weirdness. From obnoxious Oscar campaigns to invisible art to underage girls, he.s almost a magnet for the bizarre, which is why the following lawsuit shouldn.t surprise you in the least. According to TMZ, author Cyril Humphris just filed a lawsuit against James Franco claiming the author stole his work for an upcoming movie. Such legal action is extremely common in Hollywood and more often than not comes to nothing, but given James Franco is involved, this one is far weirder than usual. The subject of the actor.s next film is legendary author Charles Bukowski. Humphris wrote an biography on Bukowski and allegedly optioned it to James Franco back in 2009 in order to provide the...
- 7/4/2014
- cinemablend.com
James Franco is going after a guy who claims the actor stole his idea for the actor's new movie, claiming the idea for the flick was hatched in his brain alone.Short story ... Franco has a new movie -- "Bukowski" -- which is about to be released ... it's about Charles Bukowski, a famous fiction writer who died the year O.J. killed Nicole.Enter Cyril Humphris, who owns the rights to Bukowski's autobiography. Cyril...
- 7/4/2014
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Washington, April 27: James Franco has been sued for violating film rights of Charles Bukowski's novel 'Ham on Rye'.
According to the lawsuit, Franco had an agreement to develop the book, but the rights expired in 2010, and his "Bukowski" film treads on the novel, the Hollywood Reporter reported.
The legal complaint alleges that Franco's film is infringing upon this famous novel, as it borrows the themes of childhood loneliness; adolescent self-consciousness, the failures, hypocrisy, and cruelty of adults and, in an unflinching depiction, the crude interest teenage boys take in sex.
In January, 2009, Franco and.
According to the lawsuit, Franco had an agreement to develop the book, but the rights expired in 2010, and his "Bukowski" film treads on the novel, the Hollywood Reporter reported.
The legal complaint alleges that Franco's film is infringing upon this famous novel, as it borrows the themes of childhood loneliness; adolescent self-consciousness, the failures, hypocrisy, and cruelty of adults and, in an unflinching depiction, the crude interest teenage boys take in sex.
In January, 2009, Franco and.
- 4/27/2014
- by Shiva Prakash
- RealBollywood.com
James Franco: Actor. Writer. Filmmaker. All-around curiosity. And, now, defendant. Franco has been slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit over a film about writer Charles Bukowski that he co-wrote and directed. In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in California on Thursday, Cyril Humphris — who claims to exclusively own the movie rights to Bukowski's semi-autobiographical 1982 novel, “Ham on Rye” — says that he and Franco struck an agreement in 2009 granting Franco certain rights to develop a film based on the book. However, that agreement expired in 2010, the lawsuit says. See photos: James Franco Steps Up Bed Selfie Game...
- 4/25/2014
- by Tim Kenneally
- The Wrap
Who owns the rights to an autobiography?
That seems to be the question in the center of a lawsuit against James Franco and production company Rabbit Bandini, accusing them of violating film rights for Franco’s upcoming film Bukowski, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Cyril Humphris is accusing Franco of infringing on Charles Bukowski’s semi-autobiographical novel Ham on Rye, which Humphris claims he owns the film rights to. Franco has asserted in the past that the film is based on Bukowski’s childhood and not the novel, despite the similarities. The lawsuit states Franco’s film “borrows the novel...
That seems to be the question in the center of a lawsuit against James Franco and production company Rabbit Bandini, accusing them of violating film rights for Franco’s upcoming film Bukowski, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Cyril Humphris is accusing Franco of infringing on Charles Bukowski’s semi-autobiographical novel Ham on Rye, which Humphris claims he owns the film rights to. Franco has asserted in the past that the film is based on Bukowski’s childhood and not the novel, despite the similarities. The lawsuit states Franco’s film “borrows the novel...
- 4/25/2014
- by Jake Perlman
- EW.com - PopWatch
James Franco's Bukowski lacks the necessary rights, says a new lawsuit that figures to explore the boundary between biography and autobiography. On Thursday, Cyril Humphris stepped forward in California federal court to assert that he owns motion-picture rights to author Charles Bukowski's semi-autobiographical novel, Ham on Rye. The complaint alleges that Franco's film is infringing upon this famous novel. Read the Complaint Here In interviews, Franco has said the novel is one of his favorites. Ham on Rye is about a boy growing up in working-class Los Angeles in the 1940s who copes with various coming-of-
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- 4/25/2014
- by Eriq Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Right after he wrapped up his ’13 Sundance experience, Franco, the movie industry’s poetry geek, hit the brinks and commenced lensing in Los Angeles with Josh Peck, Shannen Doherty, Alex Kingston, Keegan Allen and Tim Blake Nelson. Set in the 20′s-30′s, simply titled Bukowski and not Ham on Rye, Franco’s fascination for the subject joins about a half dozen previous other films on the writer most recently Factotum. Production wrapped in March and as he recently professed to Charlie Rose, hopes that it’ll make the Sundance cut and we hope to see just how much of a range Peck has.
