Storie di Ordinaria Follia (Tales of Ordinary Madness) poster & wallpaper
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Ben Gazzara, Ornella Muti, Susan Tyrrell, Tanya Lopert, Katya Berger ... see more see more... , Roy Brocksmith , Hope Cameron , Judith Drake

Ben Gazzara delivers a gutsy, four-barreled performance as skid-row poet and storyteller Charles Bukowski (rechristened Charles Serking onscreen) in Tales of Ordinary Madness, blackly comic Italian di... read more read more...rector Marco Ferreri's adaptation of Bukowski's roman à clef Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness. Half soused, with a 2 a.m. shadow and street urchin rags, Serking waltzes through the scummiest neighborhoods of the City of Angels, soaking up booze, poetry, and copulation, and lounging in flophouses and on grimy public buses. His bedmates are a midget, a string of seedy whores, and various earthy L.A. denizens, played by Susan Tyrell, Ornella Muti, and others; he eventually falls for a prostitute who can express her affection only via self-mutilation. Ferreri lets Bukowski's ribald humor flow throughout and exposes the dark erotic currents at the heart of the author's narratives. Laced with perverse, shocking imagery, this unbridled celebration of life's dark underbelly has been praised by critics such as The New Yorker's Pauline Kael and Playboy's Bruce Williamson for its "genuine audacity and risktaking." ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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70% liked it

475 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 47 min.

Directed by: Marco Ferreri

Release Date: September 11, 1981

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DVD Release Date: August 19, 2008

Stats: 40 reviews

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Ferreri - Gazzara - Bukowski
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Flixster Reviews (40)

  • 366weirdmovies
    May 20, 2010
    366weirdmovies
    Lecherous, alcoholic street poet "Charles Serking" (pseudonym for Charles Bukowski) falls in love with a suicidal prostitute. Partly successful, with some of the strangest sex scenes you'll ever see. Boozy as hell; plays out like a string of half-remembered and misremembered inc... read moreidents from a yearlong drinking binge. For some reason this movie is listed on Flixter twice.
  • bookmunki
    March 30, 2010
    bookmunki
    "Style is the answer to everything...To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art." Bukowski had style. Ferreri has style. This film is an achingly human, drunken odessey inspired by the writings of Bukowski. This is not an adaptation, but captures the essence and com... read moreplements his works. It shares carnality, a gritty realism, the pain and desperation of being human. It's provocative. It's uncomfortable. It's the underbelly and grimness of life that too often goes unrecognized. Or if acknowledged, you numb it with alcohol; you engage in self-destructive behaviours; you mask it with eroticism; you become a whore of an angel; you write. Whether these actions are to escape yourself or to regain feeling, it is human ~ it is pain ~ it's art if done with style ~ and, it's got soul.
  • gator681
    April 30, 2011
    gator681
    Returning to Los Angeles by bus after his wallet was stolen after having passed out following a performance, poet Charles Serking(Ben Gazzara) finds his ex-wife and landlord Vicky(Tanya Lopert) wanting the last two months' rent. That does not stop him from chasing after Vera(Sus... read morean Tyrrell) which later causes him to spend a night in jail, although not for the reason you are thinking. And then there is Cass(Ornella Muti) who he meets in a bar where she does something very painful looking with an oversized safety pin.

    Mind the generalizing, but it seems like whenever a European film director comes to the United States for the first time, he skips Disneyland and heads straight for skid row.(See, people take the bus in Los Angeles. And hey! Is that a Fotomat?) I'm not complaining, mind you, as I actually think it's cool since apparently we are too obsessed in this country with upward mobility to care much about those who have fallen through the cracks. This might also explain why only European directors have adapted the works of Charles Bukowski. This one is from "Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and Other Tales of Ordinary Madness." And Marco Ferreri has nailed it with the help of a searing performance from Ben Gazzara, informing the life of an addict with levels of profound masochism. Only such pain could create Serking's powerful art but long can it truly last?
  • jimbotender
    January 12, 2009
    jimbotender
    Ah,bliss,carefree honey-pie...no country for drunken horses,or an effective title for the parody of affairs by a master of literature.Ferreri justifies Bukowski in the role of Gazzara,and although not his premier erotic film,Marco assures us we are not in desperation,so viva la v... read moreita,eh?

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Critic Reviews

Steve Rhodes
July 29, 2002
Steve Rhodes, Internet Reviews

Denise Gentile tries her best to save the picture but can't. The writing is too loose and the other acting is credible only in fits and spurts. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
January 1, 2000
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Ben Gazzara had some of Bukowski's outward mannerisms and the same beady eyes as the poet. Full Review

Dennis Harvey
March 27, 2009
Dennis Harvey, Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

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