Factotum (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Factotum
Directed by Bent Hamer
Produced by Bent Hamer
Jim Stark
Based on Factotum (1975) 
by Charles Bukowski
Starring Matt Dillon
Lili Taylor
Marisa Tomei
Music by Kristin Asbjornesen
Distributed by IFC Films (US)
Icon Entertainment International (UK)
Release dates
  • April 12, 2005 (2005-04-12) (Trondheim Kosmorama Int. Film Festival (Norway))
Running time 94 minutes
Country Norway, France, USA
Language English

Factotum is a 2005 film directed by Bent Hamer, adapted from the novel of the same name by Charles Bukowski. The script also makes use of Bukowski's poems published in What Matters Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire and The Days Run Aways Like Horses Over the Hill as well as some of Bukowski's notebook entries published in The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship.[1] For example, Matt Dillon reads the poem "Roll The Dice" (from the book What Matters Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire) in a voiceover at the end of the film.

The film is principally a French-Norwegian co-production, although with an American cast. It was released in Norway in 2005 and distributed in the U.S. by IFC Films in 2006. It was released on DVD in the U.S. on 26 December 2006.

Plot

Bukowski's book, also titled Factotum, was published in 1975. The book and the film both center on the character of Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s alter ego, who appears in much of his fiction. Although events in the book take place in Los Angeles in the 1940s, the setting of the film is contemporary.

Henry 'Hank' Chinaski (Matt Dillon) is working toward becoming a writer and follows his own advice (quoting from one of Bukowski's own poems, "Roll The Dice"): "If you're going to try, go all the way." The film follows Chinaski as he works at, and gets fired from, various low-level jobs, which include cleaning a massive art sculpture, delivering ice, and manning a bicycle shop. In the course of sampling the smorgasbord of short-lived occupations he meets up with assorted colorful personalities.

The first woman Chinaski meets in a bar becomes his most consistent companion throughout the film. Jan (Lili Taylor), like Chinaski, is an alcoholic. She moves in and becomes his lover and drinking partner. They co-exist comfortably in languid squalor until Chinaski becomes upset with Jan after discovering that he's caught a case of the "crabs" from her. Jan accuses Chinaski of becoming too respectable and conformist. They break up after realizing their relationship has become boring and predictable and that they no longer really need each other.

Unemployed again and trying to score his next drink, Hank meets another female barfly, Laura (Marisa Tomei), who feels sorry for Chinaski and helps him procure alcohol with the help of her wealthy "sugar daddy" Pierre, an eccentric older man. After a strange misadventure on Pierre's boat, Chinaski briefly returns to Jan, who is now working as a maid at a hotel. By the film's end, however, Chinaski finds that he is most comfortable being alone with just his alcohol and his writing to keep him company.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ See "Opening Credits" of film, Factotum.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Factotum
Films directed by Bent Hamer
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.