Gist: Written by Dave and James Franco, this is the story of writer Charles Bukowski’s formative years from childhood to high school and his struggles with an abusive father, disfiguring acne, alcohol abuse, and his initial attempts at writing.
Production Co./Producers: Jay Davis, Vince Jolivette,...
Gist: Written by Dave and James Franco, this is the story of writer Charles Bukowski’s formative years from childhood to high school and his struggles with an abusive father, disfiguring acne, alcohol abuse, and his initial attempts at writing.
Production Co./Producers: Jay Davis, Vince Jolivette,...
- 11/18/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
First published on Riffle.
From Homer to Disney, and Dr. Seuss to Charles Bukowski, many famous poems and poets have made the leap from book to box office - with varying levels of success.
For better or worse, poetry seems to make film directors drool, and why not? You could think of poetry like the popcorn of the literary world – bite-sized, compact little narratives or emotional jolts with plenty of room around the edges to lather on the artistic “interpretation.” The Disney classic "Mulan," for instance, is even more classic than you think: it dates to 3rd Century China. Bukowski's poetry is vastly more entertaining than his biography, while Beowulf is actually better, believe it or not, without Angelina Jolie.
Luckily though, many poetry-based movies actually do a degree of justice to their bardolic antecedents, rising above simple cinema-fodder to bring verse to life.
Click through for 15 films based on great poems,...
From Homer to Disney, and Dr. Seuss to Charles Bukowski, many famous poems and poets have made the leap from book to box office - with varying levels of success.
For better or worse, poetry seems to make film directors drool, and why not? You could think of poetry like the popcorn of the literary world – bite-sized, compact little narratives or emotional jolts with plenty of room around the edges to lather on the artistic “interpretation.” The Disney classic "Mulan," for instance, is even more classic than you think: it dates to 3rd Century China. Bukowski's poetry is vastly more entertaining than his biography, while Beowulf is actually better, believe it or not, without Angelina Jolie.
Luckily though, many poetry-based movies actually do a degree of justice to their bardolic antecedents, rising above simple cinema-fodder to bring verse to life.
Click through for 15 films based on great poems,...
- 7/24/2013
- Huffington Post
Review by Sam Moffitt
Has this ever happened to you? You’re sitting on a bar stool, in a bar, and when I say bar I don’t mean some uptown fancy bistro with little foo-foo umbrellas in the drinks and ferns hanging from the ceiling. I’m talking about a bar man, a dive, a saloon, a watering hole, like you find in south St. Louis where the doors stay open in the summer so neighborhood dogs can run in and out and drunks can stagger out and get some fresh air without having to try and work a door knob, so they can stagger out and get a grip before they heave up all that beer they’ve been drinking and paid for out of money they should have spent on the rent.
So anyway you’re sitting in this low class joint, drinking beer, and the occasional...
Has this ever happened to you? You’re sitting on a bar stool, in a bar, and when I say bar I don’t mean some uptown fancy bistro with little foo-foo umbrellas in the drinks and ferns hanging from the ceiling. I’m talking about a bar man, a dive, a saloon, a watering hole, like you find in south St. Louis where the doors stay open in the summer so neighborhood dogs can run in and out and drunks can stagger out and get some fresh air without having to try and work a door knob, so they can stagger out and get a grip before they heave up all that beer they’ve been drinking and paid for out of money they should have spent on the rent.
So anyway you’re sitting in this low class joint, drinking beer, and the occasional...
- 6/6/2013
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
O Brother, Where Art Thou?.s Tim Blake Nelson is pretty familiar with actors stepping behind the camera. He.s gone behind the lens on several occasions himself, most notably for 2010.s wonderful Leaves Of Grass, and now, he.s signed up to help two of his fellow actors work on their own directorial projects. The first of the two films is being directed by James Franco, and it is entitled Bukowski. It.ll follow the title author/ post office employee/ drunk/ madman, Charles Bukowski, through his traumatic childhood and high school years. Nelson will play the writer.s abusive father who continually gets into physical altercations with his son. The second of the two films comes from Tommy Lee Jones, and it.s entitled Homesman. The current Oscar nominee will direct from a script he co-wrote. The action centers around a shady character and a cheap school teacher who...
- 1/30/2013
- cinemablend.com
Tim Blake Nelson has nabbed two roles in the ambitious directorial efforts of his fellow peers, playing in James Franco’s biopic of Charles Bukowski and in Tommy Lee Jones’ next directorial outing, The Homesman.
‘Hey it’s that guy’-type actor has scored the role of Charles Bukowski’s father Henry, as well as he plays a shady character who covets one of the women and tries to steal her in pioneer-era western The Homesman.
Franco wrote the script and is directing Bukowski that chronicle his early years, as a shy young man frequently beaten by his abusive father, who eventually defended himself and channeled the emotional trauma into his later works.
