rodrig58 Barbet Schroeder at his best! And "More" and "Single White Female" I really enjoyed. Very much. But here, the director managed to overcome himself. When I first saw it, I think it was in 1987 or 1988, I did not like it, I found it boring. I was only 29 years old. Watched again in June 2018, I rediscovered it, I see it with other eyes and another mind. A true masterpiece, a unique cinema piece. Mickey Rourke makes a role of great value. Faye Dunaway the same. Also Alice Krige who is very beautiful. All the actors are exceptional. The story is exceptional. The music is cool. Directed and filmed brilliantly. I think I've woken up, at least, after 30 years...

Smoreni Zmaj "Barfly" is a semi-autobiography of legendary Charles Bukowski, directed by Barbet Schroeder. Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway are fantastic in roles of Bukowski's alter-ego Henry Chinaski and his lover Wanda, two people with a soul, but soaked in alcohol. This, at times comical drama represents the bottom of society in all its glory. The movie does not have an original soundtrack, but most of the time characters listen to music in bars and on the radio. There are big names such as Booker T. & The M.G.s, The Nighthawks and John Coltrane, and at the initiative of Mickey Rourke, several pieces of great classical composers were included. There is no plot, culmination and denouement, but we look at a few days of bohemian life of Henry and Wanda, in a film where accent is not so much on the story as on the construction of the specific atmosphere. The main assets of this film are wacky, but essentially deep dialogues and the brilliant one-liners by Bukowski.10/10Do you hate them? - No, but I seem to feel better when they're not around.Hey baby, nobody suffers like the poor.Anybody can be a non-drunk. It takes a special talent to be a drunk. It takes endurance. Endurance is more important than truth.No money, no job, no rent. Hey, I'm back to normal.And as my hands drop the last desperate pen, in some cheap room, they will find me there and never know my name, my meaning, nor the treasure of my escape.Nobody who ever wrote anything worth a damn could ever write in peace... Jesus.So you hired a dick to find an asshole?Growth's for plants. I hate roots.Oh, I had an idea that I'd be discovered after my death.

Uriah43 "Henry Chinaski" (Mickey Rourke) is a drunken bum who is a regular customer of a nightclub in Los Angeles called "The Golden Horn". He disdains one of the bartenders named "Eddie" (Frank Stallone) which results in frequent fistfights which Henry typically loses. One night, however, he manages to beat up Eddie and because of it he is ejected from the bar. Needing a new place to satisfy his alcoholism he wanders into another nightclub where he meets "Wanda Wilcox" (Faye Dunaway) who is just as alcoholic as he is. Naturally, they hit it off right away. When she tells him she dislikes people in general, he responds by saying that he doesn't dislike them so much as he simply feels better when they're not around. Anyway, rather than spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, I will just say this isn't just a film about barroom brawls and drinking. Instead there are some philosophical points made in the midst of the squalor that even "Tully Sorenson" (Alice Krige) may not quite understand. At any rate, while I'm not a huge fan of either Mickey Rourke or Faye Dunaway, I have to admit that they both put on a good performance in this film. Above average.

ssunter Regardless the fact that Mickey Rourke is a great actor in my opinion and appreciate his acting in many movies, he was just not the right person to be in this movie.. If you know nothing about the writer and the lead character of the movie, Charles Bukowski you may like the performance of the actor and praise him. There is a scene in the movie where Charles Bukowski himself sits in the bar drinking his beer and smoking his cigarette staring at his silhouette.. In that scene it is obvious that the movie needed someone more heavy and charismatic at least as much as that man sitting in the bar... Actors should be the exaggerated forms of real people. So it is not a surprise of Charles Bukowski's condemnation of Mickey Rourke's portrayal of him (Chinaski) in the movie.