The Charles Bukowski Tapes

The Charles Bukowski Tapes
File:Bukowski Tapes.jpg
Directed by	Barbet Schroeder
Written by	Barbet Schroeder
Produced by	Barbet Schroeder
Starring	Charles Bukowski
Cinematography	Steven Hirsh, Elliot Enzig Porter, Paul Challacombe
Edited by	Barbet Schroeder, Paul Challacombe
Music by	Jean Louis Vallero
Country	France
Language	English

The Charles Bukowski Tapes are a collection of short-interviews with the US-American writer Charles Bukowski, filmed and assembled by Barbet Schroeder and first published in 1987 in the USA. Today, the video documentary is considered a cult classic.

Synopsis

The Charles Bukowski Tapes are an altogether more than four hours long collection of 52 short-interviews with the US-American cult author Charles Bukowski, sorted by topic and each between one and ten minutes long. Director Barbet Schroeder (Single White Female) interviews Bukowski about such themes as alcohol, violence, and women, and Bukowski answers willingly, losing himself in sometimes minute-long monologues. Amongst other things, Bukowski leads the small camera team through his parents’s house and his former neighbourhood, but the largest part of the interviews takes place in Bukowski’s flat or backyard. The probably best-known scene of the documentary shows Bukowski getting violent against his wife Linda Lee.

History of origin

The documentary was assembled from about 64 hours of film footage, which accrued during the three-year lead time for Schroeder’s motion picture Barfly, for which Bukowski wrote the autobiographical script.

Critics

An outrageously stimulating and unnerving all-night drinking session with a gutter eloquent barroom philosopher. […] One of the most intimate, revealing and unsparing glimpses any film or video has ever given us of a writer’s life and personality.

— Michael Wilmington, The Los Angeles Times