Jones co-wrote the script with Kieran Fitzgerald and Wesley A. Oliver and will star in and produce the movie which will center on a claim jumper (Jones) and a pioneer woman (Meryl Streep) who are tasked with...
‘Hey it’s that guy’-type actor has scored the role of Charles Bukowski’s father Henry, as well as he plays a shady character who covets one of the women and tries to steal her in pioneer-era western The Homesman.
Franco wrote the script and is directing Bukowski that chronicle his early years, as a shy young man frequently beaten by his abusive father, who eventually defended himself and channeled the emotional trauma into his later works.
Jones co-wrote the script with Kieran Fitzgerald and Wesley A. Oliver and will star in and produce the movie which will center on a claim jumper (Jones) and a pioneer woman (Meryl Streep) who are tasked with...
- 1/29/2013
- by Nick Martin
- Filmofilia
Tim Blake Nelson has always been a talent equally as adept on-screen as he is behind the camera -- putting his stamp on such diverse films as WWII drama “The Grey Zone” and pot comedy “Leaves of Grass” -- but as his primary focus and the majority of his credits remains acting-based, he's now found back-to-back roles in the ambitious directorial efforts of his fellow peers. James Franco and Tommy Lee Jones have both lined up their next projects in the director's chair -- literary biopic “Bukowski” and pioneer-era western “The Homesman,” respectively -- and besides keeping true to each actor's narrative wheelhouse, they've added the integral element of Nelson to their casts as well. Tracing the life of Charles Bukowski from childhood through his high school years, “Bukowski” will find Nelson in the role of the poet's father, Henry, whose financial straits lead to abuse toward his child, and.
- 1/29/2013
- by Charlie Schmidlin
- The Playlist
Tim Blake Nelson has scored the role of Charles Bukowski’s father in James Franco's "Bukowski".
Franco penned the script which traces the story of a man from childhood through his high school years.
Nelson plays his father who takes out his economic stresses violently on his son, causing Charles to ultimately defend himself.
Nelson has also joined the cast of the Tommy Lee Jones-directed period drama "The Homesman".
The story sees an untrustworthy man and a spinster school teacher team up to transport three crazy women via ox-drawn wagon across the Western plains.
Nelson plays a man who covets one of the women and tries to steal her. Jones, Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep also star in the film which will shoot this spring in New Mexico.
Source: THR...
Franco penned the script which traces the story of a man from childhood through his high school years.
Nelson plays his father who takes out his economic stresses violently on his son, causing Charles to ultimately defend himself.
Nelson has also joined the cast of the Tommy Lee Jones-directed period drama "The Homesman".
The story sees an untrustworthy man and a spinster school teacher team up to transport three crazy women via ox-drawn wagon across the Western plains.
Nelson plays a man who covets one of the women and tries to steal her. Jones, Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep also star in the film which will shoot this spring in New Mexico.
Source: THR...
- 1/29/2013
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Tim Blake Nelson has booked back-to-back gigs in movies being directed by fellow actors. The actor has nabbed the role of Charles Bukowski’s father in James Franco’s Bukowski and also has joined the cast of The Homesman, a period drama being directed by Tommy Lee Jones. Bukowski, for which Franco also wrote the script, traces the story of Charles Bukowski from childhood through his high school years. Nelson will play Henry Bukowski, a man who takes out his economic stresses violently on his son, eventually driving Charles to defend himself. This will be the fourth time that Nelson
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- 1/29/2013
- by Borys Kit
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
He’s one of those 27 percenters, an actor who makes movies better even when he just crops up for a couple of scenes. Now Tim Blake Nelson has nabbed two new acting gigs, playing Henry Bukowski in James Franco’s biopic of Charles Bukowski and a womanising type in Tommy Lee Jones’ next directorial outing, The Homesman.Franco wrote the script and is directing Bukowski, another cinema adaptation of the life of the German-born American writer most famous for works such as Pulp, Factotum and Post Office. The film will chronicle his early years, as a shy young man frequently beaten by his father, who eventually defended himself and channelled the emotional trauma into his later works.He’ll then work on The Homesman for Jones, who co-wrote that script with Kieran Fitzgerald and Wesley A. Oliver. He’ll be calling the shots for a story about a claim jumper...
- 1/28/2013
- EmpireOnline
Sit down, Lemon Andersen ‘got a story to tell. He grew up in Brooklyn by the ten crack commandments. After both parents succumbing to Aids through their addictions, he took the improbable journey from Rikers to reading his first poem at El Puente Community Center to Broadway earning himself a Tony Award. Or as Lemon simply puts it, he took those lemons and made “the best goddamn lemonade!” He is now the subject of a documentary called ‘Lemon’ by Laura Brownson & Beth Levison which chronicles the journey of his one man play ‘County of Kings; the Beautiful Struggle’ which recently closed the HBO New York International Latino Film Festival and will air on PBS on October 19th as part of Voces, a four part Latino documentary series in celebration of Hispanic Heritage month.
