Charles Bukowski - Hollywood (1989)

 

Here's another one I had no idea he'd written until I saw it in the store. You may recall Barfly, the 1987 movie based on Bukowski's life, or a segment of it, with Mickey Rourke playing the man himself. Bukowski wrote the screenplay and then wrote Hollywood about the process of writing the screenplay and getting it filmed. As usual it's fictionalised with the names changed but seems to be an otherwise straightforward account.

It takes some getting used to because while he delivers that which you probably expect him to deliver, he's older, more settled, happier, and the broken landscape of previous novels has become Hollywood screening rooms with celebrities drifting in and out of shot, with lengthy arguments about rights to the screenplay and payments promised in thousands of dollars. Bukowski's integrity remains undiminished given that he never promised anyone another book about hangovers and fighting, and his relationship with the film industry is about what you would expect - polite tolerance without illusions. I have little interest in the film industry, or television for that matter, and generally regard film buffs as people to be avoided. There have been some great movies in amongst all the unwatchable ones, but not many which lend themselves to droning discussions of subtext, or what some preening knob was trying to say when he was paid to dutifully read out the lines someone else had written, or any of that bollocks about movie magic peddled by TCM in between commercials for bottles of Citizen Kane or Some Like It Hot themed wine. Get a fucking grip.

Bukowski doesn't buy into any of it either, but by 1987 he was less inclined to settle arguments through brawling and I'm sure the money was appreciated. His observations and wit are as sharp as ever but the movie business gets in the way. It's just not that interesting, and while the names have been changed to reduce the distraction of Chinaski hanging out with celebrities, it doesn't take much to work out who Frances Ford Lopalla and Wenner Zerzog are supposed to be. I have to admit I enjoyed the confirmation of Mickey Rourke being something of a twerp, but this is one of those that really should have been better.