FACTOTUM

Norway/US, 2005, 95 minutes, Colour.
Matt Dillon, Liv Tyler, Fisher Stevens, Adrienne Shelley, Karen Young, Marisa Tomei.
Directed by Bent Hamer.

Writer Charles Bukowski. Born in Germany, he was brought to the US as a child. He brought a European sensibility to the tradition of the Beat Generation and the kind of outsider to mundane America as was William Burroughs. Bukowski’s addiction was not drugs but alcohol – he disliked prison because it had the wrong kind of bars!

Bukowski and his fictional alter egos have been portrayed (quite convincingly) by Ben Gazzara in Tales of Ordinary Madness and Mickey Rourke in Barfly. Bukowski is the embodiment of the educated bum, a mixture of sleaze and philosophy. As portrayed here by Matt Dillon, he is more clean-cut (by comparison) and, to that extent, less convincing. However, what Dillon does convey is the possibility that this alcoholic professional writer could actually succeed in getting work published, despite his antagonistic attitudes and presumptions.

However, Factotum is based on several stories and this screenplay meanders from one episode to another, one drink to another, one attempt at relationship to another (with Lili Taylor and Marisa Tomei). Maybe, Bukowski’s characters and experiences are intrinsically interesting, but not particularly here in Factotum.

1.Audience interest in Charles Bukowski? His life? On the edge? His novels? Articles? The films made from his work – and his alter ego on screen (Barfly, Tales of Ordinary Madness)?

2.The city setting, an anonymous city? The contemporary setting – decades after Bukowski’s own time? The apartments, the business offices, the bars, the streets? An authentic feel? The musical score?

3.The focus on the character of Henry Chinski? Matt Dillon’s presence and performance? More clean-cut than the traditional Bukowski character? His drinking? His family background – and his return to his parents, the glimpse of his parents? His range of jobs, leaving them, awkwardness? The interviews? His clashes with his publisher? His trying to write? The range of his relationships, an inherent violence? Leaving people in the lurch? His collapse, a physical, mental and moral collapse? Yet the possibility of his being published?

4.The blend of the serious and the comic? A succession of anecdotes rather than a dynamic thrust in the narrative?

5.The introduction to Henry? His being fired from his job at the ice factory? His living in the hotel? His writing his stories? The clash with the editor at the Black Sparrow Press? The job at the pickle factory, the clash with the foreman? Fired again? At the bar, his meeting with Jan? Moving in with her? The sexual liaison? The consequences – drinking, gambling, the races, their clashes?

6.Henry, his being unwell, the decision to leave Jan? Her reaction? Meeting Laura? Going to the house, Pierre as the benefactor, his wealth, idiosyncrasies? Grace and Jerry – and their presence in the house, the relationship with Pierre?

7.The trip on the yacht, Grace upset, the trip abandoned? The character of Pierre and his relationship with the women?

8.Laura, her personality, Henry leaving her? His decision to return to his parents? The clashes with his father?

9.His going to the shoe factory, employment, fired again? And his going back to Jan?

10.His illness, the crabs, the New York Times? His job as a janitor and cleaner? His drinking – and being fired again? His losing Jan, her going to the businessman?

11.Henry, in the depths, the failure at the employment office?

12.His receiving the letter from the Press – and the acceptance of his story? The possibility of change? (The reality of Bukowski’s life and career and the drinking?) The importance of the episodes, the anger in Henry? The jokes, the one-liners, the silences? The interviews – and the pickle factory and the silence compared with the expected discussion?

13.Human dignity, desperation, degradation? The serious aspects, the comic aspects? This carry-over into the female characters, especially Jan?

14.While a glimpse into a character and his life – to what purpose?