LatinoBuzz: When you think of riding the train, standing room only on a winter day, hoodie and goose down North Face on in Brooklyn—what song pops into your head?
Lemon:“It’s all about the mood I’m in and the scene I’m writing. ‘Cause work controls my life, writing controls my life, performing controls my life. So I don’t listen to any music that’s not an influence on what I’m working on that day. Music is a big influence in my work and sometimes drives the energy of where I want to go. It depends on what character I’m working on because all of my characters are musically driven as far as their language and their style. So it really depends on the day and what character I’m working on. One day I may be listening to Wu-Tang and another day I’m listening to A$AP Rocky, matter of fact I was listening to him on the train yesterday. Right now listening to A$AP Rocky cause I’m writing about some pretty motherfuckers from Harlem”.
LatinoBuzz: Author from any time in history, from any place whose swag should have had them born in the County of Kings in 1975?
Lemon:“I would definitely have to say William Shakespeare, he should have been born in Brooklyn in 1975 because I would have loved to see Shakespeare’s poetic portrayal of that generation and that world. He’s a big inspiration on my writing about that world and on my style. Shakespeare all day man, that’s the Og. I mean, I would pick Sophocles or any one of those guys, but Shakespeare is my kind of writer cause its all poetry. Basically for me Shakespeare is the greatest storyteller ever in the world, ever, period, hands down there is no one better than him and I challenge any motherfucker to question it. Even if they say he wasn’t the one who wrote it, I’m talking about the work not the man; I don’t know that fool, I know his work”.
LatinoBuzz: If St. Cecilia, patron saint of poets, was from Flatbush Ave. What would she be wearing and how would you holler at her?
Lemon:“I live by the code kill them with kindness, blood everywhere, for me it’s always about being the nicest kind of guy. What she would be wearing is something that is independent to her personality. On some hip-hop tip but no brand names totally indie hip designers. Something that really reflects her personality. That’s how I would start the conversation, I would notice something that she’s wearing and comment on it, something like I know the brand or “I’ve seen that in Paris,” and that will strike a chord with her and we’ll talk”.
LatinoBuzz: Three time felon, Tony award winner, one man show and now subject of a documentary film—any regrets to your journey?
Lemon:“I don’t know, I think that if I had any regrets that would cancel out the great people that I have in my life. All the tough stuff that I’ve gone through that I don’t wish on no one else has brought a beautiful community to me. The only thing I regret is the pain that I had to endure because pain sucks, the feeling of pain sucks, I don’t give a fuck when people say “more pain, more gain” no one wants to feel pain”.
LatinoBuzz: What do you tell your children about your parents?
Lemon:“You know, I talk to my kids about my mother’s energy and how she would have loved them. I talk about how kind and polite my father was. So that they have some kind of remembrance that even though my parents died from their addictions and so that they know they were genuine in how they were. That’s what I try to do. I try not to give too many details, though they are not old enough to ask me for details yet”.
LatinoBuzz: What would you rather? Drink wine with Pablo Neruda. Play ‘Cee-lo’ with Langston Hughes, Slap Box with Charles Bukowski or Slow Dance with Sonia Sanchez?
Lemon:“Would be slap boxing with Charles Bukowski cause he tried to protect Langston Hughes cause he owes me on the dice game and Sonia Sanchez is sitting there laughing her ass off with Pablo Neruda sipping wine. I would slap box with Bukowski and I’ll know that he’ll try to go for his. Bukowski stands out for more than anyone, although I love Langston Hughes and I love Sonia, and Pablo Neruda is the most beautiful loving poet of them all. I’m too rambunctious and so Charles Bukowski fits the bill. I would turn those guys down any day to even just have coconut water with Bukowski. So that’s my dude, he rolls big with me, in my work, so yeah I’d slap box with him all day, right on the corner”.
LatinoBuzz: What ritual sends you to your creative realm?
Lemon:“Lately its been getting up in the morning and allowing my kind of madness to grow. By that I mean that I have to allow myself to wake up before I start writing. I wake up I talk to one of my closest friends. I talk to my management team and I get their energy boiling. I get the blood boiling. I get angry, I get hungry, and I go at it, and I don’t stop ‘til I go to bed at night. So I have to get the blood boiling is just not coffee. It has to be that I’m in conversation with people in the morning before the work start because people drive me. Through out the day I listen to music I go to local cafes I hang out with the Mexicans behind the bar let them know that I love and that I’m holding them down, real talk, and that’s my every day”.
LatinoBuzz: If you and Biggie played Hooky—what’s the day like?
Lemon: “Wow, if me and Biggie played hooky I think we’d be sitting at home, that’s the only time I would go back to smoking weed, because I know I’ll be smoking with Biggie. I don’t smoke weed but for Biggie and Bob Marley. I would smoke with him and we would be watching Midnight Express and Brubaker and I would be telling him, “you see these movies that’s why I’m writing ‘Toast’, that’s why I write scripts and not raps.”
