Tales of Ordinary Madness

Only very rarely are two artists as in sync as Charles Bukowski and Marco Ferreri. Both men devoted their careers to exploring the beauty and bleakness of society's underbelly and the disillusioned souls who call it home. It should come as no surprise then that Ferreri's adaptation of Bukowski's "Erections, Ejaculation, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness" is every bit as unflinching and honest as its source material.

Tales Of Ordinary Madness begins with Charles (played by Ben Gazzara) reading a poem to a group of disinterested students. After stumbling off stage in a drunken stupor, Charles meets a 12 year old girl and promptly fondles her breasts. This is the first in a long line of disturbing sexual encounters that take place during the film. Other examples include Charles' brief obsession with Vera, a woman who asks to be beaten with a belt and claims to "love being raped". Charles also sleeps with Vera's obese next door neighbour and in one of the film's most confronting scenes, pushes his head between the woman's legs in a literal attempt to return to the womb. The film reaches a turning point when Charles meets Cass (Ornella Muti), a prostitute as self-destructive as she is beautiful, and slowly begins to fall in love with her.

Ferreri has crafted a beautifully poetic film about desperate and damaged people. Tales Of Ordinary Madness is never easy to watch but it is always enthralling. Much of the credit for this goes to the Bukowski's riveting source material and Ferreri's obvious affection for it. Marco Ferreri's distinctive use of unusual camera angles and surreal imagery are mostly missing from this film. In fact, Ferreri's direction is expertly restrained in an obvious attempt to recreate Bukowski's minimalist prose cinematically.

This sense of restraint is shared by Ferreri's impressive cast. Ben Gazzara is striking as Charles. His brave performance captures both the torment and underlying humanity that shapes Charles' journey. Ornella Muti had some of her most memorable roles in Ferreri films and she gives another impressive performance here as Cass. The scene where she puts a safety pin through her cheek is simply unforgettable. My only qualm with her casting is that she is perhaps too beautiful to be realistic as a low class prostitute. Susan Tyrrell also shines as trashy Vera. This was just one of a string of eccentric roles that made Susan a cult favourite in the early 80s.

Tales Of Ordinary Madness has been made with skill, care and deep empathy for its characters. This film does not quite match the brilliance of Ferreri's "La Derniere Femme" but it comes very close. This is highly recommended to both Bukowski and Ferreri fans.

Marco Ferreri is a challenging film artist. His films are powered by an

insistent, intense focus on the passions of flesh - the human response

to, need for, and meditation on our bodily bounds and desires. In his

other films he's explored the excesses which bind our mortality from

hunger to sex to suicide. Here he zeroes in on the texts of the poet

Charles Bukowski, whose poetic life of booze and sexual conquest has him

teetering on the brink of annihilation but remaining firmly in the realm

of fierce, soulful expression. The main character in Tales of Ordinary

Madness is a poet whose relationships with women range from the

infantile to the sadomasochistic while he continues to binge on a diet

of alcohol. What he doesn't expect is to fall in love. Being a poetic

film (that is based around symbols and evocative imagery rather than

plot) this is a beautiful, estranged experience. Its a fascinating

glimpse of America from the outside. Vividly powered by Ben Gazzara's

performance as the outsider poet in the shadows of society, this is a

film to be explored with a roving eye. Its a film where the sex scenes

are not choreographed and sensual but brutal and unflinching in their

approach to the passions of flesh. Its a rough film but one which takes

us into the dark corners of love.

Tales of Ordinary Madness is the first film to be based on a book by Charles Bukowski and focuses on the story of one man as he descends into a life of loose women and alcohol. I have not read the book that this is based on so I don't know how it compares to the source material; but as a movie, it's very good and I was surprised to find that the writer himself did not approve of the film. The plot is fairly straight forward in the way that it focuses on just a single character; but the film changes often and this odyssey is a long way from a commercial movie and thus is not for all tastes. Our central character is Charles Serking; a writer who also happens to be an alcoholic. He goes out looking for booze and women and finds both inside a seedy Hollywood. The story really starts when Charles meets a prostitute with a penchant for cutting herself named Cass. He brings her home to meet his ex-wife and have sex; but it's not long before he begins on a downward spiral of depression and turns to the drink for comfort.

This film presents a completely downtrodden view of the world and director Marco Ferreri completely succeeds in creating a dirty and sleazy atmosphere for everything to take place in. There's plenty of full frontal nudity and sex in the film and it's all portrayed as being very dirty and thus is not erotic at all. The style of the film is excellently matched by a stunning performance from Ben Gazzara in the lead role. The actor fits into this role amazingly well and always convinces as the central character. The film doesn't hold back when it comes to showing things such as nudity either, although it's all done in such a 'matter of fact' way that sometimes the film is not even shocking. The female lead is taken by the stunning Ornella Muti, who is a real beauty and convinces alongside Gazzara. The film feels too smart to not have a point, and while the substance comes from the central character and his plight; there's not really a defining point to the film. Overall, Tales of Ordinary Madness is a film that is well worth seeking for the cult fanatic and I can recommend it.

After the lecture of a poem to a group of bored students, the alcoholic and sex addicted poet Charles Serking (Ben Gazzara) meets a young girl in the backstage and caresses her breasts. Then he travels to Los Angeles, and has kinky sex with bizarre women. When Charles meets the gorgeous self-destructive prostitute Cass (Ornella Muti) in a bar, he finds his soul mate and falls in love for her.

Marco Ferreri is one of the weirdest directors that I know, and this "Storie di Ordinaria Follia" gives a perfect theme for him to make a good movie about of two self-destructive souls. I do not know the work of the underground poet Charles Bukowski, and actually I just know a little about his biography based on the movie "Factotum" that I hated. But in "Storie di Ordinaria Follia", Ornella Muti is on the top of her awesome beauty and her performance in the role of a tormented character is impressive. Ben Gazzara has also a stunning performance in the role of Charles Serking, a man near to madness that survives drinking booze and having dirty sex. However, this movie is only recommended for very specific audiences. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Crônicas de um Amor Louco" ("Chronicles of a Crazy Love")

Spectacularly sleazy, beautiful, boisterous and sexy, this is the real Bukowski deal, a booze-fueled erotic odyssey by the adventurous Ferreri with the perfectly cast Ben Gazzara as Charles Serking (Bukowski).

Ornella Muti, as Serking's sexual muse, is Venus incarnate and turns in a powerhouse performance as Cass, an emotionally damaged whore with a penchant for pain. The scenes of Gazzara swaggering in and out of LA's fleapit bars, apartments and hotel rooms convey a filthy, delirious ambiance that is vividly captured by Tonino Delli Colli's superb cinematography and Dante Ferretti's exquisitely oily production design. This is such an amazing looking film with a thick, steamy, anything-goes atmosphere of lust-ridden anarchy.

Much grittier than the accomplished "Barfly" and more watchable than "Love Is A Dog From Hell", the entire affair has an emotional, raw resonance that slavishly captures the Bukowski sensibility and remains consistently perverse in its singular vision of a man enslaved by alcoholic and sexual gluttony.

Phillipe Sarde's score is moody and rich, as is Gazzara's breathy voice-over.

A masterpiece.