Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981) ( Conte de la folie ordinaire ) ( Storie di ordinaria follia )

Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981) (DVD) (*)

Out of Stock

Original Title: Conte de la folie ordinaire
Alternate Title: Storie di ordinaria follia
Screened, competed or awarded at:
David Donatello Awards
San Sebastian International Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Norwegian ( Subtitles )
Swedish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Australia ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
97 min + 46 min extras

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Short Film
Trailer(s)
Booklet

Movie filmed in 1981 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Italy ( Italy, Greece )

Directed By:
Marco Ferreri

Written By:
Marco Ferreri
Sergio Amidei

Actors:
Ben Gazzara ..... Charles Serking
Ornella Muti ..... Cass
Susan Tyrrell ..... Vera
Tanya Lopert ..... Vicky
Roy Brocksmith ..... Barman
Katya Berger ..... Girl on beach
Hope Cameron ..... Hotel proprietor
Judith Drake ..... Widow
Patrick Hughes ..... Pimp
Wendy Welles ..... Runaway
Stratton Leopold ..... Publisher
Anthony Pitillo ..... (scenes deleted)
Jay Julien ..... Charles Serking (voice: French version)
Peter Jarvis ..... Charles Serking (voice: Italian version)
Jean-Paul Boucher
Cristina Forti
Elizabeth Long
Carlo Monni
Michel Piccoli
Ugo Tognazzi

Synopsis:

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 director Marco Ferreri's adaptation of Bukowski's roman Ã 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.'

Poet/lecturer Charles Serking awakens from his alcoholic haze long enough to take a bus back to L.A. and plunge into an orgy of drink and sexual depravity.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 30 August, 2011.

Customers who bought this product also purchased

Tender Is the Night (DVD)