LatinoBuzz: Line of poetry or a lyric you wish you wrote?
Lemon:“I never sleep cause sleep is the cousin of death.”—Nas, “NY State of Mind”
LatinoBuzz: What will people say about Lemon when it’s all said and done?
Lemon:“That he believed in a generation not based on race but on class and style, and they had a great story tell and he told it”.
For info on The documentary and screening times visit: http://www.lemonthemovie.com or show Lemon some love at: http://twitter.com/lemonandersen
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on twitter.
LatinoBuzz: When you think of riding the train, standing room only on a winter day, hoodie and goose down North Face on in Brooklyn—what song pops into your head?
Lemon:“It’s all about the mood I’m in and the scene I’m writing. ‘Cause work controls my life, writing controls my life, performing controls my life. So I don’t listen to any music that’s not an influence on what I’m working on that day. Music is a big influence in my work and sometimes drives the energy of where I want to go. It depends on what character I’m working on because all of my characters are musically driven as far as their language and their style. So it really depends on the day and what character I’m working on. One day I may be listening to Wu-Tang and another day I’m listening to A$AP Rocky, matter of fact I was listening to him on the train yesterday. Right now listening to A$AP Rocky cause I’m writing about some pretty motherfuckers from Harlem”.
LatinoBuzz: Author from any time in history, from any place whose swag should have had them born in the County of Kings in 1975?
Lemon:“I would definitely have to say William Shakespeare, he should have been born in Brooklyn in 1975 because I would have loved to see Shakespeare’s poetic portrayal of that generation and that world. He’s a big inspiration on my writing about that world and on my style. Shakespeare all day man, that’s the Og. I mean, I would pick Sophocles or any one of those guys, but Shakespeare is my kind of writer cause its all poetry. Basically for me Shakespeare is the greatest storyteller ever in the world, ever, period, hands down there is no one better than him and I challenge any motherfucker to question it. Even if they say he wasn’t the one who wrote it, I’m talking about the work not the man; I don’t know that fool, I know his work”.
LatinoBuzz: If St. Cecilia, patron saint of poets, was from Flatbush Ave. What would she be wearing and how would you holler at her?
Lemon:“I live by the code kill them with kindness, blood everywhere, for me it’s always about being the nicest kind of guy. What she would be wearing is something that is independent to her personality. On some hip-hop tip but no brand names totally indie hip designers. Something that really reflects her personality. That’s how I would start the conversation, I would notice something that she’s wearing and comment on it, something like I know the brand or “I’ve seen that in Paris,” and that will strike a chord with her and we’ll talk”.
LatinoBuzz: Three time felon, Tony award winner, one man show and now subject of a documentary film—any regrets to your journey?
Lemon:“I don’t know, I think that if I had any regrets that would cancel out the great people that I have in my life. All the tough stuff that I’ve gone through that I don’t wish on no one else has brought a beautiful community to me. The only thing I regret is the pain that I had to endure because pain sucks, the feeling of pain sucks, I don’t give a fuck when people say “more pain, more gain” no one wants to feel pain”.
LatinoBuzz: What do you tell your children about your parents?
Lemon:“You know, I talk to my kids about my mother’s energy and how she would have loved them. I talk about how kind and polite my father was. So that they have some kind of remembrance that even though my parents died from their addictions and so that they know they were genuine in how they were. That’s what I try to do. I try not to give too many details, though they are not old enough to ask me for details yet”.
LatinoBuzz: What would you rather? Drink wine with Pablo Neruda. Play ‘Cee-lo’ with Langston Hughes, Slap Box with Charles Bukowski or Slow Dance with Sonia Sanchez?
Lemon:“Would be slap boxing with Charles Bukowski cause he tried to protect Langston Hughes cause he owes me on the dice game and Sonia Sanchez is sitting there laughing her ass off with Pablo Neruda sipping wine. I would slap box with Bukowski and I’ll know that he’ll try to go for his. Bukowski stands out for more than anyone, although I love Langston Hughes and I love Sonia, and Pablo Neruda is the most beautiful loving poet of them all. I’m too rambunctious and so Charles Bukowski fits the bill. I would turn those guys down any day to even just have coconut water with Bukowski. So that’s my dude, he rolls big with me, in my work, so yeah I’d slap box with him all day, right on the corner”.
LatinoBuzz: What ritual sends you to your creative realm?
Lemon:“Lately its been getting up in the morning and allowing my kind of madness to grow. By that I mean that I have to allow myself to wake up before I start writing. I wake up I talk to one of my closest friends. I talk to my management team and I get their energy boiling. I get the blood boiling. I get angry, I get hungry, and I go at it, and I don’t stop ‘til I go to bed at night. So I have to get the blood boiling is just not coffee. It has to be that I’m in conversation with people in the morning before the work start because people drive me. Through out the day I listen to music I go to local cafes I hang out with the Mexicans behind the bar let them know that I love and that I’m holding them down, real talk, and that’s my every day”.
