Bent Hamer’s new film, Factotum, is based on the novel by Charles Bukowski.
The film world-premiered at the Cannes Festival last year and will be released this spring by IFC.
Factotum is the story of a man living on the edge, of a writer who is willing to risk everything to make sure that his life is his poetry. Henry Chinaski (a terrific Matt Dillon) works in factories and warehouses to support what he really wants to do: drink, bet on the horses, take up with women as rootless as he is and, above all, write stories that no one wants to publish.
Bukowski’s Short Resume
Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany on August 16, 1920. He came with his family to the United States when he was three years old. Among his forty-five books of poetry and prose are the novels Post Office, Ham on Rye, Women, Hollywood and Pulp.
Bukowski’s second novel, Factotum, published in 1975, follows Henry Chinaski (Bukowski’s alter ego) through a series of dead end jobs sandwiched between days and nights of drinking, women and his on going efforts to capture it all in his writing. Bukowski also wrote the original screenplay for the film Barfly. Other films based on his stories include Crazy Love (aka Love is a Dog From Hell) and Tales of Ordinary Madness. His books have been translated and published in over 15 languages.
Charles Bukowski died on March 9, 1994 in his adopted hometown of San Pedro, California. The latest volume of his writing to be published posthumously is the new book of poetry Slouching Toward Nirvana published by Ecco Press.
Said by Bukowski:
An intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way. An artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way.
If writing cost more than the price of paper and postage, I would have to quit that too.
It’s possible to love a human being if you don’t know them too well.
Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must live.
Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.
I don’t like jail; they got the wrong kind of bars in there.
What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.
To do a dull thing with style–now that’s what I call art.
