what book is this film based on?
is it Ham on rye?
shareIts a combination of the best parts of lots of different stories, from different books.
shareoki. thanks, man
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MovieChat Forums > Barfly (1987) Discussion > what book is this film based on?
Bukowski's "Hollywood" is more or less about the writing and pre-production of Barfly... definitely worth the read... the description of the party in the ghetto is especially good. You can smell the poverty.
shareuh. pretty much all his early stuff. everything except Ham On Rye (which is about Bukowski's childhood).
Intellectual passion drives out sensuality
The main character was taken from his book, Factotum. It seems like this movie is based mostly (but still, quite loosely) on that book and incorporates parts of lots of the other books. Not that it does any of them justice, because it doesn't.
shareHam on Rye details Chinaski's childhood and ends as World War II starts. And while it's true that the movie shares some similarities with Factotum, I don't see it at all as an adaptation.
One of my main complaints with the Chinaski series was the lack of continuity between Factotum and Post Office. For me, Barfly bridges the gap. The girl Henry is with in Post Office (Betty in the book) is the same girl in this movie (Wanda) as confirmed in Hollywood (Peggy, I think, but can't remember) and thus explains how they met. It's, uh, very touching.
Anyway, I hope that helps. Read Hollywood for more info.
There are also several beautiful and touching poems from "Roominghouse Madrigals" about the woman (Wanda/Betty/whatever) and her death. A few in "It Catches My Heart in it's Hand" as well. The same character can also be found in several short stories, mostly ones from "Tales of Ordinary Madness"- at least I think that's the one- I'm thousands of miles away from my Bukowski books right now :(
chinaski
We can't stop here- this is bat country!
It's not based on any one book, a couple of short stories from Tales of Ordinary Madness and there is a book (Women probably) where Bukowski talks about living with Sully and writing in her guesthouse (the one she points out in the film) for 6 weeks. 'Hollywood' on the other hand is the book Buk wrote about writing the film, and its pretty funny actually. a lot of people say its not worth reading, and i'll admit the book isn't amongst his best but its definately worth a look, the character of Barbet Schroeder (director of the film) is hilarious.
MATT
Some people never go crazy. Imagine what truly miserable lives they must lead.
I believe this movie is simply based off the screenplay of the same name by Bukowski. But, then he later went on to write a novel, "Hollywood," that detailed the whole writing/filming, etc process that took place. I could be wrong though.
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