LatinoBuzz: If you and Biggie played Hooky—what’s the day like?
Lemon: “Wow, if me and Biggie played hooky I think we’d be sitting at home, that’s the only time I would go back to smoking weed, because I know I’ll be smoking with Biggie. I don’t smoke weed but for Biggie and Bob Marley. I would smoke with him and we would be watching Midnight Express and Brubaker and I would be telling him, “you see these movies that’s why I’m writing ‘Toast’, that’s why I write scripts and not raps.”
LatinoBuzz: Line of poetry or a lyric you wish you wrote?
Lemon:“I never sleep cause sleep is the cousin of death.”—Nas, “NY State of Mind”
LatinoBuzz: What will people say about Lemon when it’s all said and done?
Lemon:“That he believed in a generation not based on race but on class and style, and they had a great story tell and he told it”.
For info on The documentary and screening times visit: http://www.lemonthemovie.com or show Lemon some love at: http://twitter.com/lemonandersen
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on twitter.
- 10/3/2012
- by Juan Caceres
- Sydney's Buzz
Booze and crime goes hand in hand like booze and being hugely attractive and winning in life. I am drinking while writing this, because something something simpatico and shit. After speaking with my editor about the topic of this week’s column, I was told “Liam, you’re a pathetic drunk, either clean up your act, or write about it!”
And here we are.
Looking at crime fiction, alcohol near always plays a part, be it a devil, or a welcome, numbing relief. For me, I always think of Philip Marlowe, from Chandler’s books, and Marlowe as the “moral man in an amoral world,” who’s what was referred to as a “hard drinking” man. I always saw these guys as people who drank as a way to cope – when you’re a true noir loser, and fuck, to be the last moral man makes you a loser – you gotta drink.
And here we are.
Looking at crime fiction, alcohol near always plays a part, be it a devil, or a welcome, numbing relief. For me, I always think of Philip Marlowe, from Chandler’s books, and Marlowe as the “moral man in an amoral world,” who’s what was referred to as a “hard drinking” man. I always saw these guys as people who drank as a way to cope – when you’re a true noir loser, and fuck, to be the last moral man makes you a loser – you gotta drink.
- 9/26/2012
- by Liam Jose
- Boomtron
Set in France and Belgium, Copacabana unveils the tale of a holdover bohemian trying to impress her grown daughter. The film stars real-life mother-daughter duo Isabelle Huppert and Lolita Chammah as the flighty Babou and her more conventionally prone daughter, Esméralda.
At the start, the pair live together in Northern France. While Esméralda works as a waitress and dates a rather bland young man, her mother flits from job to job, griping about the bourgeoisie and fixating on Brazilian music. But Babou calls her life into question when Esméralda reveals she is engaged but doesn’t want her at the ceremony. Rightly rattled, Babou pursues a job opportunity selling timeshares in Belgium, hoping to prove to her daughter that she can settle down and be the mother she wants. Yet even in this new setting Babou falls into old habits, bedding down with a gruff but lovable dock worker, befriending...
At the start, the pair live together in Northern France. While Esméralda works as a waitress and dates a rather bland young man, her mother flits from job to job, griping about the bourgeoisie and fixating on Brazilian music. But Babou calls her life into question when Esméralda reveals she is engaged but doesn’t want her at the ceremony. Rightly rattled, Babou pursues a job opportunity selling timeshares in Belgium, hoping to prove to her daughter that she can settle down and be the mother she wants. Yet even in this new setting Babou falls into old habits, bedding down with a gruff but lovable dock worker, befriending...
- 3/29/2011
- by Kristy Puchko
- The Film Stage
Unlock the secret world of Los Angeles and you'll discover a city full of hidden gems – including a magician's castle, a naked spa and a fictional heritage tour
All I am told is to wear black tie and not to bring a camera. So now, in a cocktail dress and stilettos, I stand outside a vast pink hotel on scruffy Venice Beach boardwalk, waiting among psychics, street pianists, body builders and beach bums, for my evening's guide to turn up.
"Never put out on the first date, remember," cackles an ancient woman dragging a shopping trolley of Reader's Digest magazines down the street. I check my watch for the ninth time that minute and see a 10-year-old doing back-flips off a bench, landing like an alley cat each time. It is the end of a busy public holiday weekend and the boardwalk is finally packing up when a junk-heap grey Volvo pulls up.
All I am told is to wear black tie and not to bring a camera. So now, in a cocktail dress and stilettos, I stand outside a vast pink hotel on scruffy Venice Beach boardwalk, waiting among psychics, street pianists, body builders and beach bums, for my evening's guide to turn up.
"Never put out on the first date, remember," cackles an ancient woman dragging a shopping trolley of Reader's Digest magazines down the street. I check my watch for the ninth time that minute and see a 10-year-old doing back-flips off a bench, landing like an alley cat each time. It is the end of a busy public holiday weekend and the boardwalk is finally packing up when a junk-heap grey Volvo pulls up.
- 3/27/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
In the midst of our recessionary times, it might be comforting to read these great novels about people losing their jobs. Novelist Jess Walter recommends his favorites, from Saul Bellow to Bukowski.
Seize the Day By Saul Bellow
Related story on The Daily Beast: This Week's Hot Reads
"Everyone was supposed to have money" -at least that's how it seems to Tommy Wilhelm, the divorced, unemployed salesman in Bellow's fevered story of ambition and regret. Living in an Upper West Side hotel with his father (who pesters Tommy to find a job where he'll make "five figures" ), Tommy has given his entire savings to a possible con man, and over a single, frenetic day, must hustle to avert disaster. Overheated and desperate, by turns despairing and determined, Tommy is one of Bellow's most affecting characters, a powerful refutation of the myth of the self-made American. As Bellow writes: "You...
Seize the Day By Saul Bellow
Related story on The Daily Beast: This Week's Hot Reads
"Everyone was supposed to have money" -at least that's how it seems to Tommy Wilhelm, the divorced, unemployed salesman in Bellow's fevered story of ambition and regret. Living in an Upper West Side hotel with his father (who pesters Tommy to find a job where he'll make "five figures" ), Tommy has given his entire savings to a possible con man, and over a single, frenetic day, must hustle to avert disaster. Overheated and desperate, by turns despairing and determined, Tommy is one of Bellow's most affecting characters, a powerful refutation of the myth of the self-made American. As Bellow writes: "You...
- 11/30/2010
- by Jess Walter
- The Daily Beast
In a word, disappointing. In three words, that fucking sucked. In seven words, Matt Dillon deserves to go to hell (and yes I did count those out on my fingers to make sure I had the correct digits).
I cannot begin to describe to you the joy and excitement that I felt when I first learned that there was a movie version of Factotum in the pipeline courtesy of IFC Films. Seriously, I love Henry Charles Bukowski. I’ve devoured his novels and a good chunk of his poetry. Hell, I even have a Bukowski quote tattooed on my right forearm:
It reads, “As the Spirit wanes, the Form appears.” For an explanation of this quote, check out the amazing documentary Bukowski: Born Into This. While you’re watching it, also pay close attention to good ole Hank himself and notice how Matt Dillon’s performance in Factotum doesn’t...
I cannot begin to describe to you the joy and excitement that I felt when I first learned that there was a movie version of Factotum in the pipeline courtesy of IFC Films. Seriously, I love Henry Charles Bukowski. I’ve devoured his novels and a good chunk of his poetry. Hell, I even have a Bukowski quote tattooed on my right forearm:
It reads, “As the Spirit wanes, the Form appears.” For an explanation of this quote, check out the amazing documentary Bukowski: Born Into This. While you’re watching it, also pay close attention to good ole Hank himself and notice how Matt Dillon’s performance in Factotum doesn’t...
- 6/7/2010
- by Will Melton
- FusedFilm
James Franco digs poetry and filmmaking, and while Howl is the perfect marriage between the two, looks like multi-tasker is set to take on more projects of the same vein. - James Franco digs poetry and filmmaking, and while Howl is the perfect marriage between the two, looks like multi-tasker is set to take on more projects of the same vein. The Playlist found an interesting blurb from Berlin where Howl had its second premiere, mentioning that he and his brother David are adapting the last new poem meant to be published in Hart Crane's life, The Broken Tower and a Charles Bukowski's Ham on Rye. I wonder how much did it cost to option these properties? So far, Franco hasn't managed to really break-out as a filmmaker (modestly budgeted features and shorts have been on the film circuit) but with a name like Bukowski he could...
- 3/12/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
To honor the grizzled, alcoholic author Charles Bukowski on the 20th anniversary of his death, a literary tour operator thought it was time for a commemorative stamp--and they launched an online petition to show how serious they are. The Usps is not likely to embrace the idea, but it's actually a smart one: Besides his expertise in whiskey and women, Bukowski was also postal worker until age 49--he even wrote what is perhaps the most famous book about a post office, Post Office. (Although, perplexingly, the novel begins with the line: "It started as a mistake.")
Let's be honest: Buk needs all the help he can get. So to aid the campaign, and to support postal workers everywhere, we tapped Christopher Papasadero, creative director of Fwis, to do a Bukowski stamp deep dive.
In this concept, Papasadero illustrates Bukowski's excellent mail sorting abilities as well as inferring to the "colorful language" of his prose.
Let's be honest: Buk needs all the help he can get. So to aid the campaign, and to support postal workers everywhere, we tapped Christopher Papasadero, creative director of Fwis, to do a Bukowski stamp deep dive.
In this concept, Papasadero illustrates Bukowski's excellent mail sorting abilities as well as inferring to the "colorful language" of his prose.
- 12/11/2009
- by Alissa Walker
- Fast Company
Year: 2009
Directors: Harmony Korine
Writers: Harmony Korine
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Hal MacDermot
Rating: 8.8 out of 10
Right. Trash Humpers is a snapped work of brilliance and you will either be blown away or absolutely hate it. For me, the earth moved. Korine’s movie was shot on VHS and edited on VHS machines, and in the director’s own words, it’s like a piece of “found footage,” like some kind of crazy old VHS tape “you find in a ziploc bag in the attic.” The grainy analogue look immediately creates a scary marginal aura that’s more effective than several million dollars of CGI. Tell you what, if I found one of those tape in my attic I’d be well jumpy.
There is no story to this whacked out vision of the underclass, but there are a series of amazing scenes. Two old guys and an...
Directors: Harmony Korine
Writers: Harmony Korine
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Hal MacDermot
Rating: 8.8 out of 10
Right. Trash Humpers is a snapped work of brilliance and you will either be blown away or absolutely hate it. For me, the earth moved. Korine’s movie was shot on VHS and edited on VHS machines, and in the director’s own words, it’s like a piece of “found footage,” like some kind of crazy old VHS tape “you find in a ziploc bag in the attic.” The grainy analogue look immediately creates a scary marginal aura that’s more effective than several million dollars of CGI. Tell you what, if I found one of those tape in my attic I’d be well jumpy.
There is no story to this whacked out vision of the underclass, but there are a series of amazing scenes. Two old guys and an...
- 11/5/2009
- QuietEarth.us
I know, I know. I've written about documentaries a lot lately. But I promise -- this is the last one, at least for a little while. There's a film I watched during Hot Docs that I never mentioned, mainly because it was part of a retrospective and is a good twenty-seven years old -- Ron Mann's Poetry in Motion.
The film follows a large collection of North American poets performing their work in the early '80s, including: Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Amiri Baraka, John Cage, Michael Ondaatje, Anne Waldman, Jim Carroll, The Four Horsemen, and Tom Waits. The performances range from poetry set to music and given a rhythm, to sound poetry, to classic recitation. On their own, the pieces are an intensely interesting look at how performance can change poetry, as well as what the creative world was like almost 30 years ago. But they're also brought...
The film follows a large collection of North American poets performing their work in the early '80s, including: Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Amiri Baraka, John Cage, Michael Ondaatje, Anne Waldman, Jim Carroll, The Four Horsemen, and Tom Waits. The performances range from poetry set to music and given a rhythm, to sound poetry, to classic recitation. On their own, the pieces are an intensely interesting look at how performance can change poetry, as well as what the creative world was like almost 30 years ago. But they're also brought...
- 5/17/2009
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
Kristen Stewart star of vampire romancer Twilight made an appearance in our New Regime lineup. Heres a full Qa with the preciously precocious young lady where she talks about being Bella living life as a working actress and the authority issues that lead her to read Camus Steinbeck and Bukowski on her own.You got your start as a child. Did you always see yourself acting into adulthood?It was never a preconceived thing. It was always arbitrary I think. Subsequently I became very passionate about acting. Now there is no reason for me to stop doing this.What impact did working with Sean Penn on Into the Wild have on you?It definitely opened my eyes to a different creative process. His direction is very specific but still he lets things happen. He just wants you to go for it. Once he picks his characters he gives you that confidence.
- 12/18/2008
- twilightersanonymous.com
- Charles Bukowski once wrote a story titled “My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder than all the Dead Christmas Trees in the World,” so it is somewhat appropriate that Factotum, director Bent Hamer’s adaptation of Bukowski’s 1975 novel of the same name, is arriving on DVD just after Christmas. Matt Dillon (Drugstore Cowboy, Crash, You, Me and Dupree) takes the lead role of Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s literary alter-ego, who works a series of dead end jobs to keep himself alive and drunk while he concentrates on writing – a pursuit Chinaski approaches with passion, discipline, and brilliant insight to the world around him. Not included on the DVD’s extra features is the following interview with Matt Dillon, which I participated in earlier this year in New York City, prior to the theatrical release of Factotum. Question: How did you change yourself physically to play the character?
- 12/26/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
- Quick Links > Bent Hamer > Factotum> Matt Dillon> Lili TaylorThere is a mark of pride among artists, writers in particular, who could fill multiple volumes with their employment histories. I remember reading a novel by a sci-fi/fantasy/pulp author named Steve Perry (The Man Who Never Missed -- highly recommended, think Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha in outer space with guns and kung-fu), who, in the bio at the end of one his novels listed the variety of jobs he’d held previous to becoming a professional writer. At least a dozen were listed, everything from hospital gift show cashier to martial arts instructor. C.J. Henderson, a New York based hard-boiled horror author and film critic (and an acquaintance of mine), lists nearly thirty different jobs he’s held on the bio section of his website. The thing about writing is that it usually doesn’t pay very well,
- 8/27/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
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